Surrey County Council is reviewing its Play and Leisure Short Breaks offer for children and young people with additional needs and disabilities (AND). These services provide educational and leisure activities for children and young people while giving parent carers a break from caring.

At the moment, about 900 children and young people use these services each year, with about 300 more on waiting lists. At the same time, the council must deliver £800,000 in savings from the Short Breaks budget in 2026/27 while meeting its statutory duties.

The current Play and Leisure offer includes specialist schemes and community-based activities, supported by a budget of £2.56 million. The council’s vision is to create an offer that is fair, inclusive, and financially sustainable, while prioritising resource and managing demand.

To achieve this, the council is consulting on 10 proposals that aim to:

• Introduce clear eligibility criteria
• Set maximum levels of provision per child
• Standardise parent carer charges and concessionary rates
• Prioritise breaks for carers
• Focus funding on core Play and Leisure services
• Deliver more inclusive mainstream provision
• Create a two-tier offer for specialist and inclusive services
• Reduce reliance on 1:1 support
• Provide more sessions during school holidays
• Offer flexible session lengths

These proposals are designed to meet the council's strategic priorities as well as deliver the required savings. This may mean taking forward a combination of proposals, based on the savings required and the feedback from this consultation.

Before you respond to the consultation, we encourage you to read more information through the documents on the right-hand side of this page. As well as a full consultation document, there is also a summary version and an Easy Read version available.

Engagement events

We are running some informal sessions where you can find out more about the proposed changes and ask any questions you have. The sessions are a mixture of in person dropins and online events (please note that feedback on the proposals themselves will need to be provided via the consultation).

How to join an online session:

Follow this link

Or go to teams.microsoft.com or the Teams app:

Meeting ID: 366 049 485 778 5
Passcode: Sv6wA2P3

Privacy statement

Any personal information you choose to provide will be kept confidential and used in accordance with our privacy notice.

Accessibility

You can find our accessibility statement here. If you require the survey in a different format, language or in hard copy (including a stamped addressed envelope to return the survey), please contact Surrey County Council at:

Telephone: 03456 009 009  (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays) 
Textphone (via Relay UK): 18001 03456 009 009 
Text (SMS): 07860 053 465 
British Sign Language: www.surreycc.gov.uk/bsl 
Email: contact.centre@surreycc.gov.uk

By writing to us at the following address: Surrey County Council, Contact Centre, Dakota, 11 De Havilland Drive, Weybridge, KT13 0YP

For any other queries about the consultation, please email: shortbreaks.consultation@surreycc.gov.uk

Have your say

Please give us your feedback using the link below. Your feedback will help us to shape services that are fair, and better in line with current and future needs, whilst also remaining affordable and delivering good value for money with the available budget.

Please send any hard copy responses to: Children's Social Care Transformation Team, Victoria Gate, Chobham Road, Woking, GU21 6JD or shortbreaks.consultation@surreycc.gov.uk

This consultation is open from 2pm on Monday 8th December 2025 and will close on Wednesday 4th March 2026 at 11:59pm.