Beyond the Appeal: Removing all barriers

By funding the expansion of our respite holiday provision at Sandpipers and beyond, the Give me a break Appeal will directly address one of the barriers that currently prevents disabled people from accessing a holiday: Revitalise’s current guest capacity and the lack of suitable mainstream alternatives for disabled people with complex conditions.

However, there is another barrier that can prevent disabled people accessing a respite holiday; affordability.

The cost-of-living crisis will only exacerbate this challenge and we will use the public phase of the Give me a break Appeal as an opportunity to raise the profile of Revitalise’s work and use the appeal as a catalyst for securing new support, new relationships and new partnerships that can offer long-term support and enable Revitalise to subsidise as many guest breaks as possible.

Local authorities have a statutory obligation to provide respite to carers. Some will fund respite breaks such as those provided by Revitalise. Many will not. In a survey published earlier this year, only 1% of all disabled people had received local authority funding for a Respite Break and 2% of disabled people had had applications for such funding turned down.*

The appeal will also be an opportunity to highlight the importance and positive impact of Respite holidays for both disabled people, those who care for them and the indirect benefit of improved wellbeing on increasingly stretched health and social care budgets.

The Give me a break Appeal is therefore central to Revitalise’s theory of change as we strive to create a society in which every disabled person and every carer is able to take the break or holiday they want.

*Source: YouGov Survey May 2022