Short Breaks Consultation 2023

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About Short Breaks

Short Breaks are supportive, family services that allow parents and carers to have time out from their caring responsibilities looking after children who have additional needs and/or disabilities. They also give children and young people with additional needs and/or disabilities the opportunity to go places, spend time with friends, take part in fun and enjoyable activities, become more independent and try new things.

Short Breaks services used to be called ‘respite care’. In Bristol, Short Breaks refers to several services run by Bristol City Council and other services which are funded by Bristol City Council and run by external organisations.


Why we consulted

We need to make £273,340 of savings from the Short Breaks Budget. However, we intend to maintain a range of Short Breaks services across the city. We consulted you on ways to make these savings.

You can view a summary of the Short Breaks service and the consultation proposals which we shared at an event for parents and carers in early December 2023.

You can also view the Easy Read PDF version of the consultation that was available when the consultation was open.

This consultation is now closed. All responses to the consultation have been analysed and the feedback helped us to develop final proposals for the Short Breaks service. You can read the consultation report here.


What happens next?

When we consulted, we proposed that the changes to the Short Breaks service would start in April 2024. A decision on whether to make the budget reduction and changes to the Short Breaks service was due to be taken by Cabinet in March 2024 following the conclusion of the consultation in January 2024. However, due to the impending May local elections and change from the Mayoral system, the Mayor’s Office decided that decision should be delayed, to be taken by the new Committee System in June 2024. Due to the decision being delayed it was also decided that the budget reduction, if agreed by Committee, would be taken from March 2025 onwards, meaning there has been no impact to Short Breaks in 2024/25.

Decisions on the proposals for Short Breaks will be made by the council’s Children and Young People's Committee on 27 June 2024. Committee will take responses to the consultation into consideration when making their decisions.

Once a decision on the Short Breaks budget has been made, we will run a series of engagement sessions from June - September to help design the service specifications which providers will bid against. Services will then be tendered (at the budget level decided by committee on 27 June) in October 2024 for a start date of April 2025. If a decision is taken by committee to remove the £274k from the budget, this will be taken from 1 April 2025.


How can I be involved?

We are holding a series of workshops with parent carers, described below.


Parent carer sessions in early July

There will be two initial sessions for parent carers on the following dates:

• Tuesday 2 July 19:00 - 20:00 online join via Teams

• Thursday 11 July 10:00 – 12:00 at The Wellspring Centre, Beam Street, Bristol BS5 9QY

To book on please email jcu@bristol.gov.uk


Parent carers and organisations in mid to late July

In addition there will be two sessions for parent/carer organisations, for those also able to represent the views of organisations and the sector:

• Monday 15 July 14:00 – 16:00 at The Park Centre, Daventry Road, Bristol BS4 1DQ

• Tuesday 23 July 10:30 – 12:00 online join via Teams

We will also aim to come along to do some parent engagement at various activities and coffee mornings. If you are an organisation and you would like us to come to one of your sessions to capture views, please email jcu@bristol.gov.uk


Feedback sessions in September 2024

In September 2024, there will be two further sessions so that the Commissioning Team can feedback to parent carers on the work undertaken and provide further opportunity to feed into finalising what future services will look like:

• Tuesday 17 September 19:00-20:00 online join via Teams

• Wednesday 18 September 10:00-11:30 venue in north Bristol to be confirmed



About Short Breaks

Short Breaks are supportive, family services that allow parents and carers to have time out from their caring responsibilities looking after children who have additional needs and/or disabilities. They also give children and young people with additional needs and/or disabilities the opportunity to go places, spend time with friends, take part in fun and enjoyable activities, become more independent and try new things.

Short Breaks services used to be called ‘respite care’. In Bristol, Short Breaks refers to several services run by Bristol City Council and other services which are funded by Bristol City Council and run by external organisations.


Why we consulted

We need to make £273,340 of savings from the Short Breaks Budget. However, we intend to maintain a range of Short Breaks services across the city. We consulted you on ways to make these savings.

You can view a summary of the Short Breaks service and the consultation proposals which we shared at an event for parents and carers in early December 2023.

You can also view the Easy Read PDF version of the consultation that was available when the consultation was open.

This consultation is now closed. All responses to the consultation have been analysed and the feedback helped us to develop final proposals for the Short Breaks service. You can read the consultation report here.


What happens next?

When we consulted, we proposed that the changes to the Short Breaks service would start in April 2024. A decision on whether to make the budget reduction and changes to the Short Breaks service was due to be taken by Cabinet in March 2024 following the conclusion of the consultation in January 2024. However, due to the impending May local elections and change from the Mayoral system, the Mayor’s Office decided that decision should be delayed, to be taken by the new Committee System in June 2024. Due to the decision being delayed it was also decided that the budget reduction, if agreed by Committee, would be taken from March 2025 onwards, meaning there has been no impact to Short Breaks in 2024/25.

Decisions on the proposals for Short Breaks will be made by the council’s Children and Young People's Committee on 27 June 2024. Committee will take responses to the consultation into consideration when making their decisions.

Once a decision on the Short Breaks budget has been made, we will run a series of engagement sessions from June - September to help design the service specifications which providers will bid against. Services will then be tendered (at the budget level decided by committee on 27 June) in October 2024 for a start date of April 2025. If a decision is taken by committee to remove the £274k from the budget, this will be taken from 1 April 2025.


How can I be involved?

We are holding a series of workshops with parent carers, described below.


Parent carer sessions in early July

There will be two initial sessions for parent carers on the following dates:

• Tuesday 2 July 19:00 - 20:00 online join via Teams

• Thursday 11 July 10:00 – 12:00 at The Wellspring Centre, Beam Street, Bristol BS5 9QY

To book on please email jcu@bristol.gov.uk


Parent carers and organisations in mid to late July

In addition there will be two sessions for parent/carer organisations, for those also able to represent the views of organisations and the sector:

• Monday 15 July 14:00 – 16:00 at The Park Centre, Daventry Road, Bristol BS4 1DQ

• Tuesday 23 July 10:30 – 12:00 online join via Teams

We will also aim to come along to do some parent engagement at various activities and coffee mornings. If you are an organisation and you would like us to come to one of your sessions to capture views, please email jcu@bristol.gov.uk


Feedback sessions in September 2024

In September 2024, there will be two further sessions so that the Commissioning Team can feedback to parent carers on the work undertaken and provide further opportunity to feed into finalising what future services will look like:

• Tuesday 17 September 19:00-20:00 online join via Teams

• Wednesday 18 September 10:00-11:30 venue in north Bristol to be confirmed


Page last updated: 19 Jun 2024, 06:47 PM