Short Breaks Team Update January 2021
Families whose children have a Short Breaks budget have asked if they can continue to use the funds to purchase toys and play equipment as they did in the first few months of the pandemic, when many Short Break services/activities were not available, or very limited, due to the need for all settings and community-based activities to be COVID safe.
Families using the toys and equipment offer between March and August 2020 have told us how helpful it was and how it made a difference to them and their children. We have had some lovely feedback and photos of the children playing on trampolines, bikes, mud kitchens, games, etc. but also many requests for the scheme to be offered again.
From 1 April 2021 it has been agreed that families with a Short Break plan starting on or after that date who have a pre-paid card for non-specified activities, included in the short break plan, can spend a maximum of £250 within that year to buy items such as outdoor play equipment, books, board games, arts and craft materials etc.
Families will not be able to use funds from other Short Break services such as a Direct Payment Personal Assistant to pay for toys, and the funding must be within the child’s individual budget, it cannot be agreed in addition to that.
The money will be deducted from your Short Breaks pre-paid card account as usual. Families must either keep the receipts or preferably upload the receipts to their PFS account as detailed in the PFS Guide.
Please note the team cannot agree to the purchase of mobile phones, vouchers, gift cards or any subscription services such as Prime Video, Amazon Prime, Netflix, XBox Live, or downloading of games, films etc.
Contact with the Short Breaks team:
As all the team are working remotely at present, if you have any questions regarding Short Breaks please contact via email if possible at cs.shortbreaks@norfolk,gov,uk.
If you do not have access to email, please call the duty phone 01603 692455. If there is no answer, please leave a message and a member of the team will call you back as soon as possible.