Short Breaks Commissioning

We're working in partnership with the Barnwood Trust and Gloucestershire County Council to enhance inclusive short breaks for local families of disabled children and young people.

The initiative will run until April 2027, and will see the partners working together to co-fund short breaks in Gloucester, the North Cotswolds and Tewkesbury. It also provides a tremendous opportunity to explore innovative ways of offering short breaks, building on the insights gained from children, young people, their families, and local providers.

Background Information

Our partnership is part of Gloucestershire County Council’s plans to provide families across the county with more choice of inclusive and engaging short breaks for disabled children and young people. It will complement the council’s existing county-wide offer and boost support for families.

Barnwood Trust will also extend to April 2027, its funding for six projects which have been delivering inclusive short breaks across the county since 2023. This is through the Short Breaks Fund, as part of the Trust’s Short Breaks change programme. Barnwood Trust will invest a further £1.2 million in time-limited grant funding for the county-wide projects.

Gloucestershire County Council will use the outcomes of the learning from this partnership to inform the re-procurement in 2026 of short breaks services across the county. 

Useful Links

Questions and answers about this partnership are available on the Barnwood Trust website. You can also access the Short Breaks Fund information page on the Barnwood Trust website. We will publish updates about this project on this webpage. Current updates include:

If you would like to find out more about the Short Breaks work please get in touch with:

Group of nine people standing in a room, holding a large signed Memorandum of Understanding about a partnership for support of Short Breaks commissioning in Gloucestershire.