Social services turned down direct payments because.......

[smugtandemfeeder]

they say my son does not have severe learning difficulties. They also say that they give direct payments and respite to adults with mental health issues but not children. Are they allowed to do this?

I have requested a copy of their eligibility criteria and how they define wach criteria as so far they cannot tell me what each criteria means or why exactly my son does not qualify.

Any advice welcome. I know they are difficult to get but we need help so I thought I would try.

My son has childhood anxiety diagnosed. And is waiting to be diagnosed with autism. Life is unmanageable. The childhood anxiety would come under mental health if they coverred it for children. The autism under learning difficulties? But as they dont accept that until diagnosis and the nhs wont diagnose for a year then im stumped.

I'm so sorry to hear this. I really don't know much about direct payments, but I know most services won't/can't do anything without a proper dx.

Autism does come under learning difficulties, but it does depend on the child and ho they are affectd by it.

Hope you can get some help soon.

Thank you,

OK I probably will have to wait, it is so frustrating as if we could pay someone to help us at home or give us a break things would be easier. so so frustrating not having a diagnosis letter.

My friend who has a son with AS was passed round in circles as the 'children with disability' team don't class AS as a disability !!????

She has gone through a differnt team now they are setting up a CAF (haven't done it yet)....so no advice,except keep trying

I had to fight for my own DS even though he has a 'recognised ' disability

We met the criteria fully according to the eligibility criteria but we still got refused on the basis that there were worse children. The insisted on meeting my Dh to tell him he had to help me more and told him he shouldn't work in the holidays. When I complained they did a pretend child protection visit.

Sorry, my well respected health visitor said to keep quiet as in my area Ss are thick people with a lot of power to destroy lives.

I think its just one battle that I should perhaps chose not to take up. I do feel nervous arguing with social workers. They have passed me on to a different social work team who are now going to visit us. There is just something inside me which tells me to fight if I think something isnt fair and when people tell me I cant do something. Something about it feels very unfair.

I just know we arent coping and we do need help. We are looking after the children pretty well its just our own mental health which is suffering.

Chose your battles more wisely smug.

Not everyone will agree with me but I would leave the Ss battle. You are unlikely to win any provision on your terms. You might need them to support your aPplications go other support.

This is from NAS website

"On 1 April 2011, a legal duty on local authorities to provide short break services to families of disabled children in England came into force.

Short breaks are a vital lifeline for families, and this new duty is an important one for children with autism and their families, particularly at a time when many local authorities are making cuts to their services for disabled people.

Regulations accompanying the duty make it clear that every local authority must provide a range of short break services for families of disabled children. This includes both daytime and overnight care in and outside the child's home, as well as education and leisure activities.

Short break services must also be provided to help carers to care more effectively for their disabled child, not only in times of crisis. If local authorities fail to do this, they will be open to legal challenge in court.

Funding for short break services
Local authorities have £800 million over the next four years (£198 million for 2011/12) which they should be investing in short break services.

However, we know that many areas have made cuts to their services for disabled children and are concerned that some authorities will not have allocated sufficient resources to providing short breaks."

Councils are allowed to set criteria and many exclude large categories of disabled children eg in our area you cannot get a short break (which can be taken as direct payments) if your child has severe autism - only if they have to have severe autism AND severe LD or challenging behaviour. In effect the Council has limited the criteria to children with profound physical disability and who are very very challenging. This is does not mean their criteria is legal.

Of course this duty and 'new money' actually just replaced an existing duty and aiming high money. Locally few of the projects set up under aiming high have had not funding since April 2011

They must assess the individual family - for eg one family with a very severely disabled child who sleeps well, may have very good family support and a FT special school placement which takes alot of pressure off. Whereas a single parent with a HFA but challenging teenager may really really need a break and be at crisis point. So they must assess the whole family not assume level of disability = need for short break - did they do a carers assessment for you?

Look at Council for Disabled Children website a barrister has written some legal guides on social care you can download from the website. You may also be able to get free legal advice to challenge it.

We get 2 hours a week DP but we only got this because we argued we needed family time with our other children to do activities or homework etc without DS being the constant focus, because we applied 2 years ago and because we had a new keen SW! So in effect its not for DS (ASD) benefit. I suspect if we applied again now we would not even get that.

Many councils have limited their criteria to those in crisis or significant need only - but a legal case yesterday found this to be illegal

here and here

Mencap legal helpline is supposed to be good and I know they are more up on social care than other groups who concentrate more on education etc. Might be worth a ring.

Other options are Homestart who provide volunteer help.

Do you have a local carers service? They can provide advice too.

I was told one of the easier ways to get direct payments is if the school makes the application for you. My ds's school found his behaviour so challenging that they suggested and initiated the application. Perhaps you could ask your school to make the application?

For some odd reason there are two threads with the same name on here. Just thought I would post Gigglebizmizz's response from the other thread as it is very useful indeedy. Thanks for all the other responses. Need to digest the info and think about what to do. Im overwhelmed by it at the moment.

From gigglebizmizz

My DH who is a specialist lawyer tells me that there is specific provision within the Direct Payments Act for children. He advices google direct payments act, also should be able to download your local authority or Primary Care Trust guidelines on receiving Direct Payments. Also you should check out disability charities in your area that can give free advice on managing and applying for DP. If you have no luck in a week, contact your local law society and ask for solicitors with Disability law experience who offer free legal aid for Judicial Review. What you have been told is completely wrong and perfectly challengable in law. And that is all a direct quote from the hubby I haven't a clue on these matters x

Our SS say that Autism isn't a qualifying disability for support unless it is with either SLD or challenging behaviour. Ds's paed classes him as having learning difficulties and having extreme challenging behaviour but according to SS the learning difficulties aren't severe enough and the challenging behaviour is the wrong sort.My reasoning is that if ds doesn't qualify then dd definitely wouldn't so haven't asked again.