Children With Disabilities Short Break Service

We offer different types of support for children with disabilities and their families, including:

• Short breaks (or respite) for children with all kinds of disabilities, away from their own home, to give parents a break from caring. The children stay in the homes of approved carers, who have all been thoroughly checked and assessed. 
• Short breaks (or respite) for children with learning disabilities in our six-bed unit. It is open at weekends and school holidays. It has facilities to take children who have physical disabilities as well as their learning disability.
• Social work support: We visit families at home to discuss what support the child or young person needs, as a result of their disability. This is called an assessment. We can then set up a range of services including direct payments, where you get money to buy in the care you need.

Who can we help?

Any child or young person (under 18) with a disability, who lives in Stoke-on-Trent can apply to use these services.

We carry out what's called a Child and Family Assessment to find out a bit more about your situation. We will then know whether of our services are suitable for you and if you are eligible for them.

What happens when you contact us?

If you phone our office, we will ask you some questions to find out more about you, like your age, name, address and what help you need. We then pass these details onto our duty officer who will decide whether our services can help you and let you know, within one working day.

If our services can help you, we will usually do what we call a Child and Family Assessment with you, where we meet you and talk to you more about your situation and the support you need. We aim to do this within 45 working days.

After the Child and Family Assessment we will refer you to our children with disabilities specialist social work team to decide what help we can offer you. There will be further discussion with you and social work staff as well as colleagues from heath and voluntary organisations to ensure that you receive the most appropriate service for your child and family.