Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to secure continued funding for the Short Breaks pathfinder initiative.

The Short Breaks pathfinder initiative was part of Aiming High for Disabled Children and ran in 21 local authorities from 2008. Since the pathfinder initiative, funding has been provided to support short breaks provision in all English local authorities. For example, between 2011-12 and 2014-15, short breaks were supported by £800m in the Early Intervention Grant. In 2011-12, and again in 2012-13, local authorities benefitted from an additional £40m per annum of capital funding for short break services.

Since 2011, local authorities have also been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services and to publish a local Short Breaks Duty Statement showing what services are available; how they are responding to the needs of local parent carers; and how short breaks can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities are responsible for funding this short breaks provision.

This year, the Department for Education has awarded £250,555 to the Short Breaks Partnership (a consortium made up of Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Action for Children and KIDS) to provide information and advice to those involved in designing, commissioning, providing and taking up short breaks for disabled children.