Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of the closure of Nascot Lawn Health Centre on the provision of short break facilities in Hertfordshire for disabled children with complex health needs; and if she will make a statement.

The Government recognises the great value of short breaks, which provide a valuable range of opportunities for disabled children and their families, and that all possible steps should be taken to reduce the impact that services ending has on disabled children and their families. Since 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services and to publish a local short breaks services statement showing what services are available, and how they can be accessed.

We recognise the value of local authorities working with partners wherever possible to support and expand short breaks provision. Clinical commissioning groups have a responsibility under section 3 of the NHS Act 2006 to commission health services to meet the needs of their population, including those of the children and young people for whom they are responsible, to a reasonable extent. The Mandate on which NHS England operates also includes the expectation that the NHS will reduce the health gap between people with mental health problems, learning disabilities and autism and the population as a whole, and support them to live full, healthy and independent lives.

To support local authorities in meeting their duties, we made available £800 million in grants between April 2011 and March 2015, plus £80m of capital funding to support new projects. Responsibility for short breaks provision rests with local authorities, but the Department for Education has offered support and challenge to help make sure they meet their statutory requirements, have funded innovative grants that promote best practice for delivering services, and continue to consider how we can best support local authorities who are working to deliver sustainable short breaks provision.

The Government is able to oversee how much local authorities have planned to spend on short breaks provision through authorities’ annual section 251 returns. In Hertfordshire local authority spending on short breaks for disabled children increased between 2014/15 and 2015/16 (the latest figures available), from £5,563,492 to £6,105,010.