Short breaks

What is a short break?

A Short Break is a good quality, fun, positive activity that your disabled child or young person attends with or without you. Short breaks should give:

Your child or young person a valuable and enjoyable experience away from your daily life, which contributes to their personal, social and educational development.
You a valuable break to allow you to rest or take up other interests

These breaks can take the form of:

Daytime care in the home or elsewhere
Overnight care in the home or elsewhere
Leisure activities outside of the home
Services available to assist carers in the evenings, at weekends and during school holidays

Short breaks come in many different forms and can last anything from a couple of hours to days. The length and type of break will depend on your child, young person and family.

The Short Breaks statement

The short break statement gives an overview for parents about:

what short breaks are available in Calderdale?
who is entitled to a short break?
how short breaks are designed to meet the needs and aspirations of families and disabled children and young people.

The Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children 2011 regulations require local authorities to provide a statement so that families have a clear understanding of the short breaks service in their area and who can access it.

This statement will give an overview of short breaks in Calderdale as they presently stand. We will continue to develop short breaks in response to what families and disabled children and young people tell us about how to provide quality short breaks. We recognise that short breaks are one aspect of the wider support available for disabled children and young people in Calderdale.

Short Breaks Statement [PDF file 1988KB]|

How do I access a short break?

The short breaks statement will give clear instructions about how to access short breaks. In the meantime, to see if your child is entitled to a short break call the First Response Team on 01422 353279. They will start the process with you and explain what is available and what you need to do.

Alternatively, if you are looking for other information, services and activities for disabled children and young people, you can contact Families’ Information Service on 01422 253053.

The Framework Agreement

The Framework Agreement is a legal term. It is a list of the organisations which have been approved to provide quality short breaks for disabled children and young people. These are the organisations from which we will buy short breaks for disabled children and young people. This will apply to you if your child receives a short break through a worker at the Disabled Children’s Team (DCT). All current short breaks will be transferred onto the framework agreement by December 2011.

Framework Agreement [PDF file 554KB]|