Short Breaks Engagement

I wanted to get in touch and provide a note from the Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board and Northamptonshire Children’s Trust on an engagement process that will be going live at 11.00am today.

Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board and Northamptonshire Children’s Trust would like to make you aware of an engagement process regarding the future shape of Short Break services provided for children and young people with disabilities.  The aim of this note is to share details of the engagement with you and ask for your support in signposting parents and carers to the engagement activity for their valued input and feedback.

Short breaks are breaks for children and young people who have a disability which give them rich opportunities, while also allowing their carers to have a break from caring to carry out other vital activities they may not otherwise be able to do.

Currently, Northamptonshire Children’s Trust and the NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board fund a range of different services from a number of different organisations to provide these breaks, ranging from residential and non-residential breaks, personal care and support, holiday clubs, sensory impairment services and sleep support.

Having worked with parents and practitioners, the organisations have developed a potential new model for the services and are looking for feedback on this before going any further.  The new proposed model would bring all current short break services into one offer, delivered by a single lead provider, as opposed to the current situation where services are provided across a range of different organisations.  The aim is to ensure these services are better joined up to meet the needs of families.

Julian Wooster, Chair of Northamptonshire Children’s Trust said:

“Previous engagement with parents and practitioners highlighted how critical short break services are and provided some key insights into how these could be improved.  It was clear from the sessions held that there was a need for increased early help, a simpler way for families to access the services and for these services to be more flexible, better integrated with each other and provided in places closer to home.

“This feedback was critical in helping us design a potential new model, bringing everything together into a single service run and led by one organisation.  Working with our partners, we are requesting feedback on this potential model.”

Chief Executive of NHS Northamptonshire ICB Toby Sanders said:

“It is important to get feedback on the potential new model for these services we are exploring.  By looking at doing things differently this may mean that current services need to change as we look to use resources more effectively and improve the support for families. 

“All the feedback received from this engagement will be used to develop the new model which we are hoping to be in place from April 2024.”

To take part in the engagement or share the survey please visit:  Short Breaks Service Engagement

Details of the full link:   https://westnorthants.citizenspace.com/nct/short-breaks-for-children-with-disabilities-2023