to think my local Social Services are a bunch of charlatans?

[FlaminNoraImPregnantPanda]

I'm so very, very angry at them. At best they are utterly incompetent and at worst they are dishonest and stepping way outside their remit. Sorry, I'm pregnant and need to rant to release some of the stress so I can stop crying and calm down.

I have AS and need a little bit of support in the home. I'm not in the UK and here there is a specialist unit at the hospital to support people with autism. They have done a referral to the local SS for me. There are certain support services which adults with autism are entitled to by law in this country, once a referral is made.

SS have rejected this referral as they say they think my difficulties are down to low self-asteem. In their opinion I don't have autism. Despite a team of autism experts carrying out a full assessment and diagnosing autism. Their report was full of blatant mistakes and outright falsehoods. EG saying things were said in our meeting which weren't. I can prove this as the whole thing was recorded.

The autism unit couldn't believe the referral was rejected. They deal with people in my circumstance all day every day. They say they have never had a referral rejected before and the fact they are dismissing my diagnosis is unacceptable. So we appealed to the council's social services appeal board. The appeal included reports from my consultant, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, psychologist and a full and detailed correction of all the mistakes from me. I was told that if this appeal failed the file is then automatically passed to the County Court for review.

It was rejected.

So for the past 6 months I've been waiting for the County Court appeal, which is all done on the file, not in person. I've just got a letter from the County Court saying my appeal will be done on 27th December and if I want to have any further evidence taken into account it has to reach them by Friday. They have sent me a copy of the file to date which they have received for me to review. They have only been sent the original Social Services report and a note stating that I was asked for further information, as were the hospital unit, but we have declined to submit further information.

I can't believe that these people are given responsibility for organising care for vulnerable people. I wouldn't trust them to care for an ant farm.

I've tried to get hold of the hospital unit, the court clerk, a translator, one of the incompetents at Social Services, etc but of course, no bugger is around as it's Christmas.

I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack.

/rant

:(

There are MNers in Sweden. There's one in particular who might be helpful but I can't remember her name.

Hi everyone. Thank you for your support and encouragement it has really helped. Just wanted to update you all. I'm feeling much better now and am hoping to catch up with some sleep this afternoon.

I've just had a home visit from a lawyer my husband knows (they travel on the same train into the city to work every day). He's read the whole file and listened to the recordings of the meetings and is horrified at how Social Services have behaved. He says that lots of what they have said/done is bad practise and a breach of the codes they're supposed to follow. Some of it goes beyond that and is unlawful and a breach of my basic rights eg conducting meetings entirely in Swedish and refusing to supply a translator for me. He's so cross about it that he's going to represent me pro bono.

that is fab news!!

So glad to hear that! He sounds like a really lovely man!

Just seen this. Great news. I hope that things work out for you.

That's great! Really pleased for you

I'm glad things are feeling more positive. Did your lawyer suggest postponing the hearing? I wonder if this will allow you to gather the missing reports rather than rushing to get them half ready?

I'm so sorry you are going through this flamin :( I know the Swedish system can be really unfair at times.

I know it's late in the day I'm not sure if you managed to get the extra papers to the court on time but if you need me to print them out and take them to a court in Stockholm I can.

I wish very much that I lived closer, I understand the feeling of being isolated in Sweden it is very hard especially at this time of year.

If you are ever in Stockholm and fancy meeting for coffee I'd love to do that, we can talk about babies :)

Yanbu to feel angry. Utterly ridiculous behaviour. You're not exactly making unreasonable requests are you!

There are some horrible responses on this thread.

UPDATE:

I won my appeal. Hurray! The County Court agreed with me that social services are duty bound to provide the support I need and ruled that it must be provided.

However, social services refuse to accept the Court's ruling and have taken it higher to the Court of Appeal. In the meantime they are not complying with the court order as they say it is wrong.

My solicitor spoke to the deciding Judge about this for advice on how to proceed. The Judge said we should submit an entirely new application as I now have a baby so my circumstances are completely different now. So he arranged a meeting yesterday with me, him, my occupational therapist, my consultant, my midwife, my health visitor, a social worker from child services, the head of the council's family advisory service (who all say I need this support and were there to try and make sure I got it) and the social worker from adult services. 2 hours spent with each in turn explaining why, from their perspective, I need the support I have applied for. At the end of the 2 hours social services informed everyone that they would not be considering a new application, whatever the circumstances, until they had a decision from the Court of Appeal. (Which will take around a year to be heard).

Head. Wall. Head. Wall.

Congratulations on the baby, what did you have?

Congratulations on the win, even though it hasn't done you much good so far. Good luck with the ongoing battle.

A liitle boy, 10 weeks old today. An absolute treasure. He smiles from the minute he gets up until he goes to bed and he's only cried once in those 10 weeks. [proud mummy]

Congratulations on your lovely baby boy, and your win- I do hope it works out for you in the appeal. Very strong lady.

Congratulations on your baby! Well done with the appeal.

Congrats on baby and on winning this battle, and condolences that SS are being so intransigent. What an enormous waste of money to continue fighting it to the Court of Appeal. Sounds like they're treating you as a test case so that they can reduce support to other vulnerable people as well. So keep fighting, not just for yourself but for others too. (And sorry, I know that's easier said than done. It definitely carries a personal cost).

for you

I think Nickname is right. Keep fighting, not just for yourself but for others who will need the support in the future.

You boy sounds adorable!

What a horrible situation for you! I am so glad that you appear to have so many people keen for you to get the assistance you need. Social services are being asses. I agree with nickname that they could be using you as a test case. They certainly sound as though they are bullying you and backing you into a corner. I hope you get some help soon.

And congratulations on your son x

My solicitor says he can't explain why they are taking it further as it makes no sense whatsoever. If he cuts away all the irrelevant stuff from their massive appeal application, there is only 1 actual legal point they are arguing: that spouses are required support each other therefore my husband should do everything for me which I can't do myself. He says this is clearly a nonsense interpretation of the law because their reasoning would mean disabled people with partners would never be allowed any state support and their partners would have no choice but to give up work and become carers.

The only reason he can see as to why they are fighting this is that someone at SS is taking it personally rather than professionally. IE they don't like having their decision questioned and are therefore determined to be proved right. Most of the points raised in their appeal are incredibly petty. It reads more like an internet argument than a professional report.

UPDATE:

The Court of Appeal have thrown out the appeal from Social Services. They said Social Services are right that spouses are required to support each other however this does not mean they are required to do everything. The Court also critised Social Services for misrepresenting information in order to strengthen their non-existent case.

They can still appeal to the Supreme Court but unless they can show the decision would be of national importance, the Court will not consider it.

Congratulations, I hope this decision enables you to get some practical help.
Whoever decided to commit valuable time and resources to this case is at the very least in dire need of some retraining. It would have cost so much less to give you the help you needed than this 3 ringed circus. I am sorry you had to go through this.
Best wishes for the future.

There are some disgusting posts on here, as a person with a disability she should be entitled to some support to help her, Autism is a spectrum disorder, just because joe Bloggs has Autism and lives independently, does not mean Joesphina Bloggs who also has autism can! Teir are some ignoramus on here tonight!

That's fantastic op, I hope that you get the support you need

Great news op.

My ds has a diagnosis of ASD & ADHD. In some respects he's very high functioning. But he needs alot of support to access education.

I fought tooth & nail to get my ds into an appropriate school. Why is it we are made to beg for the most basic services?

Ignorance relating to autism is an every day event in my life...