Parent Carer Involvement
Board: Minutes of Meetings:
Summary of a Case Study of Overnight Respite
The Aiming
High Project team are trying to ascertain the true demand
and unpick sticking points for access to overnight short
breaks. A statistical report carried out last year for
Children Schools and Families indicates that some respite
centres are under used however parents have raised concerns
about access to respite and that some families are not
offered this service even if their children meet the
necessary criteria and that families already using this
service, do not appear to be being offered additional
nights.
The Board
are also concerned that not all families of disabled
children in the County know about the respite services that
they are entitled to. Even some of them who are aware, are
being turned down for the assessment process or are being
turned down at the Panel Meeting.
To help
improve understanding of the reasons for this discrepancy,
members of the Board undertook a survey of 12 families who
had been refused access to overnight respite or additional
nights in the past year on behalf of the Aiming High project
Team.
The results
of the survey have been sent to the Aiming High Team who
have already acknowledged that the initial problem of
getting to speak to the appropriate person when going
through the call centre is an issue and should be addressed.
We now await their response
to the other issues raised in the letter. (January 2010)
