Short Breaks for Disabled Children

Improving out-of-school activities for children with disabilities and/or additional needs

Provision of Short Breaks for carers of disabled children is a statutory duty under The Breaks for Carers Regulations 2011.

The Hampshire County Council Short Breaks programme aims to:

give parents or carers an opportunity to have a short break from caring to take part in training, leisure activities, day-to-day tasks, or education
enable children and young people with disabilities and/or additional needs, age 0-17, to join in with safe, fun and interesting activities

Short Breaks come in all shapes and sizes, lasting from a few hours to a day or an evening, and provide a positive experience for all.

About Short Breaks grants

A Short Breaks Grant is a grant provided by Hampshire County Council to contribute towards the cost of delivering Short Break Activities for disabled and/or additional needs children and young people aged 0–17.

The grant supports organisations to offer safe, fun, and inclusive activities that enable children and young people with disabilities and/or additional needs to participate in leisure and recreational opportunities, while providing their parents or carers with a meaningful short break from their caring responsibilities.

A Short Breaks Grant is a contribution towards activity delivery costs only and is not intended to fully fund projects or replace an organisation’s core funding. Organisations are expected to demonstrate sustainability and, where possible, a mix of funding sources.

Funding is awarded for a defined period and must be used solely for the purposes agreed within the grant agreement, in line with the eligibility criteria, permitted costs, and monitoring requirements set out in this document.

Eligibility

The grant is for activity providers to support disabled and/ or additional need children and young people who:

have a disability and/or additional needs that mean they require support to participate in leisure and recreation activities
are aged between 0 to 17 years
live in the Hampshire County Council area
have a Gateway Card + which identifies that s/he has a disability and/or additional needs and may require support to access activities

When and how to apply

The Short Breaks grant is available to organisations and activity providers delivering short break opportunities for children and young people in Hampshire. Families and carers cannot apply directly for this funding.

All grant allocations for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 have been completed, and this funding round is now closed.

The next grant application window for the period 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2028 will open in autumn 2026.

Providers who are interested in applying for the Short Breaks grant can complete an Expression of Interest using the link below. Organisations who register their interest will be contacted when the next grant round opens.

Short Breaks grant expression of interest form

We cannot fund:

young people who live outside of the Hampshire County Council area
young people aged 18 years and over
activities where parents/carers are required to stay
swimming lessons

Charging and concessions policy

The Charging and concessions policy sets out the expectations regarding parental charges for Hampshire County Council Short Breaks activities. It informs providers of the proposed market rates to charge for Short Break activities. It also explains when to apply the concessions policy for families, when collecting parental charges toward the cost of their child accessing Short Break activities.

It is expected that the level of parental contribution to be charged for activities will be shown in the application form, along with the payment methods to be used by the providers in order to collect the parental charges.

Grant criteria and eligibility

To be eligible for support the organisation must:

be able to explain how their project will provide a Short Break for parents/carers
be able to meet the needs of children and young people aged 0-17 with disabilities and/or additional needs
demonstrate excellent outcomes for children
benefit children and young people who live in Hampshire County Council area and who hold a Gateway Card+
have policy statements and guidelines in place for Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety, and Safeguarding Children/Child Protection
ensure all staff, both paid and voluntary, have an up-to-date Disclosure and Barring Service clearance. and appropriate training (to include Safeguarding Children as a mandatory requirement)
comply with reporting and monitoring requirements (see Monitoring section for more information)
apply for funding from other sources such as trusts, district/borough councils, businesses or other sponsorship or contribute to the costs in kind
promote and publicise Short Break activities via the Local Offer
share information, resources and signposting with other Short Breaks activity providers in their local area where appropriate, to benefit families using the service and to support efficient use of the Short Breaks

Insurance

You must have in place appropriate insurances. Children’s Services–funded organisations must have £5,000,000 Employers’ Liability Insurance and £5,000,000 Public Liability Insurance.

If your application is successful and your current insurance is below these levels, you will be required to increase your cover before funding can be released.

We understand that some small, local voluntary or community groups may not hold this level of insurance. If you are awarded a small grant, a lower level of cover may be accepted. The team will discuss this with you if it applies.

Payment for activities by parents/carers

The County Council expects that payment will be taken by the provider at the point of booking an activity. The provider will be required to take either a deposit or full payment and will have a range of payments methods available to parents/carers.

Financial eligibility

Organisations will not normally be eligible for grants where they hold unallocated reserves in excess of one year's running costs, or where it is judged that these reserves are unreasonably in excess of what is required or not allocated for legitimate purposes.

The Short Breaks Grant Programme has adopted the Charity Commission’s reserves policy in this respect, although this will apply to all organisations, not just charities, who are requesting Short Breaks funding.

The County Council has a clear policy that organisations must not be solely reliable on funding from the County Council. Therefore, applications which have identified other sources of income will be prioritised over applications with no other sources of income.

The Charity Commission definition of reserve is:

Income funds that are freely available for its general (unrestricted) purposes. "Reserves" are therefore the resources the organisation has or can make available to spend, for any or all of the charity's purposes, once it has met its commitments and covered its other planned expenditure. It is not yet spent, committed or designated.

Additional Costs

Grants will be considered towards the costs of running your activity or event when these are additional and reasonable costs necessary to meet specific requirements of Gateway Card+ holders, for example:

paying staff reasonable amounts in line with current market rates, to run activities - coaches, instructors, tutors or specialist staff. 1:1 (or higher) staffing ratios will only be funded where this is necessary, and evidence of need is provided
providing support staff where required (e.g. to assist with personal care requirements during the activities)
specific training with reasonable costs required for offering this activity to disabled and/or additional needs children
associated management and administration costs directly related to delivery for disabled and/or additional needs children, will be considered. This can include reasonable administration staff time. We anticipate that this should equate to no more than 10% of the total grant amount requested from the County Council
providing expenses and training for volunteers that help to run the activities/support disabled children
smaller value equipment and resources appropriate to the individual participants’ needs
costs for adapting equipment, where this is a reasonable and specific requirement
reasonable hire of facilities used to deliver the activities. Organisations should evidence any discounts requested/agreed by venues. Where organisations are requesting funding for venue hire for their own buildings, explanation will need to be included within the grant application
transport – families should be encouraged to contribute to cover transport costs if extra trips out are included in the activity. However if additional resources are needed, cost effective and reasonable group transport arrangements that are an integral part of the activity may be considered by the panel where a provider does not have the resources to cover this themselves, depending on the current demand on the Short Breaks budget. Only additional costs for specific requirements will be considered

Costs that we cannot fund

We cannot fund some kinds of costs, including:

residential overnight respite costs
training needs that could be covered via the use of e-learning
purchase of vehicles or other high-cost capital purchases
larger value equipment and resources
transport costs for transport required within an activity session (See section above for exceptions)
management/Administration costs amounting to more than 10% of the requested total funding
buildings and refurbishments
costs to adapt premises or equipment where this is already a duty of the activity provider under equality legislation
personal equipment, clothing/uniform or other personal/commercial gain
activities that take place during school time (for children of school age); or are targeted mainly for adults (post 18 years old)
transport costs to or from a child’s home to the activity
refreshment costs for any staff/volunteers
marketing or publicity. Free publicity and promotion via the Connect to Support Hampshire Hub are a requirement of the Short Breaks grant
trips and outings: the cost of entrance fees or tickets should be covered by parents/carers and venues will frequently give group discounts/concessionary rates

Monitoring

If your application is successful, your organisation will be required to sign a grant agreement and provide monitoring information in the required format. This includes:

recording attendance on the Gateway Card app (attendance for each session must be entered onto the system within one week of the session taking place)
submitting monitoring information when requested

Throughout the grant period, we will ask providers for additional monitoring information such as:

attendance details (initials, Gateway Card number, level of support required, non‑attendance, waiting lists, concessionary rates, etc.)
feedback on outcomes, impact, and children’s and parents’ experiences

We will provide full instructions after an award has been agreed. We may also visit providers while activities are taking place.

Please note that non‑compliance with the requirements of the grant agreement may lead to funding being withdrawn, in line with section 10 of the terms and conditions.

Please read our overarching Hampshire County Council terms and conditions and Short Breaks grant specifications before you apply.