AQW 43358/22-27

Miss Nuala McAllister
Alliance Party
North Belfast

Tabled Date: 26/03/2026
Answered On Date: 17/06/2026
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of families or individuals who were approved for respite provision and were given a financial payment outside of direct payments, in last six months.

Answer:

BELFAST HSC TRUST:

BHSCT provided time limited financial support to families of children with disabilities where access to short break provision continued to be constrained. These exceptional payments were made on a discretionary basis and were separate from existing Direct Payments arrangements. A total number of 80 families whose children were approved for respite provision were given financial payment outside of direct payments. The intention was to provide practical assistance and to help mitigate the impact of reduced short break availability.

NORTHERN HSC TRUST:

39 families within the Northern HSC Trust.

SOUTH EASTERN HSC TRUST:

In the last six months, South Eastern Trust issued financial payments outside of direct payments to 235 families in total – 215 were in receipt of Direct payments and 20 had been assessed as requiring short breaks.

SOUTHERN HSC TRUST:

In the last 6 months the Southern Trust provided financial payments outside of direct payments for respite provision to 240 children with disability.

WESTERN HSC TRUST:

As grants were offered in the WHSCT to all open and unallocated cases, without cross referencing each individual payment against client records it is not possible for the WHSCT to provide a figure on how many of these cases were approved for ‘respite provision’.