Short Breaks Update

On Thursday 26th September, the Parent Voice team held a Short Breaks Focus Group at Poole Court, working in partnership with South Gloucestershire Council's Commissioning Team.  This project is reviewing the feedback from the Short Break survey which has contributed to the Short Break Review.

The commissioning team presented their initial thoughts and proposals to parent carers focussing on:

• The Eligibility Criteria:

The criteria used to help navigate and access the categories of Short Breaks is called the Eligibility Criteria. The Review Project has reviewed the Eligibility Criteria to ensure that these are clear and consistent and allow parent carers to understand which category of Short Breaks is applicable to their family.

• A potential buddy scheme

More information on this will be made available in due course.

• Navigator model

The project has discussed a navigator system that parent carers can access to help them find the right area of short breaks for their family. As part of the navigator process a parent carer will be able to speak to a ‘Navigator’ who will guide them through a set of questions to establish the correct category of short breaks for families. They will then be advised of short breaks provision within the relevant category.

The thoughts and views raised by our families during our lively discussions have produced many important points for consideration and which the Local Authority found very helpful. All the feedback collated during the event has been shared with the Steering Group and it will be considered going forward.

Thank you to everyone who took part and contributed to this important piece of work.