Social Care and Disabled Children

During 2023 we received feedback and challenge from some of our parents relating to the way we were assessing and delivering support to our disabled children, young people and their families.

We do not want to be in a position where we are unknowingly not meeting the needs of our most vulnerable children and young people. We therefore sought independent legal advice relating to our 2023 Short Break Service Statement and our Children with Disabilities Policy, and also asked the Council for Disabled Children to review our short breaks review process.

We have accepted the concerns raised by our parents and the recommendations made by our independent legal advisors and by the Council for Disabled Children and have produced an Interim Short Breaks Service Statement and new Children with Disabilities Policy, which we believe sets out in clearer detail the services that are available for disabled children and their families across Birmingham and how to access them.

The Interim Short Breaks Service Statement will be in place whilst we co-produce with parents and commission a new short breaks local offer, which we are already working on and will be in place from March 2025.

The Interim Short Breaks Service Statement is important as the 2023 statement did not set out with clarity the eligibility for short breaks and referenced eligibility within our Local Safeguarding Partnership ‘Right Help, Right Time’ guidance, leading to a misunderstanding that disabled children and their families would only be able to access support if there was a child protection concern, which of course is not the case.

What are the proposed changes in the interim short breaks statement?

• We have amended the “Background” section so that more accurately reflect the language of the Short Breaks Regulations.
• We have deleted the section in the SBS entitled “Right Help Right Time”.
• We have updated the information about families’ needs as this section was out of date and was based on 2011 census figures.
• The ‘eligibility criteria’ section has been amended so that there is now a short statement that eligibility criteria will be applied and a link provided to the new proposed assessment policy and appendices.
• The Direct Payments section has been updated to reflect that there is now a pre- paid card option when previously this was expressed as a service which was being under review and considered. There is also a new link to a full Direct Payments Policy which has now been published on the Trust Website.
• Reference in the previous SBS to a ‘one minute guide’ to social care has been deleted as this guidance was not seen as helpful and has been superseded by the proposed new policy and appendices.

This consultation is only in respect of these changes and not the wider matter of commissioning.

We would very much welcome your feedback on the Interim Short Breaks Service Statement, in particular:

• The legal update
• The change to the approach to Right Help Right Time
• Updated Census information
• Eligibility criteria – dealt with in more detail below
• Direct Payment Guidance

The new draft Children with Disabilities Policy ‘How we assess the needs of, and deliver support to, disabled children and their families living in Birmingham (including eligibility criteria), sets out in clearer detail, the legal basis by which we are able to assess for and deliver support to disabled children and their families.

It details the assessment process that is in place and the tools we use to work out the needs that disabled children their family might have and the amount of support they will need to ensure these needs are met. This is worked out through our new resource allocation system, which we believe offers greater transparency in evidencing how we have assessed need.

We have changed the review process so that no package of support can be changed without a re-assessment of need having been completed.

In developing the policy proposals in relation to short breaks:

• We have considered previous policies which were under challenge as unlawful and have withdrawn them.
• We have moved completely away from relying on Right Help Right Time to set eligibility criteria for services. Although this guidance is mentioned in the policy it is specifically stated that this does not provide eligibility criteria for disabled children.
• The new policy sets out to explain in clear language the statutory basis for entitlement to principal social care services for disabled children and sets out the tests for these.
• It provides for a needs assessment before eligibility criteria are applied.
• The new eligibility criteria are designed to ensure that both the children and parents needs for short breaks are considered in line with the statute and regulations.
• This is achieved through the application of a resource allocation matrix and a published scoring table.
• We have published our community resource panel process as an appendix so that this is transparent and ensures that full reasons are provided for decisions.

We would very much welcome your feedback on this draft Policy. In particular your comments on:

• The clarity of its approach to the legal framework
• The approach to eligibility criteria and the application of the resource allocation matrix

All of our proposed policies are now on a single page on the Trust’s website. This has been done as previously parents had complained that accessing polices was confusing and incoherent.

We welcome your feedback on the way in which the proposed Short Breaks Statement and policies are now presented. 

How to take part in the consultation

We have created a short online consultation questionnaire that opened on 5 June 2024 and closes on 17 July 2024.