31/12/2023
Just a reminder for any parents of disabled children in Bristol that there is a consultation out about how to reduce the Disabled Children's Team budget by £54,000 and it's about to finish.
It's particularly important to fill this out if you have a complex disabled child or you work with families that have a complex disabled child/ren. It's likely parents like this (like me) won't manage to fill out this consultation AT ALL because it's complicated and they are too busy just trying to keep their head above water. As families like ours need the most money for services it is quite likely that families who don't use the more specialist services (Overnight breaks and Direct payments) will very understandably vote to take the money from the pot for more complex children as it is the biggest. To me this consultation therefore feels weighted against parents of more complex children. I'm writing this redress the balance.
As I say it's complicated, and no easy answers at all. I don't want ALL the money to be taken from any one service. I know how important all the services are for all the families whose children use them. I've voted for some to be taken from all. All I would suggest, if you have children receiving a Direct Payment or an overnight break, to strongly disagree that the whole lot should be taken from the "Specialist Short Break Service".
Mark Machin, Laura McArthur, Steph Bean. Helen Rose, Helen Hinds, Bill Brisley
And if you have a disabled child in Bristol that doesn't get any support from the local authority feel free to have a chat with me when I am working and I can explain a bit about the options. Just pm me and I'll give you my work email address. x x x
It ends on the 2nd January so not much time left. This is the link:
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
