Our 2025 short breaks brokerage programme

Short breaks brokerage

Background

Over recent years the ways in which unpaid carers can access short breaks have evolved. Policy changes -  such as the introduction of the Carers Act and the forthcoming Right to a Break from caring - have meant that organisations such as local authorities and carers centres have had to rethink how they work with carers to deliver a break that works best for them. 

One way to make this happen can be through a ‘short breaks brokerage’. A number of carers services had spoken to Shared Care Scotland about their interest in exploring how a brokerage model of short breaks delivery could work to increase capacity and offer carers greater choice and control.

We recognised that while a good brokerage service can have a very positive impact, pinpointing what brokerage is and does can be more challenging! We also knew that there are already fantastic examples of brokerage services across Scotland and so we saw an opportunity to bring together a group of people to create a model for high-quality short breaks brokerage and identify what support different organisations might need to deliver new or develop existing services.

We brought a group of people together to focus on three key things:  

• Agreeing on a clear and simple definition of ‘short breaks brokerage’ that is meaningful for carers and supporting organisations.
• Developing a vision for short breaks brokerage: What does high-quality brokerage look and feel like? What ethos and principles should be integral to every service?
• Identifying the essential components of high-quality brokerage: What makes brokerage effective and a positive experience?

The result is the Shared Care Scotland brokerage project which is launching in Spring 2025. 

Brokerage project

We are delighted to be launching our short breaks brokerage programme offering 10-months of facilitated learning and development, peer support, and positive action making use of our innovative short breaks brokerage resources.

We hope that this programme will be of interest to colleagues working in short breaks in both the third and the public sector, and registration will open soon.

The programme will begin with an introductory session online on 2 April 2025 when we will introduce the full programme and the suite of resources we have coproduced including:

A blueprint for short breaks brokerage: which helps establish the definition, principles, outcomes, components and standards of a successful brokerage service  

A self-review tool for you to work through and identify your strengths and areas for improvements as well as where you can share your practice or learn from others

Carer facing material to help share clear messaging on what carers can expect: ensuring transparency and trust.

Immediately following the introductory session we will establish our community of practice so that those working through the programme can learn from and support each other. This will be further enhanced by a series of community of practice sessions which will focus on key areas of development and learning and these dates have been set out below.

If you have any enquiries please get in touch with Kate.Hogarth@sharedcarescotland.com