West House is delighted to have been successful in winning a tender for two Short Breaks Contracts from Cumbria Country Council.
The first contract will be to continue delivering services to children 0-8 and the second covers children from 8-13 and 14-19. We are busy putting together ideas for services and look forwards to being able to contact children, young people and their families from the older age groups. We are working closely with Action for Children to ensure a smooth transition for those already receiving support.
Press Release…
WEST Cumbrian charity West House is setting up four new
youth groups for children with disabilities.
The charity currently runs one group for children aged up to
eight years old but are now introducing four new ones for children aged eight to 10, 11 to 13, 14 to 16 and 17 to 19.
The groups will run in Workington, Cockermouth and
Whitehaven and include holidays and activity days through the year.
They will also provide activities such as bakery, pottery,
arts and crafts, games and ten pin bowling all tailored to the particular age groups and individuals making use of West House resource centres and community
based activities.
Katy Holliday, 32, senior support worker for children’s
services at West House said: “These new groups will allow the children to build up new skills and make new friends.
“It will also give the parents time to themselves to go and
do things that we take for granted such as going shopping.
“A lot of parents need some time off and these groups will
allow children to build up skills in a group which will make them feel accepted and part of their community.
The service provided for children up to 8 years old has been
extremely successful offering families up to 4 hours support each week.
The groups receive funding from Cumbria County Council’s
Short Breaks programme and the charity will be taking referrals for the new youth groups from February 1.
Press Release….
Families in Cumbria with disabled children will continue to benefit from Short Break services.
Cumbria County Council has secured the continued provision of these services for another 14 months from the start of February.
Short Breaks provide positive activities for disabled children and young people while enabling their main carers to have a break from their caring responsibilities.
As part of the process to secure Short Break services, the
county council tendered contracts for providing the care. Group and individual short services have now been recommissioned to the following providers:
Carlisle & Eden - Carlisle Mencap
Barrow & South Lakeland - Oaklea Trust
Allerdale & Copeland - West Cumbria Care and Support (West House) replacing Action for Children who are continuing with their provision of children’s centre services including the provision of services to younger (0-8 years) disabled children.
Between now and March 2013 a full evaluation of short break services for children with disabilities will be undertaken before further contracts are placed.