Proposed short breaks changes

Overview

By 2017/18 Camden’s grant from central government will be almost half of what it was in 2010/11. At the same time the overall costs the Council faces, continue to increase. This means that despite already reducing our budget by over £93 million the Council is facing further government cuts, which means a further reduction of £78 million by 2017/18. With such a substantial cut in our budget the Council has had to think radically to ensure we can achieve our Camden Plan priorities, at the heart of which is our ambition to tackle inequality.

As part of Camden’s Financial Strategy 2015-2018, Camden Council continues to prioritise investment in the provision of short breaks for disabled children. We do, however, need to find £284,000 by 2018 to help the Council reduce spending by £78 million by 2018. We have already spent £94,000 less this year by reviewing and reorganising some internal services provided by Camden’s Integrated Youth Support Service and Camden Sports Development Team. Families who are eligible can continue to access these services by using direct payments.

We still need to find a further £190,000 by 2018 and, over the last year, we have been consulting all our short breaks families as well as disabled young people  and  stakeholders, on how we do this with minimum impact on those most in need. We have also been working closely with parents and carers over last few months to co-design options on how we can meet the financial challenge and respond to the findings from the short breaks consultation.

The following is a summary of the responses received from the consultations. The full consultation report (‘Short breaks in Camden consultation results’) is available through Camden’s website: camden.gov.uk/shortbreaks

• The majority of families told us they valued their short breaks.
• A number of families expressed concerns about reductions in the short breaks offer.
• The majority of you told us resources should be targeted at those families most in need.
• In addition, many of you told us you also wanted greater control and flexibility over your short breaks packages, which means you can take your breaks when you need them the most.
• Many of you also told us you did not want a social worker involved if your families’ need for services was at Pathway 2 or core offer level for short breaks.

From the consultation and detailed discussions in co-design meetings with parents and carers the following four options have been developed:

We have tried to be as responsive as possible to your concerns and these include:

• Need - targeting the available investment on disabled children and young people most in need.  
• Flexibility - The current system does not allow families to carry over sessions or hours if you go away. We would like to change this so you have more control and flexibility.
• Increase in direct payments - We reviewed our direct payment rate and would like to offer families a higher hourly rate from £12.02 to £13.98 from September 2016.
• Social work involvement - Many of you also told us you did not want a social worker involved if your need for service was just for short breaks. We would therefore like to offer families at Pathway 2 the option to use a self–assessment tool starting from 1^st April 2016.  Families can continue to request a formal Child In Need Assessment if you feel you need one.

Camden will continue to prioritise investment into short breaks services and is committed to ensuring services remain responsive and continue to achieve the best possible outcomes for disabled children and young people in Camden.

The reduction of the offer to children and young people with lower levels of need (pathway 2) is the Council’s preferred option because we think this is the fairest and most viable option that will help meet the financial challenge in the time allowed.

What happens next

The feedback process is now finished and we will be in contact with families who are directly affected by the changes to explain how this affects you. If you need to discuss this further, please contact Marie Keeley, Short Breaks Co-ordinator on 0203 317 2228.

All the feedback will be collated and summarised as part of the revised short breaks statement and published in April 2016.