Updates on Short Breaks
PaCC have continued to facilitate well attended parent carer meetings with Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) commissioners, Jacqui Parfitt and Katie Rowe, and other invited Local Authority officers.
The meetings offer a space for BHCC to inform parent carers of Short Break developments, and for parent carers to feedback and ask the Local Authority questions. Read more info about PaCC work around Short Breaks here.
The date of the next Short Breaks meeting in June is to be confirmed.
At the last Short Breaks meeting in March 2025, Parent Carers were very concerned and unhappy to hear the news that the Short Breaks 2025/2026 holiday offer for children and young people (CYP) with high support needs is a smaller offer than the previous year. Parent Carers feedback at the meeting that they would not be able to cope with their children during the longer holidays with so little support, and the ability to recuperate, work, spend time with siblings etc would be highly compromised.
Commissioners were able to reply to parent carers concerns by letting them know that Councillors in BHCC have responded to the strong challenge provided by PaCC and the campaign group Send Us A Break by committing to invest a proposed £100k into Short Breaks holiday provision, if this money is available once the council budget for 2024/2025 is signed off. PaCC have heard that this decision will be made by BHCC in June, we don’t know when in June, but we have asked again for a date for families to be informed.
Councillor Emma Daniels has confirmed with PaCC and Send Us A Break leads that if the £100k investment materialises, the investment will be used for the summer holidays 2025 and will be specifically for CYP with one-to-one and two-to-one support needs.
Following the uncertainty of the March Short Breaks meeting, in April, Councillor Emma Daniel met with BHCC Directors and Commissioning Officers, Sally Polanski, CEO of Amaze, Send Us A Break and PaCC leads sharing that she wanted to ensure BHCC teams have ongoing consultation with parent groups, like PaCC and Amaze, in order to align the new holiday provision plans with family’s needs. Additionally, she reinforced an ongoing request from PaCC for a Short Breaks Forecast: and for BHCC teams to provide a forecast of the demand for short breaks during the summer holidays and assess the capacity of providers to meet this demand.
In light of these ongoing conversations around Short Break availability, PaCC will continue to represent the community and seek commitments that BHCC budgets are determined by the numbers of CYP who are eligible for Short Breaks.
An increased Short Breaks offer for young children with SEND.
The commissioning team at the council have recently shared good news about new Short Breaks provision for younger children. Little Lambs Kindergarten will be running Specialist Short Breaks sessions, starting from the 2025 Summer holidays. Sessions will run between 9am and 3pm, for children and young people aged 4 to 8 years. Short Breaks commissioner said – ‘Each session will include indoor and outdoor play, with plenty to explore including the Forest School, mud kitchen, and veggie patch. There’ll be scooters and ball games in the front garden, while indoors, children can get creative with arts and crafts, build with Lego, or relax in the Zen zone or Sensory room. Each session includes one-to-one support’.
Breakfast and After School Clubs for Children and Young People with SEND.
Parent Carers have continued to raise issues with BHCC around the lack of Wraparound Care, for children and young people with SEND. PaCC agrees with the community that the offer of this wraparound provision is tiny in comparison to neurotypical children and young people. At the March Short Breaks meeting, Anna Gianfrancesco, Director of Commissioning and Communities, Families, Children and Wellbeing committed to writing comms from the council that clearly sets out the legal framework for families with Children and Young People with Send and Wraparound Care; PaCC have reminded the council that these comms are still needed.