Eligibility, the assessment process and how to apply
Who is eligible to apply for a short break assessment?
Parents of children and young people with disabilities who can answer yes to each of the following statements are usually eligible for a short breaks assessment:
a) Your child or young person has an Education, Health & Care (EHC) Plan
b) Your child or young person has at least one severe, profound or complex disability which has a substantial and long-term effect on the child or young person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities from the following categories:
- Learning disability
- Physical disability
- Autism Spectrum Conditions (including behaviours that challenge)
- Health issues
- Hearing and visual difficulties
- Communication and interaction differences
c) Your child or young person has tried to access universal (local/community) services without success as a result of barriers related to their disability.
d) Your child's or young person's disability has a big impact on your family’s daily life.
e) Your child or young person’s residential address is within the London Borough of Bromley, and they are aged between 0 to 25
Support can also be provided to families where the need may be greater due to individual family circumstances and not necessarily due to the severity of the child or young person’s disability. Examples of this include where there is more than one disabled child or young person in the family impacting on the parent’s ability to cope, or where additional support is required to safeguard a child.
Families that do not meet the threshold for services from the Children with Disabilities Service may be provided with general information and contact details for universal and targeted services.
Additionally some of these families may be able to benefit from the holiday activities and food programme which is expected to run until 2025.
Assessment process
Families can access low-level short breaks (valued at up to approximately £2000 per annum) through an online assessment process managed by the Children’s Disability Team. This replaces the initial social worker visit for those families requiring a low level of short break.
This process is as a result of the Social Care Innovation Project (SCIF) which gained the views and experiences of over 120 families, young people, social workers, schools and voluntary sector experts in Bromley and co-produced solutions to improve access for families of children and young people with disabilities into social services.
The short breaks online assessment considers the needs of the child or young person and their carers, as well as aspects of family life that may be impacting on the needs of other children or the carer’s ability to care.
This includes consideration of:
- the severity of a child or young person’s individual needs in the areas of: learning disability, physical disability, autism spectrum conditions (including behaviours that challenge), health and medical needs, hearing and visual difficulty, and communication and interaction differences. There will be consideration how the child or young person’s needs impacts on family life.
- whether there is more than one disabled child or young person in the family
- other caring responsibilities within the family, above and beyond that expected of any parent
- parental health/disability issues impacting on parenting capacity
- isolation and lack of extended social networks
- what the family have done to achieve a change in the difficulties they are experiencing such as accessing universal and targeted services.
- social care outcomes identified through the Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs assessment.
Families will be asked to nominate a verifier - this would typically be the child or young person’s current early years setting, school or a voluntary organisation that the family have been supported by within the last 12 months. This is a way of making sure that the information contained in the on-line application is correct and accurate. The purpose of the online assessment is to give parents an indication of whether they would be eligible.
Assessment pathway
All parents with disabled children still do however have the right to request at any point a more detailed social work assessment of their child's needs at any point. There is also the possibility that the social work team might recommend a Social Work Assessment, which could be due to the complexity of the child’s needs, and/or complex parenting/social issues or due to safeguarding issues. Please contact the Children with Disabilities Service for more information on (020) 8313 4511.
How to apply for a short break assessment
Families that would like to complete a short break assessment should visit:
Schools and voluntary sector organisations can also make the online referral on a family’s behalf but the family should be present during the application.
The assessment will take about 30 minutes to complete and there is the option to create an account on the site before completing the form so that it can be saved and returned to at a later date.