A legal agreement surrounding the funding of overnight short breaks for families of severly disabled children has still not been finalised – even though the Nascot Lawn respite service has now closed.

Nascot Lawn, in Langley Road, Watford, provided respite care for children with some of the most complex needs across the county.

Following its closure in November, families are being offered short breaks at a number of council-run centres, as planned.

It was agreed that this would be financially supported by the two Hertfordshire NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), but the formal ‘section 75’ agreement committing each party to £100,000 a year for the next five years still has not been agreed.

Commenting on the position, a spokesperson for the county council said: “Hertfordshire County Council drafted a section 75 agreement and sent it to the Herts Valley and East and North Hertfordshire CGC.

“The process of negotiating the S75 Agreement has taken some time and the latest iteration has been received from the CCG’s lawyers and will need further consideration.

“We hope to have the agreement completed as soon as possible.”

A spokesperson for the Herts Valleys CCG said they were working towards completion of the legal agreement.

She said: “The current draft agreement is with Herts County Council and we are working closely with the council and East and North Hertfordshire CCG to have the agreement completed as soon as possible.”

And a spokesperson for the East and North Hertfordshire CCG said: “This is being worked on at the moment and we expect it to come to the governing body shortly.”

In August a topic group of county councillors scrutinised the progress of the section 75 agreement.

They noted there were still some “technical elements” to sort out, but said there was a “high degree of consensus”.

And at that stage they had hoped it would be finalised by the end of that month.

The five-year agreement – which has not been published or seen by councillors on the topic group – would commit each CCG to contributing £100,000-a-year towards overnight short-breaks at council-run centres.

At the meeting of the topic group, councillors were  assured that the funding would increase annually in line with the Consumer Prices Index.

And – although the county council’s centres already cater for children with “complex health needs” – they were assured that additional funding  would also be available for the “very small number” of children who require additional health care.