social services closed the case

[Nagr]

Hi,
Last month I had contacted social services for a carer?s assessment. A social worker came in and interviewed me, met my son and gave me some forms to fill in. Now I have received their letter that they have received my forms and have decided to close ds's case and also have offered us one off payment to access the services within the community. I am not too sure what to do now, I was hoping they can give us regular direct payments which we can use to contribute towards his home ABA programme but by closing the case we will not be eligible for any social service support. I guess I need to remind them that a disabled child is for life not just for few months or a year.

Need some advice how to go about this.
Thanks

Do you have a carers centre near you (CAB, Legal centre?) who can help?

A one off payment sounds bizarre to access community resources, sounds like they have identified a need and if its an ongoing need then they have a duty to provide the support, I would challenge this, but do so in writing and state quite clearly your reasons, refer to Carers Recognition Act and s17 of the Children Act. Hope this helps

I think the key thing is that if they refuse you services, they have to tell you why: if you write to them and ask for an explanation why he has/you have been assessed as not needing x, y and z, despite you stating on the form that a, b and c, in writing then they have to give you one. If it's not a good enough reason you can start in on their complaints procedure (not foolproof but will be quicker than legal action and if they've demonstrably cocked up it might work). At least it will be a starting point. If they just say "does not meet the criteria" then they should tell you what those criteria are. I think that the criterai probably should be available publicly but at the moment a lot of LAs have them on permanent review because the govt is dicking about with everyone's budgets so much.

Btw, you didn't tell them you were going to use it to fund ABA, did you?