Day, Evening, Weekend and School Holiday provision for CYP accessing Services in the Disabled Children's Team

The Disabled Childrens Team (DCT) works with children and young people who have diagnosed disabilities or health conditions which have a significant impact on their day to day lives from birth through to 18 years old when they transition to Adult Services. The Council would like to commission a new service to support individual CYP that access DCT. The aim of this provision is to ensure that disabled children and young people have access to social experiences and interactions at home and within the local community.

Families are also provided with a break from their caring responsibilities. The purpose of this service is to provide an opportunity for children / young people with a disability or additional need to spend time away from their primary carers, exploring a range of new opportunities that are enjoyable to them. For example, disabled children and young people experience new relationships, environments and participate in positive activities.

The ethos of this service is to match carers with individual CYP and their families with the view that over time, working relationships between the parties strengthen. The care for the child is consistent and outcomes within the CYP care plan can be achieved together. This service will offer specialist care when required; staff will be sufficiently trained with expertise/experience in working with disabled children and young people with SEND, some of whom may have multiple complex needs.

The service has been designed so that the provider can train and support a growing workforce of care workers. Once fully operational, the service will be open to up to 35 families and will take place in the local community or in the family home.