Social Care Update

Social Care Update

PaCC has been very busy attending social care meetings with members of staff from the council. Our focus at these meetings has been to highlight the significant concerns around availability of social care support for families, including the devastating loss of Barnardo’s and Extratime. PaCC has challenged Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) asking ‘what’s next?’ for families.

Some families will know that the council have undertaken a commissioning programme, inviting charities and organisations to apply to provide Short Breaks and Holiday Activities for children and young people (CYP) with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in the city; there are positives to this commissioning exercise as the council are widening the social care offer for neurodivergent children and young people, CYP with social emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs and CYP without a learning disability. BHCC are sharing a letter about the holiday offer later this month. However, we’d like to flag that PaCC is raising ongoing challenges to the council, that the offer for CYP with higher levels of need remain unsatisfactory, and families are at risk of crisis.

In our continuing discussions with the council to ensure the Short Breaks and Holiday Activities offer includes CYP needing higher levels of support, PaCC attended and spoke at the Childrens, Families and Skills Committee, highlighting the concerns around the loss of the specialist provision offered by Barnardo’s and Extratime. You can read the report shared with BHCC Councillors here. Additionally, we asked the Head of the Children’s Disability Team to answer a set of questions from PaCC to demonstrate the council’s commitment to find suitable care for families who are left without support following Barnardo’s closing. You can read the Q&A on the loss of Barnardo’s, here.

PaCC has told the council that this type of information regarding ‘what’s next?‘ for families must be provided for Extratime families and of course for other families who require specialist social care support. We hope that the community see that PaCC is working hard to challenge the council that families with CYP with complex needs must not be left without support. Please like and follow our Facebook page for updates.

PaCC thank all parent carers who filled in our Social Care Survey; surveys and parent carer engagement events help us evidence the many areas of social care support that families say they need eg: the lack of PAs, Direct Payment processes, improved holiday social care offer, overnight respite etc. This good level of discussion with parent carers in the city has also helped inform PaCCs’ Position Statement. We hope that the community will see in this Position Statement that PaCC has strongly challenged the reality that families with children and young people with learning disabilities are being left behind in the city.

Please read on to ensure you are kept informed regarding:

• Families wanting to find out more and feedback regarding the review of Drove Road and Tudor House, overnight respite services, please email [email protected] make sure that we can contact you regarding the dates of meetings that will take place as part of the review, we will let you know the dates ASAP. NB: This review is open to all families.
• Families that previously received Extratime support, please email [email protected] PaCC want to make sure you hear about developments of support from BHCC NB: All families with CYP needing a high level of support please email us, this information is not restricted to Extratime families, we know that families were on waiting lists of families have CYP needing specialist holiday short breaks and activities.
• Families that previously received Barnardo’s support, please email [email protected] if you would like us to forward you the BHCC Q&A information re ‘what’s next,’ we have heard that some families are still waiting for this.

PaCC acknowledge that there remains huge anxiety around many areas of Social Care, we hope that we can reassure you that we are working hard to challenge the council to improve this situation. Any feedback please email [email protected]