Purpose

This decision seeks approval
from the Lead Member for Family and Children’s Services to
establish a borough-wide transformation programme for all disabled
children and their families, and to delegate decision making
responsibility to the Executive Director of Children’s
Services.
 

Decision

The
Lead Member AGREED to authorise:

i.      Development
of a Family Hub offer beginning with the Short Breaks Centre at St
Quintin North Centre to provide holistic whole family support for
disabled children with an investment of £20k.

ii.      Trial of an
Integrated Family practitioner, to provide an allocated worker role
for families using Short Breaks centres with an investment of
£72k per year.

iii.     Development and
trial of a bespoke youth and play offer for disabled children to
support inclusion within community settings with a one-off
investment of £65k.

iv.     The exploration
of options to develop the single borough DCT services in each local
authority to create a Bi-borough service for Disabled
Children’s Social Work intended to support an equitable and
seamless offer for children and parents/carers.

v.     Development of a
procurement strategy for homecare, community, and night-time
services for Disabled Children to improve the quality of provision
and maximise value for money for Commercial Assurance Panel (CAP)
approval.

vi.     Consultation with
families in reviewing the transport arrangements for Short Breaks
services and to develop a clear transport policy.
(2)
Delegatation of approval for the delivery of Recommendations i, ii,
iii, and iv to the Executive Director of Children’s Services,
following consultation with the Lead Member.