The “Respite care for family members or carers of disabled persons – 2020–2021 edition” programme is a continuation of the programmes from previous years. In the first two editions of the programme, i.e. in 2019 and in 2020, local governments – communes and poviats – could apply for co-financing of respite care services. In the new edition, such support can also be applied for by non-governmental organisations.

Purpose

The main purpose of the programme is to support family members or guardians of people directly caring for children with a disability certificate, people with a significant degree of disability or an equivalent certificate, through the possibility of obtaining ad hoc, temporary assistance in the form of a respite care service.

The programme provides, among others, respite care service for family members or carers, temporarily relieving them from the daily duties related to caring, providing time for rest and regeneration. Moreover, it is also possible, among others, to increase one’s level of competence in supporting a disabled person by learning support techniques, nursing and conducting rehabilitation activities at home, as well as to obtain specialist counselling in the field of psychological and social aspects of supporting people with disabilities.

Support

Entities implementing the programme will receive financial support for the provision of respite care services (as part of day and 24-hour stay) and will be offered specialist counselling (psychological or therapeutic), as well as support in the field of providing family members or carers responsible for direct care of people with disabilities with nursing, rehabilitation and dietetics formation.

Programme implementation

The implementation of the programme is divided into three components:

1. providing respite care services as part of a day stay in:

• the place of residence of a person with a disability,
• support centre,
• other place indicated by the programme participant, which will receive a positive opinion of the poviat, commune or non-governmental organisation implementing the programme,

2. providing respite services as part of a 24-hour stay in:

• support centre,
• in a centre or facility providing 24-hour care for people with disabilities entered in the register of the competent voivode,
• another place indicated by the programme participant, which receives a positive opinion of the commune, poviat or non-governmental organisation

3. providing respite care service by offering family members or carers who directly care for people with disabilities, the possibility of using specialist counselling (psychological or therapeutic) and support in the field of nursing, rehabilitation and dietetics.

How many hours of respite care?

The new edition of the programme offers:

• 240 hours for daytime respite care;
• 14 days for respite care provided within a 24-hour stay;
• up to 20 hours of respite care provided through the possibility of using specialist counselling (psychological or therapeutic) and support in the field of nursing, rehabilitation and dietetics.

Details of financing

The entity implementing the programme qualifies for the provision of respite care services on the basis of the programme’s Application Form. In an emergency, random or interventional situation, the respite care service may be provided without the Application Form – however, the document should be completed within 3 days.

Under the programme, a given entity may receive financial support of up to 80% of the cost of the implementation of the respite care service in 2020 and up to 100% of such cost in 2021. The share of own funds shall be not less than 20% of the anticipated costs of providing services.

30 million zlotys has been allocated for the implementation of the programme this year. Next year, this amount shall increase to 50 million zlotys.

The beneficiaries of the programme do not pay for the service granted under the programme.

Call for offers

The rules of the open call for offers, including the rules for submitting offers, the evaluation criteria and the rules for awarding funding will be included in the announcement about the open call for offers, which will be published, inter alia, on the websites of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy and the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Disabled Persons.

The offer shall be sent by eligible entities on a form compliant with the template contained in the call announcement by 30 September 2020. Meeting the deadline is determined by the date of receipt of the offer. The planned settlement of the open call for offers will take place by 20 October 2020.

The programme will be implemented from 1 October 2020 to 31 December 2021.

You can find the call announcement together with the Programme and its annexes here