A short study has been carried out to calculate the unit costs of short break provision. The research was carried out in three local authorities and with two independent service providers.

The study aimed to identify and cost the various types of short break provision available in the participating authorities. The costs of social care activities associated with the provision of short breaks to disabled children and their families were also calculated.
 
The project defined short breaks as those services provided to disabled children and their families which aimed to provide disabled children with enjoyable experiences away from their primary carers, and to give parents and families a necessary and valuable break from their caring responsibilities. Short breaks can be delivered in the form of overnight stays and day, evening and weekend activities. These can take place in the child’s own home, the home of an approved carer or a residential or community setting.

Key findings

• Two types of access routes were identified and costed for comparison: the ‘traditional’ assessment and referral route, which includes an initial or core assessment, resource allocation panels, and assessments carried out as part of the Common Assessment Framework; and a ‘local core offer model’ whereby a local authority offers the provision of a standardised package of short break services to a specific population of disabled children and young people who meet an identified set of eligibility criteria.
• The majority of activity to refer children and their families into local core offer provision is undertaken by lead professionals from other agencies. Therefore, costs to social care per child are estimated to be nominal.
• The research found a wide range of short break services provided across the participating authorities, working with a range of groups of children, at different locations, with different funding and delivery arrangements.
• It was possible to identify some generic service types under which the services identified could be categorised. The costs of each service type also varied within and across participating authorities. 
• Some of the services require additional activity before a child could access them. For instance, in addition to the costs of an overnight short break placement, costs are attributable to the time spent by social workers to introduce the child to the placement.
• Further consideration may need to be given to the costs of contracting and commissioning services. Participants reported that tendering, negotiating, maintaining and monitoring contracts were all time consuming processes.

Outputs

Holmes, L., McDermid, S., and Sempik, J. (2009) The costs of short break provision: report to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Loughborough: Centre for Child and Family research, Loughborough University.

The research team have also been commissioned to produce a ‘short breaks ‘resource pack’ which will be created to assist local authorities in calculating their own unit costs of the short break provisions that they offer. This will be available Summer 2010.

Contact

Lisa Holmes, Research Fellow

Email: L.J.Holmes@lboro.ac.uk