SFL208 - Review of Staffing and Provision made by Children with Disabilities (CWD) Team

Overview

Outline of Proposal

Many of the children known to the CWD Team are also known to specialist health services. It is proposed work is undertaken to look at how the CWD Team might be more closely integrated with the work of health agencies, to address the needs of children and their families as well as avoiding duplication and realising savings.

This will result in the work being able to be commissioned jointly by the council and the new Clinical Commissioning Groups which are run by GPs.   This work will be undertaken in financial year 2013 -14 and any savings will not be available until 2014 -15.

It is a statutory duty of the council to maintain short break provision for children with disabilities and their families. However the level of this provision is not specified.

Rochdale Council is spending in the range of £800k per year on this,. It is hoped that this can be reduced by £50k in the financial year 2013 -14 without impacting significantly on users. At the same time the council aim to explore whether this could be reduced further in future years.

Rochdale has a Parents’ Forum for children with disabilities. In some councils the Parents’ Forum take a lead role in the promotion of short breaks for which a parent does not need a specialist assessment. 

It is proposed the council will explore whether this would be feasible. (As an interim measure some support from the voluntary sector may need to be commissioned to support the transition of such duties.)

General Impact

In 2013 -14 there will be a small reduction in short break provision.

However by targeted re-commissioning and a review of the charging policy it is hoped that any impact will be minimal.

The impact of the other aspects of the proposal will become evident as the discussions with health and with the Parents Forum develop.

Impact on Service Users  

The commissioning process linked to short breaks will serve to minimise the impact of reduced funding on children and young people, and their families (see a above).

This will be done by removing any extra capacity from the current provision, rather than withdrawing any type of provision.

The impact of the other proposals on service users will only become evident as the discussions develop.

The indicative saving for this proposal is £200,000. 

As the proposal will affect service users, we have undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment to identify likely or actual effects on people with protected characteristics. The Equality Impact Assessment will be reviewed and updated as required, taking account of consultation feedback.

You can find the full proposal document and Equality Impact Assessment below in the related documents section.