Children with Disabilities Family Help Service - Short Breaks Statement 2026-2027

Welcome to our Short Breaks Statement for 2026-2027 which has been co-produced with our voluntary sector parent partnerships, Full of Life (RBKC) and Make It Happen (WCC). All local authorities have a duty to provide access to a short break service for the parent / carer of all children with disabilities aged from birth to 18 living in their borough.

In these pages you will find;

• What is a short break and who is eligible
• What are the aims of our Short Breaks offer 
• What is included in our Short Breaks Offer

A Short Break enables disabled children and young people to have time away from their carers, explore new opportunities, have fun and broaden their social networks whilst promoting independence. They can provide families with an opportunity to have a break from their caring responsibilities for a few hours, a few days, evenings, overnight and weekends depending on the assessed need.

• Maximise social, learning and wellbeing outcomes for disabled children, young people and their families
• Prepare disabled children and young people for adulthood by developing their social and life skills and promoting independence
• Enable all disabled children and young people to access and explore new activities and environments
• Increase the availability and choice of activities and services for disabled children and young people
• Make it easier for families to access short break services that meet their needs
• Support universal services to ensure that disabled children and young people can access them
• Give families the information that they need about the services on offer
• Work together with disabled children, young people and their families, to make sure we are meeting their needs
• Offer training and development to increase skills in meeting the needs of disabled children, young people and their families

Universal Services

These services can be accessed by all families and are for children and young people who have a mild or moderate disability. Families can contact the service directly and do not need an assessment to do so.

Helpful things to consider;

You can ask the provider what the offer is and eligibility, it’s often helpful to discuss your child’s additional need to make sure the setting is suitable. This might include any reasonable adjustments, a trail session and any ideas for how to manage any potential risks. It’s also a good idea to check availability and any fees or costs to take part. Some provision is free and some have a small charge with some offering a subsidy for low-income families. Families can use the financial support through Disability Living Allowance to pay for this type of Short Break.

The Children with Disabilities Service has an Inclusion Team and a Family Navigator who can help you to find services and provide additional advice or support to community settings to ensure they are able to meet your need.

Please contact Bi-Borough Children with Disability Family Help Duty: 

020 7361 2048 (9h00-17h00) 

Bi-Borough Children with Disability Family Help Service Duty Email: 

[email protected]

Information about all available services can be found on our Children with Disabilities Family Help page on our Local Offer.

RBKC Local Offer

Youth Provision

Our City

Autism Zone

SEND Service

Early help and Family Hubs

0-5 Portage and Early Years

The majority of Universal services aim to be inclusive and provide reasonable adjustments to support children with a disability that might include adapting activities, enabling parents to attend for a while, training staff, and bringing in volunteers to provide additional support.

Additional support

Where you have tried universal services and found that there are some challenges in accessing them, it can be helpful to contact the Children with Disability Family Help Service and ask for a short break. A member of the team will support you to access Core offer services or suggest a child and family assessment to consider additional support to meet identified needs.

These are services where the Local Authority are working with the service to enable Children & Young People with Disabilities to access their service. They may be in specialist centres or in universal settings with additional support. Core offer services include: providing advice about other services that might be suitable, a contribution to additional support for your child to attend the setting, additional training for staff or help to buy or adapt equipment.

Please contact Bi-Borough Children with Disability Family Help Duty: 

020 7361 2048 (9h00-17h00) 

Bi-Borough Children with Disability Family Help Service Duty Email: 

[email protected]

If your child / young person needs extra help to access services the Children with Disabilities Family Help Service will meet with you to complete a child and family assessment which helps us to get a better understanding of your child/young person and your family’s circumstances.

Some families will need more support than others because of their needs and circumstances. The assessment process undertaken by the social worker / family help practitioner will look at the child, any siblings and the overall family capacity and resilience to manage the presenting circumstances.

The assessment will identify the needs of your child and family and create a plan of support. This may include;

• After school and holiday provision at one of our specialist centres
• Carers to support your child in the home
• Support to access an activity including being out and about in the community
• A tailored programme or intervention

These services are designed for children, young people and their families who need short breaks with additional, specialist care.  Again, this could be in a mainstream activity or another type of short break.

Some families may need extra support and help and may need a formal statutory work undertaken by the Social worker within the Children with Disability Family Help service.

‘A Personal Budget is an amount of money identified by the Local Authority to deliver all or some of the provision set out in an EHC Plan where the parent or young person is involved in securing that provision’ (SEN Code of practice 9:92).

Direct payments / Personal Budgets are funds that are paid to families, or directly to young people over the age of 16, enabling them to commission the services they have been assessed as needing. This can include short break services and enables families to access services beyond those that are directly funded by Kensington and Chelsea if agreed.

The family or young person receives the money on a pre-paid card, which they can use like a normal bank debit card to purchase agreed services.

Transport is not generally provided to access short break provision. However, if a need for transport is identified, the local authority may be able to support with transport costs. Our Transport Policy can be found on the local offer.

The Bi-Borough Children with Disabilities Family Help Team work closely with colleagues in Adult Social Care as young people move from children’s services into adulthood. Support for transition arrangements should start at an early age.

All young people that meet the threshold for services from Adult Social Care will be assessed prior to their 18 birthday and keep track of through transition tracking meetings.

To support young people who do not meet the criteria, some short break services have been specifically designed for older disabled young people and are intended to give them the opportunity to access youth opportunities and develop independence skills

An important outcome we want to achieve from the provision of Short Breaks is that we meet the needs of families not only by ensuring a choice of short breaks provision but that the services are responsive to the needs of families using the service.

Since the last update of the Short Breaks statement, we have been working closely with families, professionals and providers to develop a new service in line with changes in legislation.

The Bi-Borough Children with Disabilities Family Help service is here to support children with disabilities and their families and aims to provide the very best services to children and young people who are vulnerable or may be at risk of harm. We know that good quality practice is key in supporting families in staying together.

Our dedicated team includes Family Help Practitioners (FHP), Occupational Therapists (OT), Social Workers (SW) and a systemic clinician, all working together to provide a holistic and compassionate approach to family support.

The service offers a wide range of family interventions tailored to meet identified need. These may include:

• Practical advice and emotional support
• Help with routines, behaviour, and parenting strategies
• Support accessing education, health, and community services
• Guidance around housing, finances, and wellbeing
• Statutory social work intervention where required

Short breaks is an essential offer within Bi-Borough service. We will ensure that our short break services focus on improving life opportunities and outcomes through continuing to develop the way we enable disabled children, young people and their families to participate. We know that the views of families, disabled children and young people are essential to support positive outcomes.

Not all disabled children, young people and their families will need the same level of support. Some will need more than others because of the nature of their disability and their individual circumstances. We will continue to monitor and review the views of disabled children, young people, parents and providers so that everybody can contribute to the development of our service.

We regularly hold information sharing, consultation and participation events. At these events, we will ask children, young people and their families what they want us to consider when planning and commissioning short break services.

Pivotal to our work is our partnership with both parent partnerships Full of Life in RBKC and Make IT Happen in WCC who both provide an extensive offer of support to parents/carers

Full of Life,               

Website: https://www.fulloflifekc.com/                                                           

Kensal House, Annex 379, Ladbroke Grove
W10 5BQ

020 7641 2314

E-mail:  [email protected]

Make it Happen

Website: https://wppg.org.uk/

07587 113364

020 7641 2314

E-mail : [email protected]

How Decisions About Short Breaks are Made

For more information about how decisions are made and the type of short breaks that may be available for you, please visit the Local Offer at: www.rbkc.gov.uk/localoffer (assessment criteria).

The Cost of Services

Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster have several short break centres in addition to funding external organisations to support the offer. However, this may not always cover the cost of activities and families may be asked by providers for a financial contribution which parents may wish to fund with their Disability Living Allowance.

At any time, you can tell us what you think. We would like to hear your views on the short break services in Kensington and Chelsea. If you have any questions or wish to discuss anything within this statement, please contact:

Bi-Borough Children with Disabilities and Family Help Service Duty: 020 7361 2048 (9h00-17h00)

Email: [email protected] 

For Referrals:

For a child in Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC)

Professionals

Please submit a referral through the Social Care Portal. Further details and the link to the portal referral form can be found here:

What to do if you are worried about a child | Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Family Self-Referral

Email: [email protected]

or phone: 020 7361 3013 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)

or phone the Emergency Duty Team: 020 7373  2227 (outside of these times)

We aim to provide high quality services, but occasionally things can go wrong. Please tell us if they have so that we can put things right. How do I complain?