Law Commission consultation on disabled children's social care law

Closes 20 Jan 2025

This service needs cookies enabled.

Chapter 8: Eligibility for short breaks (Q 31-36)

Consultation Question 31.

We invite parent and carer consultees to provide their experiences of accessing short breaks.

Consultation Question 32.

We invite local authority consultees to tell us about the short break services available in their area and any criteria which must be met to access those services.

Please make sure your file is under 25MB
Consultation Question 33.

We provisionally propose to define short breaks as:

    Services to:

  1. (a) provide breaks for the benefit of disabled children; and/or
  2.  
  3. (b) assist individuals who provide care for disabled children to continue to do so, or to do so more effectively, by giving them breaks from caring.

     Including:

  1. (a) accommodation;
  2.  
  3. (b) the provision of care at home or elsewhere;
  4.  
  5. (c) educational or leisure activities; and
  6.  
  7. (d) services to assist parents and carers in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays.

Do consultees agree?

Consultation Question 34.

We provisionally propose that short breaks should be made available under the single statutory duty to meet the social care needs of disabled children.

Do consultees agree?

Consultation Question 35.

We provisionally propose that eligibility for a short break should be subject to national eligibility criteria.

Do consultees agree?

Consultation Question 36.

We provisionally propose that children who are provided with a short break in the form of accommodation away from the family home should have the same benefits and safeguards as currently apply to children provided with a short break under section 20 of the Children Act 1989.

Do consultees agree?