Agenda item

This report provides an overview of the key findings and recommendation arising from the Short Break Review and seeks the Committee’s consideration of the draft Short Break Policy for Disabled Children & Young people 2014 - 2019 and the implementation action plan.

Discussion:

The Assistant Director Partnership Commissioning and the Interim Head of Service, Partnership and Commissioning (Children) introduced the report, which provided an overview of the key findings and recommendations following a review of short breaks.  The draft policy presented to the committee had been prepared to ensure children, young people and their families are at the heart of the service, that they are well informed of services available, that they are able to purchase services through personal budgets should they wish and that there is appropriate and sufficient range of services.  Officers also wanted to ensure that there was a clear assessment of need undertaken for each family and they were working closely with providers to ensure that needs of individual families could be met and a range of support options could be delivered.

Members then asked questions and made comments including the following:

·        Timeframe and impact on families.  Concern was raised on the time this review had taken and the impact this was having on families that relied on short breaks.  Officers explained that they were working hard to establish a framework of options and were looking to tender for services in the next few months.  In addition, provision at Aut Even had been substantially increased and the age range able to access the Napier unit had been lowered.There had also been very positive feedback from users of Dragon’s Retreat, a provision based in Kent.  Officers also undertook to report back on whether there was a waiting list for the services at Aut Even, following a request from a Member.

·        Personal budgets.  Members raised concern that personal budgets may not be suitable for all families.  Officers clarified that having a personal budget would be a family’s choice and they wouldn’t have to access services using a personal budget should they not wish to.  It was simply an option for families so that they could purchase services that most suited their specific needs by accessing a more diverse range of support services.

·        Use of Common Assessment Framework forms (CAFs). Concern was raised by a Member that the policy proposed families to be assessed for short breaks provision through the Education, Health and Care planning process or CAF.  They felt that the CAF process was not adequately performing to manage this additional aspect.  Officers explained that they had not wanted to introduce an additional assessment  for families who already have to repeat their story in several ways.  In relation to CAF they explained that it was being developed to be more user friendly and more focussed on the child’s and family’s needs.  There had been a dramatic rise in the number of CAFs held in Medway and the team supporting CAF had  been integrated in  the Early Help service with agencies better supporting its use which would improve the CAF performance and role across Medway.  Officers undertook to bring a report on the new Early Help Service, including CAF, to a future meeting of the committee.

·        Impact on families currently accessing services.  Concern was raised that the diversity impact assessment at appendix 2 of the report noted that the impact of all families being assessed and services being more equally and fairly distributed was that some families currently accessing services may no longer receive them.  Members wanted to know how such families would be supported.  In response officers confirmed that they did not want to disadvantage any family and would be working better with universal services to enable children and young people to access such services, which in the feedback from children and young people, they wanted to do so they can use services that their peers use.  Officers also undertook to report back to the committee on the local offer, which would demonstrate a tiered approach to support for families.  Members welcomed this but also requested assurance that there would be a phased transition of the new service delivery to support affected families to adjust to any changes. 

Decision:

The committee:

(a)               Recommended the Cabinet to approve the Short Break Review and Policy for Disabled Children and Young People in Medway 2014-19 and to request that it include more detail with regards to phased transition of the new policy to mitigate any families from abrupt changes in services they receive.

(b)               Requested that a report on Early Help Services, including the Common Assessment Framework be added to the work programme.

(c)               Requested that a report on the local offer, demonstrating a tiered approach to support services, be added to the work programme.