Consultation on Children’s NHS Short Breaks Services

Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group are planning changes to NHS short breaks services (respite care) for children with complex neuro-disability, multiple and profound physical and learning disability and for children with life-limiting conditions.

Child with disability being taught how to write

Why do things need to change?

“We have identified a number of areas where we think we need to make changes to improve short-break services, and to ensure we can continue to meet the needs of children with complex health needs and their families.” – Sheffield NHS Clinical Commissioning Group.

The plans include:

Introducing a single assessment process
They are proposing to create a single assessment process for NHS short breaks services that links with Children’s Continuing Care and the city council’s assessment processes for short breaks.

Introducing a new system for allocating short breaks
They are proposing to introduce a banding system so that there is a clear and fair approach for allocating short breaks services. This would provide a framework for different levels of care according to the different health needs of each child and the needs of their families or carers.

Changing the way short breaks are provided in the future
To make sure families have a more personalised and flexible service, the CCG have looked at a number of different ways they could provide short breaks services.