SHORT BREAKS PREFERRED PROVIDERS LIST

Wokingham Borough Council ("WBC") is inviting applications to join its Preferred Providers List ("the List") for the provision of short breaks support services to children and young people with disabilities and their families. The purpose of short breaks services is to provide children and young people with disabilities the opportunity to spend time away from their parents and carers; relax and have fun with their friends, and develop their independence.

They also give parents and other carers an opportunity to have a break from their caring responsibilities; rest and unwind and spend time with other members of their family. Short breaks also play a vital role in the Council's safeguarding preventative and early help strategies to support parent and carer capacity.

Short break provision can range from a few hours of play and leisure activities a week to an allocated number of overnight breaks per year and may include personal support. The council will move to a system of direct payments of short break resources to families via pre-paid cards from April 2018.

This will enable families to have greater choice over the short breaks that they access. Customer choice is not limited to providers on the List, but through the List the Council will advertise to families a vetted and quality assured set of services to support local children, young people and their families.

The List will also be used by the Council's children's social care service for the spot purchase of some services as part of child and family interventions. Through these arrangements there will be no contractual relationship between WBC and the Provider.

WBC undertakes to publish on the Preferred Providers List those providers who have the necessary credentials to undertake short breaks services to families supported by WBC. The Council is not recommending providers to Service users.

WBC will not accept any liability for any action arising from any contract entered into by a Service User. NOTE: No contract value is guaranteed, the figues above illustrate the historical range.

Those wishing to apply to join the List should have demonstrable evidence of: • Experience of support services for children and young people with disabilities • The ability to meet the requirements of the service specification • Robust recruitment process to ensure the service is provided by high quality well trained staff and or volunteers • Internal monitoring and continuous improvement process to ensure and sustain a high quality service The Council has no control over which indivdual services will be purchased by the families using direct payments but will be spending circa £500,000 on Short Breaks in 2018/19 in total. The Council will market the services of providers on the List to eligible families and will provide a digital portal whereby families can book services directly with providers.

Additional information: The deadline stated in this notice is for inclusion on the initial list of providers. WBC reserves the right, at its absolute discretion, to re-open the list, for the inclusion of additional providers, as deemed necessary to deliver an appropriate service to its clients.