How do I get a personal budget?

[EggsAndBacon83]

Just wondering how to structure my request. I’m a single mum and this is rattling around my head and I cannot seem to articulate what I mean..

My daughter is autistic and 11. She turns 12 in July and is in a resourced provision within a secondary. To be honest she comes home from this and almost seems traumatised. She goes into her room and shuts the door and is a former school refuser.. sometimes I feel she is hanging on to the resourced provision place by the skin of her teeth. There are days she gets too anxious and needs to be driven in later when she calms down. The resourced provision had to create a special transition event just for her, as she couldn’t cope with the events for the other autistic children. She’s got an EHCP and it’s due to be reviewed soon. Our local SENDIASS is pretty crap as they just seem to tell you how to save the council money.

So it’s me and her and another autistic child who is 13 and is at a special school.

And summer is approaching.

I get nothing from my ex - he is incommunicado and doesn’t do anything for the kids. It’s just me, working full time and trying to sort the bills and set myself up in my first mortgaged house.

I would like a female PT to come and take her out and give her exercise twice a week in the summer and just expose her to somewhere else.

She doesnt want to go out with me and I need to choose my battles in life. Also a young person who is vibrant will just be beneficial.

Now, how do I put this to the council? They previously suggested she utilise the local offer but she cannot. She won’t manage to go places where there are other people. The consultant psychiatrist said she had “high needs”.

Love her to bits but the whole thing is stressful and I find summer is difficult. She has a tiny box room as this is all I can afford in my first home. And the prospect of her spending weeks in a tiny box room - well it’s just unhealthy.

How do I structure this, without making myself sound like some crap parent? It feels as though statutory services can smear you with some “crap parent” label when you try to broach these things.

I’ve one older child with higher needs again and sometimes I’m just too tired to make the arguments on behalf of my youngest.

I’m in a lucky position where I can work from home. But my job is responsible and I will be busy. Some days in the summer are really tough going. I will rush from one thing to another and I will be flattened at the end of the day. It’s a massive thing to get her out when she doesn’t want to. She is likely to respond differently to a younger person.

If you want a personal budget from education for a PT, you would need the provision in F to meet needs in B and be clear which outcome it would be relevant to. So, you would need evidence that a) the PT is required and needs to be in F and b) the provision is needed outside of term time. You then base the argument for amendments to the EHCP on the evidence. During the review process, you can request a PB as well.

Have you considered other placements if you don’t think the current placement is meeting DD’s needs?

Have you had social care assessments? A carer’s assessment for you and an assessment by the children with disabilities team for DD? Unlikely to fund a PT but could fund a PA.

Thank you. I had forgotten that’s how it works with the sections.

i requested a carer’s assessment once and got a safeguarding assessment instead where an inexperienced social worker was sent to my house for visits, checking the fridge and the children’s bedrooms and asking me questions about how I felt about eldest’s diagnosis etc. They eventually concluded I had looked after my children well but I would never want that hassle & stress again. They don’t send out disability social workers in my area as they claim they don’t have enough.

It’s a bit of a tightrope with DD. She claims the placement is fine but she is masking constantly and goes into her room and doesn’t want to deal with anyone. She is managing the syllabus and has at least one friend there.. The other places around here seem to be specialist provision where people are not doing their GCSEs. Perhaps I should bring this up in her review.

Even if you have solid evidence, there is no guarantee the LA will include the provision in F. They may force you to appeal, I’m afraid, especially for provision outside of term time. While it is possible, LAs don’t like it. And without the provision being detailed, specified and quantified in F, a personal budget from education for it is unlikely.

I know you have said you don’t want another social care assessment, but I will post this in case you ever change your mind. You can request further assessments and challenge the refusals. All assessments are going to ask some safeguarding questions. Not because they think your DC are at risk, but they have to. What if they didn’t and something later happened? They would be held accountable because they had been involved. If you ever appeal the educational sections of the EHCP, you can extend the appeal to cover the social care assessments.

I think you need to go to your local authority website and search for short breaks. Explain the reasons why she can’t access the local offer ( eg you need to be at home supervising your other disabled child) and apply for short breaks.

You could request a Section 17 Assessment for her (and yourself as carer) and you may be entitled to Direct Payments through Social Services to pay for a Personal Assistant to enable your daughter to access social activities - make sure they know how the local offer is inaccessible for her and see if school will confirm her needs to Social Services as part of the assessment. As mentioned above this can include short breaks but for her wellbeing a more regular arrangement might be more suitable?

Thank you all x