To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of Health and Social Care Trusts which have given families or individuals, who are approved for respite provision, financial payment outside of direct payments, in the last six months.

Combined Regional Response For All HSC Trusts - Children with Disabilities:

Over the past eight months, all Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts have provided time limited financial support to families of children with disabilities where access to short break provision continued to be constrained. These exceptional payments were made on a discretionary basis and were separate from existing Direct Payments arrangements.

Each Trust utilised non-recurrent slippage from the additional £13.1 million pounds given regionally to Children with Disabilities budgets, to offer summer and winter support payments to eligible families. The intention was to provide practical assistance and to help mitigate the impact of reduced short break availability during these periods.

Families, who had been assessed as requiring short breaks, received a payment of £500 per allocation period.

Families who were in receipt of Direct Payments, but had not been assessed as requiring additional short breaks received £200.

These payments were well received by families and were positively acknowledged by voluntary and community sector partners who work closely with children with disabilities and their carers.

All HSC Trusts participated in the scheme and issued payments in line with the regional agreement and local governance arrangements.