Budget cuts to short breaks for disabled children ‘risk causing family breakdowns’

Budget cuts happening next year to short breaks in Bristol for disabled children could risk causing family breakdowns. Despite clear warnings from parents and charities about the huge impact of saving “quite a small amount of money”, councillors have rubber-stamped the cuts.

Families with disabled children are entitled to free short breaks by law. But due to ongoing finance pressures at Bristol City Council, the former Labour administration decided to cut the budget for short breaks, but delayed the final approval until after the recent local elections.

The budget for short breaks will be cut by about 10 per cent from next April. Councillors on the children and young people policy committee were urged to revisit the proposals and find the money elsewhere, during a meeting on Thursday, June 27.

Read more: Progress on new Temple Meads entrance in latest Bristol planning applications

Read more: Plans set to be approved for ‘missing link’ cycle path north of Bristol

Matt Justice, from WECIL, an organisation which helps provide the breaks, said: “There’s no clear rationale outlined for reducing existing services, which offer good value for money and prevent families going into crisis thus requiring more expensive services. The proposal was widely condemned during the consultation.

“We appreciate the financial challenges faced by the council, but strongly believe that cutting this essential support is not the solution. Any cuts mean that some families will go without support so that others can receive it. This could cause increased stress, potential family breakdowns and higher costs for the council in the long term.

“Parents highlighted that the services provided by short breaks are crucial for the health and stability of their families. Feedback included comments such as ‘this is a lifeline’, and ‘we can’t hold down a job without this support’.”

The cuts will mean there will be fewer short breaks available for disabled children, and the remaining breaks will become shorter and less frequent. Councillors on the committee were warned that if they chose not to go ahead with the cuts, the money would have to be taken from services elsewhere in the department.

Green Councillor Ellie Freeman said: “This feels like a really difficult decision, and one that as a parent and somebody who can understand how valuable this service is, it’s really difficult to then say this is something that we want to cut. It’s quite a small amount of money in terms of the budget, it feels like it’s not going to have a big impact. But in terms of the impact on families, that is a big impact.”

Labour Cllr Katja Hornchen added: “It’s not a huge amount of money, but the effect of what it does is massive. The consequences of not having those two hours every week could be massive, in mental health terms, in breakdowns of families, because it could be the last straw.”

The two Labour councillors on the committee voted against the decision, while the rest of the committee voted in favour. When the council sets its budget for next year, the cuts to short breaks could potentially be reversed.

Green Cllr Christine Townsend, chair of the committee, said: “I will have direct involvement with the budget-setting. I will ask the committee to support me as I go into the budget consultations to bring that money back in. At the moment the only way that we can put the contracts out, including this money, is to take it from somewhere else in children’s services, which is equally as damaging and difficult.

“We wouldn’t ideally be in this position of having to ratify a decision of which we didn’t have involvement in. However, it will be my intention to go back into the budget consultations in order for that to go back into the short breaks and for it to be protected. I can’t say that’s going to work, but we will put that case really strongly and I’m reasonably confident that this will get a good hearing.”