Short Breaks

About

Short breaks are services provided to children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) to support them to experience things that other children do, at home and in their community.  Short breaks services also enable family carers to continue to provide the care that enables children with disabilities to be fully part of their families.  For most children and young people with special educational needs and/ or disabilities these are provided by services that are available to everybody.

A short break can be:  

• Accessible fun activities in the community
• Support to access fun activities in the community
• Day time or overnight care in the home or elsewhere
• Services to help carers in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays.

Types of Short Breaks

Universal

This is the support available to everyone through universal settings, such as children's centres, youth centres, libraries, parks, leisure centres and social activities. Most children and young people with SEND who need a short break will receive them through these services.

Targeted

Targeted short breaks activities are designed specifically to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.  

There are lots of activities and services in the community that are able to meet specific needs, e.g. autism-friendly cinema screenings, disability sports groups, a youth group for children with learning difficulties.

For more information about Universal and Targeted Short Breaks, please look at our activities and things to do pages or look on the WF Youth! Website.

If you want to find childcare, please see Families Information, Early Years Service.

Please see the following link for our Summer Playscheme offer:

Playschemes (mylocaloffer.org)

Specialist

Specialist short breaks are for children and young people with needs that cannot be met by other short breaks, e.g. children who need specialist medical equipment, personal care, or support from specialist trained workers.  Specialist short breaks are designed to enable children with complex needs to enjoy fun activities in a safe environment and/ or give families a break from caring.

Short Breaks Statement

A Short Breaks Statement provides information about the range of Short Breaks available, any eligibility criteria and information about how to access a Short Break.

The current short breaks statement can be downloaded below.

Wakefield SEND Short Breaks Statement November 2018

There is also an Easy Read version of the statement available which can be downloaded below.

Wakefield SEND Short Breaks Statement November 2018 - Easy Read Version

Who can access specialist short breaks?

To access Specialist Short Breaks, you need to have an assessment of need for care and support. This is completed by the Short Breaks Assessment Team and Complex Care Needs Team.  For more information see Assessment of Children’s Social Care Needs  and Assessment of Parent/Carer's Needs to see whether you are eligible. Eligibility for Complex Care Needs Service

It is only possible to know if a child, young person or parent/carer is eligible for a Specialist Short Break by first completing an assessment of need that looks in detail at three areas:

• Child’s needs and development
• Parent/carer’s needs
• Family and environment

To decide eligibility, the parent/carer needs and family/environment factors are looked at together to see overall what level of support is needed.  The same is done for the child’s needs.

It is the combination of these levels of support needed that is used to decide if someone is eligible for a Specialist Short Break.  This is shown in the eligibility grid.

Approved Specialist Services

We are busy increasing the range of specialist short break services available.  For more information about some of them, please click on the links below.

Provider	Short Breaks Categories
	Personal Care Support	Groups social and leisure (in the community)	Individual social and leisure (in the community)	Daytime support inside the home	Overnight support inside the home	Overnight support outside the home
Alpha May Care First	x			x	x
Aspire2b		x
Care Mark	x		x	x	x
Carers Trust	x		x	x	x
Connect - Short Breaks		x	x			x
Home Based Break Service		x	x
Lotus Home Care	x		x	x	x
Prestige Nursing + Care	x		x	x	x
Sense - Short Breaks		x
Star House Residential Home		x				x
Stride Theatre		x
The Endorphins Group - Sport Works		x
Wasdale Children's Resource Centre		x