Short breaks give children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) the chance to:
- Have fun, try new things, and make friends
- Spend time away from their parents/carers
- Develop independence and life skills
They also give parents/carers time to rest, spend time with others, or do things they may otherwise struggle to do.
Short breaks are mostly focused on children and young people aged 0 to 18. However, you will still find plenty of things young people older than 18 can do.
You can view our full short breaks statement for more information.
What short break services are there?
There are many services than can help with accessing activities. These include:
- Inclusive and specialist activities throughout the year, days out, found on the Activities SEND Local Offer page
- Disabled Children's Register
- Small Grants including Footsteps Access Fund, Carers Grant
- Arts Connect
- Family support in the home including Intensive Family Support
- Individual one to one support in the community or in the home available from Mochii, Disability North,
- Peer to peer mentoring
- Overnight Short Breaks
- CEA card
- Bus pass and companion card
- Max Cards
- 1:1 swimming lessons
Click the links to learn more and how to apply. No social worker or care package is needed for many services