Local News

SEND Green Paper - 'Support & Aspiration'

A consortium bid between Bromley and Bexley has won pathfinder status for the new Education Health and Social Care Plans and other reforms identified in the SEND Green Paper “ Support and Aspiration”. Over the next few weeks the Local Authority will be putting together an action plan to identify how they will be moving forward with the work. BPV, along with other partners, will have a key role in this project.The Department for Education would like Bromley Council to test the following options as part of the pathfinder:

· Personal budgets
· Banded funding
· Support to parents and young people
. Keyworking

We will keep parents & carers informed with all developments here.

Proposals for Reviewing Transport

Assistance for Pupils with SEN

At the Children & Young People PDS meeting held on 14th July the revised SEN Tranpsort Policy was approved. Many of the concerns raised by parents and carers during the consultation process related to the need to look at the individual needs of each child together with the need to take wider family circumstances into consideration. As a result of discussions with the SEN & Disability Service, BPV were able to request that the draft policy was amended to include the following wording:

"The Council is aware that the issues surrounding each child with special educational needs are different and every effort will be made to consider individual child and family circumstances when implementing this policy."

BPV welcome this inclusion as it underpins the need for the policy to be applied flexibly. Please make Bromley Parent Voice aware if this is not happening.

The new policy will be implemented with effect from September 2011.

Please click here to read Bromley Parent Voice's response to the consultation.

Bromley parents support The Dfes Draft Guidance which states that LA transport services should offer:

stable staffing over time to avoid disruption. Parents warned of any changes in advance.
drivers and escorts are known to parents/pupils and understand any specific needs of pupils to ensure journey is successful.
ensure that journey times are reasonable.
all drivers and escorts have enhanced CRB checks and carry photo identification at all times.

Short Breaks in Bromley

Short Breaks are offered by the London Borough of Bromley to support disabled children and young people and their families. From April 2011, all local authorities have a duty to provide short breaks and have the Short Break Services Statement published by October 2011.This Statement must set out details of:

The range of services provided
Eligibility criteria – who is eligible for breaks?
How the range of services is designed to meet the needs of carers in Bromley

Formal consultation for this statement took place from 18th July - 9th September 2011. This is so that parents, carers and disabled children and young people, professionals and other interested parties could share their views.

Thank you to all parents and carers who responded to this consuItation. Your feedback will be used to help to improve services.

The following documents are available to download by clicking here:

The Short Break Service Statement

The Short Break Service Statement Summary

The consultation questionnaire

Details of the short breaks group based provision which has been commissioned by the London Borough of Bromley for 2011/12 are now available. Click here for details.

Please note that parents & carers can self refer to the specialist universal provision and the Hawes Down Children & Family Centre. Where there is a cost involved this should not be paid for by any direct payments you may be receiving as part of your short break package.

The Riverside, Petts Wood Play Group and NC Adventures Schemes can only be accessed by referral to the Disabled Children's & Short Break Team. For more information, please contact please call the duty social worker on 0208 313 4511.

Changes to Short Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children in Bromley

Section 25 of the Children and Young Person Act 2008 announced that there would be legislation for short break services.

From 1st April 2011 there is a new duty on local authorities to provide ‘breaks from caring,’ to assist parents and others who provide care for disabled children to continue to do so, or do so more effectively.’

Breaks should be provided to those for whom a break from their caring responsibilities will improve the quality of the care they provide, as well as to those struggling to care for disabled children.Short breaks should be preventive not just be provided as a ‘crisis intervention’.

Short breaks should support carers, but also provide benefits to disabled children.

Short break services should also consider siblings as part of the family assessment.

Short break services should be provided to families whose children have profound and multiple disabilities.

A short breaks service must comprise of a range of short breaks including:

Daytime care in or outside of the child’s home
Overnight care in or outside of the child’s home
Educational and leisure activities

These services must be available in the evenings, weekends and during the school holidays.

Bromley, like many other local authorities, are creating a local offer which presents a choice of short break opporunities to families. An advantage of this approach will be that parents can refer themselves to these services without the need for a formal assessment.

From 1 June 2011 all applications for Short Breaks at the Riverside Scheme will be considered jointly by the Riverside Scheme Co-ordinator and the Disabled Children’s Social Work and Short Break Team. This is to ensure a transparent and fair system for allocation of services.

You will no longer be able to pay directly for the Riverside Scheme directly.

If you access other short breaks through the Disabled Children’s Social Work and Short Break Team your care package should be reviewed with you before any changes are agreed.

Bromley Parent Voice is continuing to work with the Local Authority to improve and develop Short Break Services in Bromley. Should you have any comments on these changes please contact info@bromleyparentvoice.org.uk.

Resource Allocation Framework for Disabled Children’s Services.

Examples of universal services in Bromley:

Leisure provision, e.g. Bromley Mytime Services
LBB Youth Service
After school clubs, borough wide holiday schemes
Activities, e.g. horse riding, swimming etc.

For disabled children only:

Specialist provision funded by ‘small grants’ in 2010 these included:
Maypole Project,
NC Adventures,
CASPA Junior Youth Club,
Bromley Mencap holiday schemes

Local Offer

Disabled children not requiring assessment above CAF level and not requiring social work intervention.

Child’s disability must have a substantial and long-termadverse impact on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

Any one of the following per annum:
Direct Payments – £1000
Mencap Childminding (short breaks) – 100 hours
Buddying (over 14 year olds) – 100 hours
Outreach – 100 hours
Specialist weekend and/or holiday provision – 100 hours

Complex and Additional Needs

Disabled children where the family is in need of additional specialist support and advice to reduce the risk of family breakdown.

Assessment is at social work level and will determine the recommended short break package dependent on individual needs.

• Direct Payments
• Mencap Childminding Network Plus (short breaks)
• Outreach
• Specialist weekend and/or holiday provision
• Family based overnight short breaks
• Hollybank overnight short breaks

Specialist/Acute Needs

Disabled Children in need of safeguarding who may be subject to child protection plans, or disabled children who are at serious risk of needing to become ‘looked after’ children.

Any one or combination of the following services, individually designed to ensure children/young people do not become ‘looked after’ by the Local Authority.

• Direct Payments
• Mencap Childminding Network Plus (short breaks)
• Outreach
• Specialist weekend and/or holiday provision
• Family based overnight short breaks
• Hollybank overnight short breaks

D-CATCH - Disabled Children Access to Childcare Programme

The Childcare Act 2006placed an important new duty on local authorities to have particular regard to the provision of services suitable for disabled children, when assessing the sufficiency and supply of childcare in their area. Improving childcare for the families of disabled children and young people is a national priority and an integral part of expanding service provision and choice for parents who want to balance work and family life. It is important that disabled children and young people are able to participate in the same kinds of childcare as their peers and that provision for their families is represented in local childcare sufficiency assessments, sufficiency action plans and in the national roll out of the DCATCH programme.

Local authorities, strategic leaders in facilitating the development of the childcare market, are also expected to have Disability Equality Schemes in place. Under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), childcare providers are not allowed to discriminate against disabled children and must make reasonable adjustments to include them.

In 2007, the Aiming High for Disabled Children(AHDC) programme announced an additional investment of £35 million to support development by testing out ways of achieving better access to childcare for disabled children and young people.

In our borough the D-Catch programme is being managed by the Early Years and Childcare Service. This includes obtaining parents views to help meet current and future childcare needs and a training programme which aims to give childcare providers the confidence, knowledge and skills to provide childcare for children with a disability or additional need.

Parents from Bromley Parent Voice have been involved in disability awareness training to childminders and childcare providers as part of this project.

Bromley Parent Voice would like to here from parents who are finding it difficult to find appropriate childcare for their disabled child or who have faced barriers to accessing universal services. We would also welcome positive feedback from parents where this has worked well for their family.

Active Involvement/Disabled Children and Young People’s Project

Rene Mears has recently been appointed by Bexley & Bromley Advocacy as the Disabled Children and Young People’s Supporter. Working across Bromley borough, her role will be to promote and support the active involvement of children and young people with a disability. To ensure broad representation across the age range (5 to 18 years) and to engage people with differing abilities and communication needs, this will include:

Different kinds of opportunities for participation
Support and training around participation skills
Provision that is fun and interesting

Children and young people will be supported to share their views on issues such as:

Short breaks
Transition to adult services/further education
Bullying
Facilities in leisure centres and other community settings

Want to know more or to arrange a visit to your group or organisation? Contact Rene on 020 8300 9666 or email rene@advocacyforall.org or click here to see a summary report of the pilot project.

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Development of Short Term Breaks

The Specialist Support & Disability Service would like parent/carers to assist in developing the details of services that they want to deliver as well as assist in the review of bids so that they can ensure that what is being planned and contracted is in line with what parent/carers want.

If you would like to know more about the services being developed e.g. sitting service, after school clubs, weekend and holiday schemes and how you can get involved please email us at info@bromleyparentvoice.org.uk . Alternatively you can call Kay, our Parent Participation Officer on 0208 315 6688 (wed-fri) or 0208 315 4749 (mon-tues).

There are a number of different services being considered and we would welcome parent/carer participation in all of these developments.

Changing Places

We are pleased to confirmed that the Changing Places project has been completed at the Walnuts Leisure Centre in Orpington.