Respite and short breaks for carers

As a carer, you may need to arrange a break for you or the person you care for. This can be arranged in several ways, depending on the needs and preferences of you and the person you care for.

Some options are:

  • a short stay in one of our care homes for the person you care for
  • arranging for someone to come to your home to let you as the carer take a break away
  • arranging a short break or holiday for the person you care for
  • getting a direct payment to arrange the respite care yourself as part of your Self Direct Support (SDS) options
  • accessing day care services for older people

These are only some options, and they can be a one-off or regular arrangement - respite and short breaks are arranged to suit you and the person you care for, to meet all your needs.

How do you arrange respite care or short breaks?

There are several ways you can do this:

You can contact Social Work to arrange a referral for an Adult Care Support Plan or Young Carer Statement - we will work with you and the person you care for to assess your all your care needs, including respite or short breaks. To request a referral for an Adult Carer Support Plan or Young Carer Statement or for more information, you can contact social work by:

Fill in our online form

Calling us on 01546 605517

Visiting your local Customer Service Point

If you don't want to contact social work, there are carers' centres in Argyll and Bute that you can contact directly. These centres offer a variety of services for carers:

Find your local carers centre

Would I need to pay for any respite or short-breaks?

This would be assessed and identified as part of the overall care need of both yourself and the cared for person.  If eligible you will be provided with 4 options known as Self-Directed Support. Your social worker will explain the process and identify any possible contributions that may need to be made towards care or support if applicable. This will be based on both the cared for person and your identified needs and outcomes utilising the eligibility criteria. 

Your personal data

The information you supply will be used for the purpose for which you have provided it, and appropriate measures are in place to protect your personal data.  A full privacy notice, which provides information about your rights under current data protection legislation and details about what will happen to your personal data can be found here:

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