Family-based

Regular short breaks can be really valuable but it's not always easy to find someone that is qualified to care for children, or someone that they trust.

Parents need to know that their child's needs will be taken care of. The person caring for their child must be experienced, qualified and properly trained to do so. Our range of family-based short breaks services provide just that.

By recruiting foster carers to look after a disabled child on a regular basis, we can provide short breaks.  These can be a few hours, overnight stays, weekends or longer periods. Partnership with parents is key to the success of this service - developing effective working relationships between the foster carer and the family.

Case study

Cath supports seven children - all of whom are disabled and have a range of healthcare needs, some of them complex. Cath says: "The families we support put a great deal of trust in us as carers to look after their children - that's why the training is so important and why I wouldn't be able to do what I do if I didn't get all the support from Action for Children."

Julia has 12-year-old twins, Olivia and Samuel, who have no speech, limited communication and behaviour that can be challenging to others. Olivia has been spending one night a week with Cath for the last five years.

Julia says: "Parents of children with disabilities can't just book a babysitter. They need to know that their child's needs will be taken care of and that the person involved has been properly trained. That's why Action for Children's Shared Care scheme has been so good for Olivia and the rest of the family. The relationship was given time to grow at the start so that by the time we came to leave Olivia with Cath we knew we could trust her. She's like part of the family now."