Social work services with accommodation

Description

Norfolk County Council has awarded a contract for the provision of beds for the purposes of residential short breaks for children with disabilities aged 5-18. The profile of the children is the complex end of the disability spectrum, including children with challenging behaviour associated with either autism or severe learning disabilities, who are considered on the edge as the ‘transforming care’ cohort. Norfolk County Council (NCC) has awarded a contract for the provision of beds in South Norfolk for the purposes of residential short breaks for children with disabilities aged 5-18. The profile of the children is the complex end of the disability spectrum — children with challenging behaviour associated with either autism or severe learning disabilities who are considered on the edge as the ‘transforming care’ cohort. The contract has been awarded for 3 years, but there is provision to extend the contract by up to 5 years. The figure given is for the first 3 years. The provision is for beds nights to cater for about 40 children. 20 of these children can have their needs met on a 1:1 basis, 18 on a 2:1 basis. We also have 2 children who have exceptional needs. The resource will provide packages of care from 12 overnights a year up to packages deemed to meet a child’s needs and keep them out of care. Currently 1 package of care is 94 overnights and we are exploring bigger packages of care to assist with keeping children living at home, with increasingly complex presentations. Disabled children, who enter the units, will have complex presentation and the majority will have adverse family experiences. The provider will work as part of a multi-agency group and be able to maintain disabled children living within their home environment with relevant support to parent carers and to actively participate as part of the multi-agency work around this cohort of children.