You can apply for a Take a Break grant if you:
- have lived in Scotland for six months
- are a UK resident
- care for a disabled child or young person with complex additional support needs aged 0 to 20 years, who lives at home.
Please note: you will not be eligible to apply if the child or young person you care for is looked after by the local authority, or lives away from your home (e.g. in foster care).
Parents and carers should be able to evidence the need to provide a high level of support to the child or young person they care for. This support should be needed in three or more of the following areas:
Personal care
Your child needs physical support with feeding, washing, toileting or moving and transferring.
Access to social activities
Physical, social and sensory support is needed to enable the child or young person to take part in social and leisure activities.
Education
The person you care for needs support with their education and learning. You will need to let us know who gives this assistance, and in what ways. Does your child attend specialist/alternative provision, or do they receive significant additional support within school?
Communication
Your child requires support with listening, speaking and understanding. Do they use sign language, Makaton or gestures?
Supervision and vigilance
You have supervision measures in place to ensure the child’s safety around roads, risk taking behaviour, harm to themselves or others.
Medical or therapeutic treatment or condition management
Significant support and therapeutic input for suction, oxygen, overnight feeding, transfusions and monitoring of bloods. Your child needs support in the form of treatment or therapy. You will need to let us know what therapy is given, who does this, how often and when.
Physical environment and specialist resources
Physical adaptations and adjustments are required for the person you care for. You will need to let us know what supportive equipment and adaptations are necessary to support their day-to-day activities.
A grant decision is not dependent on your child or young person having a diagnosis, or whether a Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payment (PIP) award has been made, but whether a child meets Take a Break’s disability criteria, which is based on a social model of disability not a medical model.
Our full terms and conditions and data protection statement can be found here.