Councils Short Breaks Service offers overnight short breaks to children aged 5-17 with a diagnosis of learning disabilities, autism and complex physical and/or complex health issues and challenging needs.
Our service offers planned short breaks for children who meet the complex needs team criteria of assessment, and if required emergency care for a time limited period for children who meet the criteria and are already accessing the service.
The pathway of accessibility is that you must have been referred to the complex needs team or self-refer your child to this team. You will require a formal Child and family Assessment of needs. An assessment of needs will not directly lead to a referral to Hornby Rd, the social worker undertaking the assessment will be able to discuss Blackpool’s local offer and look at the times/places and areas of need for your child. This will inform a recommendation which will be considered at Resources Panel. The panel decision will suggest if Hornby are appropriate, or whether alternative services could be considered/ meet the needs of the child being referred.
The allocation of a short breaks package will vary from child/adolescent to the next. The review of children’s needs is at least 6 monthly.
The service is managed by an Ofsted registered manager, 3 senior residential workers and a staff team that are on shift over a 24-hour period. The service is closed on all Bank holidays.
The aim of short breaks is to provide the parent/ carer with an opportunity for a break from the caring role alongside creating opportunities for the child to build resilience away from home, have an extension of their own world and provided robust support for both the family and child in a tailor-made service.
The staff team will consult with the family and the child, with the wider professionals involved in the child’s care to produce a holistic and comprehensive care and support plan as part of the planning for introductions to the service. We work collaboratively and aim to ensure the voice of the child is considered in our planning and development of a personalised service. We have a fantastic, long standing, committed and experienced staff team who are extremely child centred. The team have an extensive training portfolio to include bespoke training as per individuals need.
Each child accepted for overnights would have their own private bedroom, 4 of these are on the ground floor supporting children with physical needs or children with sight/ epilepsy. These rooms also have the option of epilepsy alarms which can detect tonic seizure jerking and nocturnal seizure activity. Our rooms are tastefully decorated.
The home offers a warm, welcoming and relaxed extension of the family home and has communal rooms with computers, sky TV and a log cabin. We have a fantastic facility, with key coded doors, gated – raised and secure perimeter. We have fantastic private and enclosed garden play area with play equipment and a sensory garden, in the floor trampoline, ball pool. We like to promote and encourage every child’s independence and we have positive relationships with the children’s education providers so that, where possible we can promote working together towards targets or to overcome challenge that young people may face.
We aim to create a home from home environment, with all our children having been considered for impact risk matching. This means the safe care of children is maximised in the planning/ matching of children and subsequently supports matching of needs and interests and friendship groups. This maximises opportunities for our children to access leisure opportunities in the local and wider community. The service has its own 7-seater vehicle with wheelchair access.
Contact us:
T: 01253 4778O7
