'life for all of us is about creating options, full stop
'
Sucha s perhaps the business I have started; the business DH started; the MA I have almost completed in the boy's disability...?
Of course we all do that. But DLA isn;t for that: DLA is to pay for the carpet one wrecked so the LL doesn;t throw us out, the pass to the activity place that's safe with locked doors, the specialist swimming centre and the respite. The car that means I can access their schools which are in very different aplces and completely off bus route. Move to the school area? ha- the two we need are miles apart.
Would SSD take the boys? nope, they would take their siblings as foster care is far cheaaper for NT kids: though how anyone who is a parent could think we could hand over any of our children willingly is beyond me tbh.
Set up your group, I can;t have the people ehre as ds1 is aggressive and trained help only, but it's a good idea. heck I was a volunteer manager fr a while. But it's not ransom allocation of roles- ds3 needs someone who can use pECS; ds1 someone skilled in restraint; others people who can change a stoma bag, read braille.... equally there are lots of taks that can be met by almost anyone that need doing but you know, I spent years of my life recruiting for just those and with some notable and wonderful exceptions, most people have reasons why they are not already offering help. And good reasons: My aprents? freec are to my Grandad; Sisters? Work shifts and share chidlcare with their DH's. DH? Self employed, works whenever he can get it. Me? I tried, could never be relaible enough.
It is a good idiea; gor for it, I wish you luck. Just- don;t over estimate your chances of finding it easy OK? If two charities I worked for with big name presence struggled, then... well, I hope you manage it. FWIW I know the volunteer recruitment service in Gwent runs a similar scheme so you might want to look there for model forms etc?
Oh and the other flaw in your ideas? there aren't enough foster carers. Short of stacking the kids back in inhumane homes (and before you rant, I am old enough to have started in nursing before they vanished) nobody wants them. And that won't improve as I know some councils werelooking at reducing support for foster carers, to no financial support at all in some cases.
I don't use many of the technically available resources becuase I source them from my boy's DLA and that is not dead money: teh single mum we use for respite, the childminder we also buy time from..... private enterprise replacing state services in fact. We don;t get anything from SSD beyond the summer scheme that NT kids here have equal rights to access. We had school support and I repaid that in kind by reading with other classes. But it is the DLA that keeps us afloat and allows us to fund the boy's needs etc: take that away and we will become a bigger state burden- lost elase equals state housing as nobody else will rent to self employed people at start up stage; SSD comfirm this. HA confirm this. LA housing means we are not permitted to carry on opur businesses from teh address- more dependency.
A damn site more expensive than what we are getting now, and far more trapping too.