There are a range of opportunities to provide short break services to disabled children. Some short break carers provide day care, others provide overnight care. Some look after one child. Others look after a number of children. Befrienders support disabled young people to access activities in the community. Contract carers provide short breaks on a paid basis and tend to do this as more of a full time job looking after a number of disabled children.

How to get involved
We have some short breaks opportunities listed on our website. You can find these by clicking the above tab “find a short break service” and entering your postcode. This will bring up a map with red balloons of all the schemes in your area. You can zoom in and out on the left to search a wider area and click on the balloons to get the contact details for the scheme.

To find out about other opportunities in your area to provide short breaks to disabled children and young people contact the Aiming High for Disabled Children team or Children with Disabilities department in your local authority. Some services are run by local authorities others are run by voluntary organisations such as Kidz, Barnardos, Mencap and Action for Children and the Children’s Society.

Your local Children’s Information Service will also know about opportunities to support disabled children and young people in your area.

 You may also be interested to look up opportunities on the volunteering website do it or the Mentoring and befriending foundation

To find out about paid opportunities caring for disabled children and adults click here

There is also a guide to “Working with Children and Young People with Disabilities”


Short break films
You can see videos of carers providing different types of short breaks by visiting our  YouTube channel: Short Breaks Network (Opens in a new window.)

Our DVD Be the BIG difference, which features these films, is currently available at a special promotional price of £5 to celebrate the launch of our new DVD I can do that, also £5. To find out more and order your copy go to our Recruitment Resources pages.

If you are a short break carer you can receive a FREE copy of the DVD with our Tell A Friend pack which will be available later in the year. To ensure you receive your pack, sign up to the Short Breaks Network now by clicking on the Short Break carers tab above and filling in the simply form.




  

To find about more about what its like being a short break carer click here to see CWDC's "meet some short break carers" case studies.