Short Breaks & Respite | Help for families

What are Short Breaks (sometimes called Respite)?

Kirklees Council provide a range of activities and services to help the whole family to experience a break from the additional demands they experience when caring for someone with a disability, these breaks are often referred to as a short break and come in many different forms.

There is a wide range of social opportunities available to all children and young people in the borough, including disabled children: these are called Universal Services

A lot of these activities can be found using the Local Offer activities search function

Local Activity search (opens link in new window)

Additionally, Short Break provision is available to children or a young person with a disability aged 0 – 18 years of age.

Some children require an assessment to ensure we are securing good outcomes and families are getting sufficient support for parents caring for a child with a disability. All families with a child with a disability are entitled to an assessment of need. The assessment will consider each case on an individual basis, taking into account all of the family circumstances.

A “Short Break” is to help a family to provide care and give them a break from their caring responsibilities, helping parents catch up with everyday activities, improving their wellbeing and maintaining and developing social networks. It also benefits children by providing them with new interests, relationships, and activities.

Short breaks are different to childcare or the time children spend at school, and there are lots of different types of short breaks which can last anything from an hour to several days. Short break activities can provide a range of opportunities for children with a disability, helping them benefit from new experiences, to have fun, meet new people and make friends, whilst giving parents a much needed break. Short breaks are opportunities for those with special educational needs and disabilities such as learning disabilities, mental health problems and physical disabilities to take part in enjoyable activities with or without parents or carers.

You can find the latest Kirklees Short Break Statement on this page (opens link in same window)

Community based leisure activities.

These are available for all children and enable them to take part in fun activities. These activities are often referred to as universal or mainstream activities and often take place in your local community.

There is a wide range of activity available to children and young people, some may be experienced at supporting children with a disability while others strive to be inclusive.

Community based leisure activities specifically for disabled children.

These are often referred to as targeted activities and take place in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays and assist carers to take a break from their caring role, whilst giving a child an enjoyable activity to do.

Who delivers these activities?

These activities are often provided by organisations such as the Scouts, Girl Guides, Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme as well as local Community Groups and Leisure centres

A lot of these activities can be found using the Local Offer activities search function

Local Activity search (opens link in new window)

How can you access these activities?

If you would like to access this type of activity, please contact the individual activity provider directly.

Who can help to access these activities?

Children who face barriers when accessing these types of activity, may benefit from short term introductory support to overcome the barrier. The following teams may be able to provide introductory support to activities.

Community Plus Team (opens link in new window)

Children with a Disability Service (opens link in new window)

Early Support and Inclusion Team (opens link in new window)

Community Enablement Team (opens link in new window)

Some examples of these type of activities are:

These are for children who may struggle to access universal and targeted activity.

Who delivers these activities?

These activities can be building based and may be provided by Kirklees Councils own activity team
or domiciliary care provider.

Alternatively, you may be able to use a domiciliary care provider or direct payment worker to enjoy an activity of your child’s choice in the community.

A lot of these activities can be found using the Local Offer activities search function

Local Activity search (opens link in new window)

How can you access these activities?

To be able to access these types of services, you will need to have an assessment of your needs
completed by the Children with a Disability Service (opens link in new window). All families with a child who has a disability are entitled to an assessment of need.

The assessment will establish whether you are eligible for this type of service. Please see our eligibility criteria (opens link in new window) information for more information.

To discuss accessing these types of provision, please call Kirklees Council’s Duty and Advice Team who can be contacted by telephoning 01484 456848

This type of Short Break can be provided by a domiciliary care provider or direct payment worker and be used to assist families with their day to day care routines, this could give parents a break or time to
concentrate on siblings.

How can you access this activity?

To be able to access these types of services, you will need to have an assessment of your needs
completed by the Children with a Disability Service (opens link in new window). All families with a child who has a disability are entitled to an assessment of need.

The assessment will establish whether you are eligible for this type of service. Please see our eligibility criteria (opens link in new window) information for more information.

To discuss accessing these types of provision, please call Kirklees Council’s Duty and Advice Team who can be contacted by telephoning 01484 456848

Overnight care can take place in a residential setting provided by the local authority other provider, or in the home foster care family. It can also take place in your own home, with the support of a direct payment or domiciliary care.

How can you access this activity?

To be able to access these types of services, you will need to have an assessment of your needs
completed by the Children with a Disability Service Opens link in new window). All families with a child who has a disability are entitled to an assessment of need.

The assessment will establish whether you are eligible for this type of service. Please see our eligibility criteria (opens link in new window) information for more information.

To discuss accessing these types of provision, please call Kirklees Council’s Duty and Advice Team who can be contacted by telephoning 01484 456848

Making Sure Activities and Services meet your needs

Kirklees Council Children with a Disability Service fund a range of community activity and services to meet the needs of local families with disabled children. To ensure the needs of local families are met, the Children with a Disability Service consider if the activities and service we fund:

Offers a variety of choice to families.
Provides opportunities that are empowering for children and young people who
have a disability.
Provides opportunities in environments that meet the needs children and young people who have disability.
Provides opportunities that suit different communication and medical needs.
Provides activities in a variety of locations and at a variety of times.
Enables children and young people with a disability to be included where their needs or behaviour may ordinarily have been a barrier.
Ensures staff are knowledgeable about the needs of children and young people who
have a disability.
Provides good, timely and easy read information about the activity

How do we know what parents, carers and young people want?

Kirklees Council’s Children with a Disability Service work hard to adjust and improve services to meet the needs of children and young people in Kirklees. Consultation is our key focus, we do that by working closely with PCAN, parents, carers, and young people to understand what is working well, what is not working and how things can be improved. The voice of children and young people is extremely important, and we have been able to use our young people’s participation groups to help us understand what is important to them and ensure that we take this into account when developing new services.

We will continue to explore new ways to understand what is important to parents, carers, children, and young people. This will include talking to children, parents and carers in various settings to understand what is important to them.

For people with additional support needs, for example a learning disability to mental health problems who need occasional or regular breaks which include some care and support in a home-from-home setting. This could be anything from one night to a couple of weeks in order to give full time carers a much-needed break. It could be a day-time break, a long weekend or can be up to a 28 day stay. Many of our carers try this first as a 'taster' of long-term care.

Short breaks for adults are ran by a service called Shared Lives, more information can be found on the Shared Lives page (opens link in new window)

To speak with someone about Shared Lives and short breaks, please contact Community Health and Social Care:

Tel: 0300 304 5555