What is likely to happen to social care families?

[DonkeyKong2019]

I have two DC under 6 and very well known to be struggling as both DC have additional needs and I'm a very lone parent. We have the lowest level of social care involvement and at the moment it's vital for my coping. I know full well we are about to go into tight restrictions so not only do I lose all my respite from school i also lose my more formal support. I genuinely don't know how I'm going to cope and I know there are others far more vulnerable but a precarious situ is about to tip for the three of us.

I'm with you. Never had any useful social care but both of mine have SN and our usual off school coping mechanism is getting out of the house. Annoyingly, we've just got our older teen back in school after a period of school refusal. He's worked really hard at it and us in his gcse year. A prolonged period stuck at home is going to shatter his mental health and most likely tip him back into a crap sleep pattern and we'll be far beyond square one, at the end of it. Meantime, his younger brother will be crawling the walls with no comprehension at all of what is going on.

The guidance is that essential social care visits will continue. I’m keeping the faith that even if things deteriorate further, this policy and guidance won’t change.

We won't technically be classed as essential :(

We are full midst school refusal here @PickAChew I can't see me ever getting DD back to school if they are off for months.

I'm so scared we will literally just be forgot about at a time when my MH is really precarious :(

I was told that most social care visits are classed as essential. I’ll have another read of my info tomorrow.
Sending and

Hi I'm a Social Worker and "essential " visits are Child Protection/ Looked After Visits. Can see us only going to emergency/ immediate safeguarding visits if this gets any worse.

I'm sorry you will likely not have as much support as usual, our LA will be working with skeleton staff until further notice, do you have any friends or family who could help out in the meantime?

@StripyTShirt Yeah I know we certainly don't fall under essential. Are you likely to be maintaining phone contact with your families?

Very very limited on the family and friends front which is a big part of the problem

Yes we will definitely still be in touch with our families and if you need urgent help, ask for it. I would visit my families if they were really stressing and as long as they were not self isolating or showing symptoms. It's really hard because I have my own kids and parents with underlying conditions so I need to balance out the risk to myself but would make every effort to make sure my families are ok too.

I hope it's not too stressful for you, don't focus on things like housework etc, focus on having as many stress free days as possible, arts and crafts, movie days etc. and if you do really need help, ask for it

Get in touch with your local mutual aid group, searxh your area and covid in Facebook. They are currently getting organised but as they get more sophisticated they may be able to help