Short Break Stories

Build a Break

A story by Carers of West Dunbartonshire

The project acted as administrators of small grants to children with disabilities (o-20yrs) and their carers. The applicants were able to choose between a personalised budget, help from the Carers Centre or a combination of both.

Carers of West Dunbartonshire will act as the administrators of small grants which will fund short breaks for children with disabilities and their families.

The project will take a flexible, responsive and non prescriptive approach, which will encourage and support the child and their carer to "design and build" their own break.
Tip 1:
Do make sure that you plan for additional staffing hours and make as best an estimate as you can.
Tip 2:
Keep an open mind. You may recieve some very creative applications and its important to have a "can do" approach.
Tip 3:
Be prepared for your everyday workload to increase as the project will attract people that are not known to you and may well need other types of support and interventions.
A cared for child who has Cerebral Palsy, Asperger’s syndrome and epilepsy was able to enjoy a night at WWE wrestling with his younger brother and mum and dad. The carer said "it was great night out for all the family"

We were able to support a carer who cares for her son who has Hydrocephalus, hearing and sight impairment and behavioural problems to go to Alton towers for the day. The carers said her three other sons would benefit from being away from the general day to day stress and all four children were able to enjoy the atmosphere and the rides.
A single parent carer was able to pay for a support worker to accompany her and her son who has Autism, learning disabilities and anxiety disorder on their break to Blackpool. The carer said this would provided support for her son and much needed respite for her and her two other children.

A carer who has anxiety attacks and until recently looked after her terminally ill father, and cares for her son who has ADHD, learning and communication difficulties went on a caravan break to Great Yarmouth with her husband , daughter and other son. The carer and her family had not been on holiday for five years and said this would be a much needed break for all the family after such a stressful time.
A kinship carer who has Huntington’s disease and cares for her two grandsons who have Tourette’s syndrome aged 16 and Autism aged 7. The carer told us the younger child wanted to go on a caravan break but the older child did not wish to go. The carer arranged for him to stay with a friend and we provided cinema vouchers for him and his friend. The carer said they had a lovely weekend at the caravan and her older grandson had a lovely afternoon at the cinema with his girlfriend and they were also able to buy food and soft drinks.

A grandmother who carers for her husband who has osteoporosis and her granddaughter who is 7 and has Asperger’s Syndrome and has cared for her since she was a year old. The family were able to go on a self catering holiday which would suit all of their needs as her granddaughter finds social situations difficult and a hotel or guest house would not be suitable.
A robust criteria was implemented to ensure equity. Applications from those who had not had a break within the last 12 months was given priority. Also we worked closely with our health and social work colleagues to ensure that "hidden" carers were identified not only to access a short break but to access ongoing carer support.
We were clear in our project information that we were not prescibing how the funding “should” be used. The application process encouraged creativity and frankness about what kind of break would help no matter how complex or straightforward. If there were barriers to us offering exactly what had been applied for, we worked with the family to achieve a compromise.
We worked closely with our local Children and Families team and other potential referring agencies to ensure that they were fully informed about the criteria and aims of the project. The information we produced about the project made this clear.
By being non prescriptive and by encouraging carers to apply for what they needed, a natural pattern emerged in that most applications reflected a combination of a need for a break with the opportunity for children to take part in a variety of activities.
We've learned from our previous experience that this may not always be a straightforward process and could become quite resource intensive. For that reason we applied for additional staffing costs.

We have been delighted by how creative some of the applications were. The applications reflected the fact that many carers had taken the opportunity to apply for things that they and their child may otherwise not have been able to do.

This has been a very positive experience for us as an organisation as we have made links with a huge amount of services and businesses and during the booking process have been able to raise awareness of what we are doing and why.
We promoted the project widely amongst our CHCP colleagues, particularly the Children and Families Team. Also, we prepared information for appropriate carers on our own database. Informed local community groups, schools etc.
We promoted the project widely amongst our CHCP colleagues, particularly the Children and Families Team. Also, we prepared information for approprite carers on our own database. Informed local community groups, schools etc.
It has been a great opportunity for parent carers and their children but it has also been a fantastic learning experience for the organisation. Not only has it been a mechanism for identifying new carers it has also afforded us the opportunity to develop services in line with their needs.

The support that Shared Care provides from application point, throughout the life of the project and at the reporting stage is really valuable.
We have used an internal evaluation tool which we developed to measure outcomes for a variety of interventions. This allows us to easily measure what effect an intervention has had on a carer. The tool is based on “Talking Points”. We also use anecdotal information from carers and children.

Following the break a volunteer contacted the carer and carried out the evaluation. This is measured against a baseline which is taken at a point prior to break. We have adapted our database to allow us to input this information and produce a customised report easily.

"I know what day L is coming, it's written on my calendar every week. I love it when I see her name on a Thursday and I look forward to her coming".

Service User

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