Short Breaks
There continues to be a lot of meetings and activity around short breaks at the moment. Here is a brief update on the areas covered:
Short Breaks and Holiday Activities.
Parent Carers and leads from Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) attended a meeting chaired by PaCC on 1st May. The meeting was well attended both in person and online, and included David Rafferty, spokesperson for the Campaign Group SEND Us A Break alongside members of the campaign group, PaCC members and the broader SEND community.
The parent carer community raised many issues and concerns at the meeting, with a focus on how families will manage in the summer holidays, plus concerns around after school club availability, how information can be shared better, concerns around how provision for children and young people (CYP) with high support needs will be met, alongside the strong focus of how this sits within the legal framework. PaCC acknowledge more topics were covered in Brighton & Hove’s presentation and in parent’s questions on the day. PaCC have written a summary report of the meeting, which you can read here.
Next steps include, a monthly face to face/online meeting with BHCC leads and the parent carer community to hear about the areas of work to address the gaps in provision, alongside BHCC’s commitment to publish a reply to the many questions that were raised by parent carers, including those submitted to PaCC and via SEND Us a Break ahead of the next meeting, these will be published on the PaCC website at the beginning of June.
The next meeting between BHCC, parent carers and representatives from PaCC, and Send Us A Break will be on Monday 10th June, 11.30am – 1.30pm at the Friends Meeting House, Ship Street Brighton BN1 1AF.
It is positive that BHCC have an uplift in officers dedicated to look at this essential area of provision. A further outcome of this increase in capacity at the council, means that BHCC have committed to writing monthly communications, PaCC reps will work with officers to ensure that areas of feedback from the wider parent carer community are covered.
Drove Road and Tudor House Consultation.
Brighton & Hove City Council have recently published FE send links to Amaze communications:
- Freedom Training and Consultancy, Independent Service Review Report
- Freedom Training and Consultancy, Independent Service Review Summary Report
- The Local Authority response to the Independent Service Review of Disability Respite and Residential Services.
Following the meeting with BHCC leads and parent carers on the 23rd May, PaCC will share further communications on these issues. Early feedback from parent carers who have read the reports share relief that the report covers the significant depth needed, and some parent carers say they feel that the parent voice is articulated clearly in the report. The second key area of feedback is that the community of parent carers want to see a high level of co-production with PaCC and other advocacy groups in the city going forward. Again PaCC will publish more following the meeting.
Direct Payments and Personal Budgets Policy Review, including the development of a PA register.
PaCC is pleased to report that this work has resumed following a lengthy gap, due to capacity within the council. PaCC have attended one recent meeting and BHCC have committed to sharing a timeline of next steps before the summer holidays.
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