Agenda item

Short Breaks Provision for Children with Disabilities and the Local Offer (SEND)

Minutes:

Background:

 

This report provided details of the recent consultation outcomes concerning the move towards families primarily using Direct Payments to purchase community-based Short Breaks. An overview of consultation outcomes was provided in paragraph 5 of the report.

 

In addition, the report provided an overview of the proposed changes to enhance the overnight Short Breaks service currently provided by Aut Even.

 

The report provided details of the comments of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 6 October 2016, 6 December 2016, and 9 March 2017.

 

A Diversity Impact Assessment (DIA) was included at Appendix 2 to the report.

 

With reference to the proposal to move the overnight Short Breaks service from Aut Even to Parklands, the report recommended that discussions be undertaken with the Medway Clinical Commissioning Group and that an eight-week public consultation be undertaken to gain feedback from all interested parties.

 

Decision number:

Decision:

26/2017

The Cabinet agreed that Direct Payments are used as the main tool for Short Breaks from April 2017.

27/2017

The Cabinet agreed to change the eligibility criteria for Direct Payments in relation to Short Breaks outlined in paragraph 6.12 of the report from the original criteria in paragraph 2.5.2 of the report.

28/2017

The Cabinet agreed to grant delegated authority to the Director of Children and Adults Services, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services (Lead Member), to consider and determine requests for funding from current providers of Short Breaks during the transitional period (2017/18) as set out in paragraph 12.2 of the report.

29/2017

The Cabinet agreed to undertake discussions with the Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) regarding the proposed changes to the overnight Short Breaks provision.

30/2017

The Cabinet agreed to an eight-week public consultation to gain feedback from all interested parties in respect of the proposal.

31/2017

The Cabinet agreed that a report is submitted to Cabinet in due course providing feedback from both the Clinical Commissioning Group and the public consultation on the proposed move of the overnight Short Breaks service from Aut Even to Parklands, along with a business case including building and service delivery costs for the Parklands site to enable Cabinet to make an informed decision about the proposed changes to the in-house Short Breaks provision.

32/2017

The Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Director of Children and Adults Services, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services (Lead Member), to determine the future use of the Aut Even site on the basis set out in paragraph 3.18 of the report, subject to the outcome of the public consultation on overnight Short Breaks provision.

 

Reasons:

 

To improve the support provided to children with disabilities and their families by providing early support and low-level intervention which will reduce the need for emergency and long-term placements and contribute towards cost savings across a range of services.

 

To enhance the current overnight Short Breaks service to enable the service to expand, thereby providing additional support to children with disabilities and their families.

 

Supporting documents: