Pets on the Green
Pets on the Green
If the cost is the thing stopping you, there may be funding available that you do not have to find yourself
Families tell us fairly often that a session would help their child but the cost is out of reach. Before you write it off, it is worth knowing that several funding routes exist specifically for things like this — and a Pets on the Green session is exactly the kind of provision they are meant to pay for.
We are not able to tell you whether you qualify, and we do not administer any of these. What follows is a plain description of each route, with the law it comes from, so you can ask your local authority the right question.
If your child has an EHC plan, or one is being drafted, you can ask the local authority to prepare a personal budget. The authority then identifies an amount available to secure particular provision set out in the plan, so that you can be involved in arranging it. You can then ask for that as a direct payment.
Timing matters. The request can only be made while the plan is being drafted, at a review, or at a reassessment — not at any point in between. If a review is coming up, that is your window.
Children and Families Act 2014, section 49.
Separate from education funding. Following an assessment by children’s social care, direct payments can be made so that you arrange support yourself rather than receiving a service the council has chosen.
Children Act 1989, section 17A.
This is the route most families have never heard of, and the one that fits us best. Local authorities have a duty to provide, so far as is reasonably practicable, a range of services sufficient to help carers continue caring, or to care more effectively. That range must include educational or leisure activities for disabled children outside their homes, and services available in the evenings, at weekends and during school holidays.
That is a fair description of a session here. Every local authority must also publish a short breaks services statement setting out what is available and any eligibility criteria — searching for your council’s statement is a good first step.
Children Act 1989, Schedule 2, paragraph 6(1)(c); Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations 2011.
Where a child’s needs cannot be met in a school, a local authority can arrange and fund provision elsewhere. That is an EOTAS package, and it is funded differently from a school placement — the money follows the provision rather than a school roll.
EOTAS is usually set out in Section F of an EHC plan, and packages are often built from several providers rather than one. Sessions here can sit inside a package alongside tutoring, therapy or other specialist input.
Worth being straight about the limits: we are not a school and cannot be a child’s whole EOTAS package. We are one part of it, and the child stays on a school roll unless the local authority arranges otherwise.
If an EOTAS package is being discussed for your child, ask us early — it is much easier to be written into a package while it is being built than added afterwards.
Children and Families Act 2014, section 61.
A charity making grants to families raising a disabled or seriously ill child. It has its own eligibility criteria and applies across the UK. Worth checking directly at familyfund.org.uk.
Email ciera.rose@icloud.com and tell us what your funder has asked for.
By appointment only — book online, or ask about a Sunday
