Overnight Residential Short Breaks for Disabled Children

The Council and ICB seek to commission an Overnight Short Breaks Service which will provide overnight short breaks (and some daytime) for children and young people each year who are living with very complex disabilities and who may have health needs which require the support and care of a nurse. The length of the contract will be for five years with the option to extend for an additional two years.

Through the commissioning of the Service detailed in this Specification, the Council seeks to ensure the local availability of overnight accommodation and support in Oxfordshire to meet the needs of disabled children in Oxfordshire. The Provider will ensure overnights residential Short Breaks is to be available across two buildings.

One in the North of the County (Banbury) and one in central Oxford. The Council provides a range of short breaks for Disabled Children this kind of care is essential to support Disabled Children to live at home.

It is well-recognised that raising a child with a disability can place additional pressures on families which exceed the everyday pressures faced by all families raising children. This pressure can arise because of the complexity of the social, education and health care needs experienced by a disabled child, as well as the limitations of some mainstream services which are unable to provide the necessary support to meet the needs of disabled children and young people.

The Overnight Residential Short Breaks Service is required to provide care for 11 overnight beds per night available across two sites (6 from Viking in Oxford and 5 from Sycamore in Banbury). This equates to 149 overnight respite sessions per month and 1788 bed nights per year.