Respite Care for Children

What is Respite Care?

Respite care is about providing care for children with disabilities away from their families or normal carers.  Respite carers care for the children for short periods of time, perhaps for a night or weekend.  The child benefits from new experiences and new relationships and their family benefit from the break - they are able to have time to themselves or to spend with their other children.

Who Can Be a Respite Carer?

Respite Carers are all individual people with differing circumstances, abilities and backgrounds. 

They can:

• Be single, married, widowed, divorced or living with someone
• Have children or not
• Be employed or unemployed
• Be from any background

You do not need to have experience of looking after disabled children.  You just need to have the time, energy and desire to do so.

Respite Carers receive:

• Ongoing training opportunities
• Support from a qualified social worker
• Payment for each session of care provided

For further information on respite care, also known as Shared Care, visit the Shared Care Network website.

If you think you might benefit from any service provided by Social Services and you would like us to contact you by phone or email, please click the following link and complete the Social Services Contact Us/Self Referral Online Form and someone will be in touch with you as soon as possible.