Thank you to those parents who participated in our focus groups – there were families there with children at both mainstream and specialist schools. Their age range was from early years to transitioning to adulthood. Most parents had a child on the autism spectrum (by far the most common disability in this borough) but also with ADHD, and profound mobility and learning disability. Most had accessed a service from Short Breaks though a handful were not sure what they were entitled to. We began the session with information about the Local Offer and then had an opportunity to gather views about the service. 

Shared by parents: The Activity Fund

The Activity Fund was particularly valuable to families 

-Many families were unable to access other services and a parent said it was “a life saver for those who just didn’t have anything” 

There were a number of suggestions to reduce the overspend on the Activity Fund 

• Families could apply every other year 
• Most parents seem to agree there needed to be stricter criteria 
• The amount may need to be reduced from £140 
• Some people believed this should be for those receiving benefits 
• Some people believed this should be reserved for those not accessing other services from the Short Breaks Aiming High service (for example holiday clubs) 
• Parents suggested they could provide group deals or vouchers rather than having to apply for fund 
• They could have a specific list only to choose from – some will be less than £140 value 
• Employ a sponsorship officer to work with corporate organisation to provide services ie Chessington and ask companies to provide match funding 

What next?

As part of looking at recommissioning we will be asking the Short Breaks team and commissioners to keep the Activity Fund as part of this offer. As below, we understand that the criteria may need to change but it was clear that it was an important resource for local parents. 

Where to get more Information?

Apply for the Activity Fund  here. 

We will ask the team to update the monthly Kingston SEND parent carer consortium about any changes to the service in the future (details of how to join here.) 

Shared by Parents: Current Services

There were gaps in the services available 

-Parent carers identified there was very little for Children in Early Years and younger than 8 

– Some parents felt there should be groups for 10-13 year olds as their SEND needs may make them unsuitable for Youth Services but too old for the service for younger children 

• Not everyone was clear who could access the Short Break Service  

Where to get more Information?

The Short Breaks page on the Local Offer is linked here.

During the group a number of short breaks suggestions/ local activities suggestions were shared and you can see these all posted onto our Facebook page in the last few weeks. 

If you have a diagnosis of a disability or are on the neurodevelopmental pathway (for Autism or ADHD diagnosis) you are able to access the non-assessed needs services 

Where your child’s needs are assessed as meeting the threshold for the Disabilities Social Care team, then you may be given an assessed needs placement at a group or access to Direct Payments, for example. To read more about the social care eligibility criteria please see this page on the Local Offer

Shared by Parents: Communication about what was available  

Some parents were overwhelmed by looking at the Local Offer 

SENCOS had not informed them of what was available

What next?

The Short Breaks team has developed this leaflet – this is a great resource to be shared more easily with parents and for schools and other services to distribute.

Short Breaks will be setting up a weekly helpline (similar to the OT and Speech and Language service helplines) so that you can ask advice regularly

You can access our video workshops about Short Breaks and the Local Offer on our Events page previous recordings Events – Kingston PCF

 Shared by parents: other ideas

Parents had suggestions for how the service could improve outside of their current activities 

• Run a lending library of expensive resources rather than offer a fund for these items as some are short term use 
• Clubs could be run by volunteers although some concern about level of training for staff. Parent carers could be volunteers some of the time and be offered service at other times. 
• Offer more opportunities for children to get out and about rather than inside a club where they may just choose to be on screens. 
• Create an option for children if they are out of school during the school year 
• Special Schools should be able to provide breakfast club and after school clubs for their students to support working parents 

Shared by parents: concerns about childcare for working parents

In addition to sharing thoughts and priorities about the Short Break service, we had a wider discussion about the impact lack of childcare options had on parent carers. We are aware that this is a national issue with often a parent carer needing to stop work to look after their child. As was shared at one of the groups, this has an impact on the parent carer mental health.  It can add to a number of disadvantages that parent carers face. As an immediate follow-up we were able to raise this at the SEND parent carer consortium: in particular the impact it has on families mental health. We will continue to share these concerns. In the meantime the Inclusion team are able to talk through the options if you have not currently got the social care team involved with your family.