Behind the Inspection Rating: Service succeeds with the right links

Link Plus in Brighton & Hove is part fostering agency, part short-breaks service. It's an unconventional model, but that wasn't always the case, says Brenda Farrell, head of fostering and adoption at charity Barnardo's, which delivers and co-funds the service.

"In every region we had one or more of these services operating, but that concept has been moved away from and it's more now about the integration into mainstream fostering," she says. Even so, she adds, there still remains a need for specialist knowledge and expertise and that's where Link Plus comes in.

The service recruits and trains foster carers who then become consistent providers of short break care to the disabled children they are matched with. "It's a child-focused model," says Farrell. "We know that, where possible, children should be placed within family environments and within community environments. Historically as a society we would have had an extended family involved when there was a vulnerability in a family and what we're trying to do at Barnardo's is replicate that aunt and uncle scenario and give a consistent care provision to that young person."