Supporting positive, sustainable caring relationships, through the provision of breaks from caring, is a priority for social care policy and practice here in Scotland and across UK. The shift to more personalised social care support has also seen major changes in how support is planned and delivered in all care settings.
However, there are considerable challenges to delivering more personalised short breaks to an increasingly diverse population, against a backdrop of rising demand and declining public budgets. This guidance has therefore been prepared to help local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships work through these challenges and establish the conditions in local communities to provide carers with good, and improving opportunities to access breaks from caring.
This guide shares the learning from a year-long Think Tank made up of service commissioners and carer organisations. The Think Tank was a response to commissioners around the country reporting challenges with:
- Determining how to meet existing and future demand for short breaks
- Reconciling traditional commissioning models with the principles of self-directed support (SDS)
- Meeting the promise of greater choice and control for carers and service users.
We hope the guide helps commissioners, procurement teams, locality leads and practice leads to meet the challenge (and duty) of ensuring variety and choice. It can be used for reflection and planning, and to help facilitate and stimulate conversations.
View and download Promoting Variety here (web optimised)
Acknowledgements
The Short Breaks Market Shaping Think Tank was made up of a core group who produced this guide:
| Denise Gillespie | Planning & Development Officer | South Lanarkshire Council |
| Don Williamson | Chief Executive | Shared Care Scotland |
| Des McCart | Senior Programme Manager | Healthcare Improvement Scotland |
| Innes Turner | Principal Commissioning Officer | East Renfrewshire HSCP |
| JJ Turner | Principal Commissioning Officer | East Renfrewshire HSCP |
| Linda Owen | Strategic Planning and Commissioning Officer | Dumfries & Galloway HSCP |
| Margaret Petherbridge | Project Development Manager Self Directed Support | Falkirk HSCP |
| Ashleigh Spalding | Research Assistant | Clackmannanshire and Stirling Health and Social Care Partnership |
| Sheena McIntosh | Commissioning Services Manager | Aberdeenshire Council |
| Shubhanna Hussain-Ahmed | Development Officer | Coalition of Carers in Scotland |
| Susan Henderson | Planning and Development Officer | Scottish Borders Learning Disability Service |
We are grateful to the following for additional guidance and input:
- Annabel Davidson Knight, Collaboration Consultant
- Claire Pearson, Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership
- Edmund McKay, Gillian Fergusson and Gregory Hill-Connor, Healthcare Improvement Scotland
- Kate Hogarth, Shared Care Scotland
- Peter Burke, COSLA Health and Social Care Board carers representative
- Scott Fissenden, Fife Health and Social Care Partnership
- Laura Bannerman, former Chief Officer, Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership
The Think Tank was hosted by Shared Care Scotland and iHub, funded by Scottish Government. Wren and Greyhound provided facilitation and led the creation of this document.