Short Breaks Review and Redesign Progress Update
A message from WBC Children's Commissioning Team:
Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) Children's Commissioning Team have now completed the Short Breaks needs analysis. This has included input from SEND Voices Wokingham (Parent Carer Forum), Say Yes (SEND Youth Forum), local short breaks providers and other WBC services, who together make up the Short Breaks Steering Group.
The needs analysis highlighted immediate gaps in service along with a need to redesign Wokingham Borough Councils Short Breaks services going forward. The Short Breaks Steering Group proposed a 2 phased approach which has been approved by WBC Senior Leadership Team.
The first phase will look to identify providers who can immediately increase short breaks capacity to meet immediate short falls in identified need. We will be working closely with families and providers to explore how we can address already identified gaps in community-based activity options in the short term.
Alongside this we will be starting work on the second phase, which will see a redesign of the short break offer, coproduced with children and families. Over the coming months, we will be engaging with families and providers to develop a proposal that reshapes short breaks in Wokingham, in line with what children and families tell us and the identified need.
Thank you for your continued support as we work to review the Short Breaks provision.
We are currently working with WBC Children's Commissioning Team to develop the work plan for the Short Breaks redesign and ensure there is input from parent carers in this work. The Comissioning Team will also be attending our next Zoom Update for Families with WBC & Health planned for March (date TBC). As soon as we have more details about how you can get involved we will let you know.