To be hacked off with social services...

[sparklygothkat]

DD1 has been having shared care now for 2 years, she has 24 hours a months (3x8 hours) which is currently used as 3 saturdays a month. Anyhooo they have decided that it would be better for the carer to have it as one 24 hour block session, but this means that DS and Dd2 would only benifit from it for 10 ish hours a month, as the rest of the time, they would be asleep or getting ready to pick up dd1 the following morning.

Recieved a review letter today and they have said that its all be agreed that it will go to 24 hour block session, with 3 hours for a tea session, yet we were under the impression that me and DH could discuss this beofre it was fully agreed. I have to take Dd1 to her carer's house and pick her up as the carer doesn't drive and I lose time doing this.

I phoned the duty social worker and explained that I didn't think that it would benifit the family to change the hours.

they also said that it would be a more consistant arrangement for dd1, how can it be more consistant when she is currently going 3 saturdays a month, and suddenly it will drop to one weekend a month?? As far as I can see, it will only benifit the carer rather than us.

So AIBU??

yanbu
at the end of the day respite is to help your family. not the carer.
we have ours in blocks of 24hrs(overnight) and we get about 4 a month.
If I was you and ok about it being overnight, I would argue for more respite. tbh with the circs in your family you have a very good case. they will most likely say no. then you say ok I will appeal. we di this and I told tham a private matter and It was upped.
If overnights are not ok then stand your ground. even if it means changing carer.

unfortunately the reality is that unless carers are willing to do respite, there wouldn't be any.

maybe the carer has requested the change?

I'd guess from reading this that the carer is the one who wants to change it - and who can blame her as she is getting the same money for being asleep for a large chunk of it! However, that's not your problem and SS should not be changing it without your agreement. I suspect though that you might need to find a new carer if you want things to stay as they are.

What gets to me, is that DS is disabled too, but gets no respite. He is an easy child to deal with, but the only thing we get is a few days in the holidays at playscheme. So I am not demanding help left, right and center, just for the care to stay as it is..

I wouldn't mind overnights, if we were going to get more hours, and not dropping down to one weekend a month.

can you fight for more. Oh and ask for a named sw not just a duty one

We can get more respite but only through Direct payments (which is something I didn't really want to do, useless with paperwork) as SS will not the current do any more hours.

as SS will not allow the current carer to do any more hours

trouble with dp doesn't that mean the person will come into your house

dunno, also can the carer take dd1 out of the house??

If any of you have carers, how many hours do you have??

Have just spoken to the SW (who apparently is the carer's SW only) about it all, and she said I amde some very valid points, but she needs to go back to the shared care team and discuss it. She doesn't think that we can keep it at 3x8 hours a month, because the carer has the bedroom to use for care. So looks like we might be losing our carer now, unless we can get another carer via direct payments

does sound like this is coming from the carer(the change) maybe she finds 3 days to much. I ould want some honesty. Have you tried speaking to her?

can i advise you get all this put in writing and then write to the department (CFS) and set out why you find this change so difficult to imagine coping with? They have to take your needs as a carer into account as well as the needs of the client (so your dd) and your needs as a parent too. Herts is very good actually - although i understand the cynicism - please don't give up at this point - keep at it and come back here for advice.

Spoke to the carer on saturday and she just said to talk to the SW. My SW (the duty one atm, though I think she might be taking the case) has just phoned me, and she thinks that we have made valid points too.

Sorry, Misdee was logged onto my pc!!!

sounds very much like the carer wants the changes. we are still trying to sort out carers for the girls, been sorting it since january my lot are supposed to get twice monthly day time support.
we get direct payments on top of that, to be honest the paperwork is not difficult, it can't be cos i do three lots of it

I believe that the carer wants the hours changed, we discussed overnights a few months ago, but I stupidly assumed that our hours would be increased, so agreed.. what a fool!!!