Medway City Council is considering £200,000 in savings on short break grants for disabled children

A program to help disabled children attend after-school clubs could be scaled back if demand becomes too great.

Medway Council’s cabinet is considering changing its eligibility criteria for the short break grant in a bid to save £200,000.

The program is designed to help children and young people with disabilities develop new relationships, skills and self-confidence, for example by playing sports, attending extracurricular clubs or spending a few days away from home.

They also give the child’s caregivers time to recover from their duties, rest, complete education, training, or regular recreational activities, spend quality time with other children in the family, and complete important household tasks.

Short break grants range from £500 to £1,000 per year.

They were introduced in 2016 and at that time Medway Council had 700 people receiving payments.

This number has increased by 68%, reaching 1,177 children in October last year.

This meant spending on the short break grant in 2022/23 was £625,000 – £134,000 over the scheme’s budget of £491,000.

Now the authority’s cabinet is considering plans to tighten eligibility criteria, abolish the lowest grant level, reduce the amount families receive by £250 and encourage families to reapply every year.

If approved, children must have a diagnosed disability or receive Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to be eligible.

In addition, the lowest level of grant would be reallocated as the council believes other services created since 2016, such as Medway GO and Child Friendly Medway, can meet the needs of these children.

Currently, families where their child’s disability has a “little or no impact on the family” receive £500, those with a “moderate impact” receive £750 and those with a high impact receive £1,000.

However, the plan is to ax the bottom tier and reduce the remaining two by £250.

The agency also believes that asking families to reapply each year, rather than being automatically re-enrolled and only removed from enrollment after their case is reviewed, will provide more accurate information about who is most in need is.

It is estimated that these changes will save the council around £200,000 a year.

The report adds that the changes would help the agency better manage the limited resources it has for the system and target the money to the families who need it most.

It has already been predicted that the furlough scheme will exceed this year’s budget by £255,000.

Medway Council cabinet members will consider and discuss the plans at next week’s meeting on October 29.