Bristol City Council Launches Out of Date Short Breaks Document Statement

The aged statement template released this year is over five years old

Bristol City Council has launched a statement regarding its short breaks service by using a user-unfriendly document structure that’s over half a decade out of date.

On the 02 January 2026, the council’s Local Offer website released Bristol Short Breaks Statement 2026 – Short breaks: fun activities for Disabled children and young people.

The document did not feature the logo of the Bristol Parent Carer Forum, which would indicate it was carefully co-produced with parent carers.

The document did say that Bristol City Council had worked ‘closely with parents and carers to co-produce this statement and the short breaks services it describes.’

When asked about the co-production that took place behind the issuing of the document, Bristol City Council said: “The current template of the Short Breaks Statement was designed by the Interim Chair of Bristol Parent Carers in 2020 after developing this document with a group of parent carers. The Short Breaks Statement is checked regularly to ensure that the information is up-to-date, accurate and all the web links work.

“However, it is due for a refresh and we will be approaching Bristol Parent Carers in 2026 to review it and
take the lead on coproducing a new document.”

Bristol City Council’s new Short Breaks Statement 2026

One person told us they were unable to read it because it wasn’t Dyslexia friendly and impacted on visual stress.

Another told us it was a “bit of a mess” particularly as it holds “important information.”

Stuart Hall became the Interim Chair of Bristol Parent Carers in April 2020. He remained so for around 12 months as part of the former iteration of the Parent Carer Forum.

The Bristol Parent Carers meeting discussing the Short Breaks Statement took place in October 2020. This makes the document effectively over five years old.

The short breaks service itself was re-commissioned in 2024/25. The council said that they listened to ‘lots’ of Disabled children and parent carers at the time.

Then, in June 2024, £273,340 was removed from the short breaks budget, with eligibility criteria for the service also updated.

Short breaks are activities for Disabled children and young people and their families. The aim to give children time away from their care-givers to build independence skills. It’s also an opportunity for them to take part in activities and have fun with friends.

Short breaks are activities for disabled children and young people and their families.

In turn, the activities should give parents and carers a break from their caring duties.

Back in 2024, former lead of the Bristol Autism Project, Debbie Teml of FACE (Foundation for Active Community Engagement), criticised the cuts to the short breaks service saying it would have a ‘detrimental impact’ on Disabled children and their families.

She said: “We do not feel this consultation was adequate, and it was overwhelmingly negative. Feedback is not representative of the cohort of families receiving support with only 172 respondents. The consultation took place over Christmas where families are at their busiest and not able to effectively engage.

“Respondents referred to the consultation as complex and difficult to understand and overall, it showed overwhelmingly strong opposition to the proposed cuts.”

Since then, the Bristol Autism Project has brought in a membership system to try and fund the shortfall in council funding.

The Current Bristol Parent Carer Forum is an entirely different organisation to the one that existed before 2022.

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