Childcare and SN

[SqueakyCat]

I'm sure the answer is 'ha, ha', but just in case I'm wrong...
I have 2 DSs, ages 1 and 3, looked after by a nanny while I work part-time. Since she joined us it has become apparent that DS1 has AS /ASD, complete with communication difficulties and challenging / violent behaviour. Nanny is coping well - DS is out every morning in term-time, so she has a few hours each day with only DS2. He gets 1:1 at preschool for his / other children's safety.
Is there any extra help we can access to support her? The two things I would love to be able to do are (a) fund her on some sort of additional training and / or (b) be able to pay for additional help during the school holidays. I don't want to pack DS1 off to a playscheme during the holidays, as he doesn't cope well with lots of people / new places etc. Any ideas? She already costs be all my earnings. We have applied for DLA, but that's earmarked elsewhere. So I was wondering whether there was anything childcare-specific we could access?
This is coupled with the question, at what point do you decide that your work and your child's additional requirements make childcare untenable and so far from your child's best interests and you quit work?

There were spcaes in the preview version...

I have no direct experience but could Direct Payments help with the cost of extra help during the holidays etc? Hopefully someone who knows much more than I do will be along to give you more details and advice about them.

Good luck.

Get her to contact the childcare Information Service (look on Google) your council should have one.

They do courses (often free for childcare proffessionals) both for play, academic and SN stuff

Good luck

SQ - do you claim working tax credit or child tax credit? There is a childcare element to that which may help a little.

Other than that - then agree with CT that direct payments could be a possibility for extra holiday help but I know of nothing for training. Also dps can be very hard to get.

Hope you manage to get something sorted.

Don't know quite why I called you SQ!

Hi SqueakyCat;

We're pretty much in the same boat. DD1 is 21 months and has rather too many problems to list - AS/ASD is in there somewhere though without challenging behaviour as yet. DD2 is (looks at watch...) 12 1/2 days old. We have a Nanny, though ours has already got SN experience: we knew we would need this when we hired her. She's a Kiwi and has to leave us when her visa expires in July; because I'm on mat leave we won't be able to afford to replace her. We'll probably get an opair in for 6 months at that point so I can spend all my time with the monsters. I'm not yet ready to give up work completely: I find that DD1 is too difficult to give 100% to 24/7 and having a Nanny to work shifts with means she gets more quality time than if she was stuck with one person. So while it's economically viable to work, I will. Just my view of our situation though.

I don't think there is any grant provision to subsidise a Nanny in your own home. Effectively, that is what DLA is for - though obviously a v small drop in quite a big ocean. What you may be able to tap into is more practical help, especially in the form of respite and holiday schemes which may give you all a break. Most of this will come via social services so it depends on getting a good relationship with contacts there - via HV, portage, or whoever. If you already get DLA and 1:1 then you are in with a better chance because he is already on their radar.

Re: training: you can get training for very specific things (eg we are getting our Nanny - and my parents - training in administering some Epilepsy drugs) but otherwise I think you are looking at standard childcare courses. Most are modular and there are usually specific sections on SN care. I did have a look at this a while back - I believe you get 2 sorts of childare qualification: formal educational ones where you attend a full course, and NVQ types designed for junior nursery workers to get their skills up module by module. So you may be able to get your Nanny on an SN module for the NVQ type, though you may have some assessment issues as they expect some on-the-job training which is geared up towards the employer being a nursery, not an individual.

Specific AS/ASD training: well, NAS does an "early bird" course and they also have a good book list on their site - I've bought a few of those and we have all (inc Nanny) read them which has been v helpful in understanding the point of what DD is doing with Portage, SALT etc.

Thanks all - keep the ideas coming.

No, we don't get tax credits. Do get some help via childcare vouchers, but I was really looking for extra help due to the SN difficulties side of things ('normal families' would expect a nanny to have no trouble dealing with two young ones).

Any more info on direct payments (how? who? what?).

Will look into local CIS courses, Kaymac, but she's already level3 qualified, so I'm looking for something quite specific which will build on what she covered in her NNEB.

No-one has yet said 'give up now', which is encouraging...

CIS has some good looking 1-day courses run by portage services and others on autism, managing challenging behaviour and developmental play, for a whopping £10 each. I'll follow that one up and see if she's eligible and interested. Top, tip, KM, thanks!

r3dh3d - thanks, v useful post.

As I'm sure you realised, I'm not expecting to subsidise the 'nanny while I work' bit, which is standard for working parents, but the additional demands of the challenging child. I identify with your comment of the child getting a better time all round when you're not the only carer - the summer period while I was on mat leave and DS not in preschool was desperate, esp as DH works away. DLA will disappear into the needs list of SALT etc ...

whopping = amazing bargain in previous post.

We get direct payments which I use in a variety of ways -some respite, some extra pair of hands in th home, some childcare for other children so I can deal with ds1.

It depends on your area, but we have found it very difficult to access suitable chilcare for ds1. There are no suitable playschemes, no after school clubs. I want to start working more in thr next few years, but think I am going to be tied to working school hours term time only- which is obviously very limiting.

I would definitely follow up Direct Payments. You access these from your Social Svs Dept but be careful, many SOcial Workers don't understand how they work!! A newish point about support from Soc Svs is that they are supposed to support you if you wish to work/study and provide help or funding to enable that. I thought you got extra tax credits for a child with a disability? For courses definitely try NAS and see if there is an NAS branch near you for more local info. Have you also contacted your local SureStart/Homestart?

are they davros (help with work/study)??? that's very interesting! Will enquire further.

Allegedly

They've kept it very quiet (surprise surprise!)

Actually I think I'm a little confused, although it amounts to the same thing. I think its something to do with the Carers' Strategy or some such thing. You'd get more info from CarersUK. I've definitely seen and read it though.

will search!

Right: DPs it is, then - whatever they might be. On the 'help me to go to work' basis (on the grounds that nanny can't cope with both kids all day every day over the summer), so she would quit in despair and I would have to stop working. Do I just telephone SocSvs and ask?

We don't get any tax credits as DH earns too much. While that's nice, I do have to try to make my cost of working less than or equal to my income from working.

I'm not after external childcare (play scheme etc) at the moment (that may change in future) as DS1 is still too young and unsettled to be left in unfamiliar place with lots of strange people. Not sure it'll ever be a workable thing for him. What I want is to pay someone to come to our house for a few hours a week over the school holidays to give our nanny a break with just the one of them.

Will check out NAS courses.

Jimjams - are you still sufficiently 'in' your technical field to do some freelance consulting? Did you follow up the idea of BrainGym consultant?

Also - you'd be a good person to ask - should I take DS2 to his imminent MMR? wasn't there some change to the chemical content? I wasn't paying attention at the time!

I think you might need to ask for respite/help if you are trying for direct payments rather than work cover...... (not sure though)

I decided against Brain Gym for various reasons. Consulting would depend on what it was for (I answer honestly- whether I can do it or not), am currently in the process of transferring to Psychology- which is interesting

I'm not aware of any changes in the MMR, DTPs etc changed just over a year ago.

SQ, just ask Soc Svs for an assessment at which you describe your child and how you manage. Can you find out from other local parents how your Soc Svs dept operates? You may find they are clued up and happy to help or clueless and obstructive. They carry out an assessment and, hopefully, award you a certain number of hours respite per week. It is then your right to take these hours as Direct Payments if you so choose. Alternatively you could use their own respite scheme if it were any good but, as you already have the childcare, you don't want another external person, just someone to pay towards the one you already have. I think I would have found it impossible to work and look after DS but I certainly wouldn't have considered not working just to look after him, I would've been climbing the walls! I suppose not working gives you a lot more flexibility and I spent much of my time "working" to all intents and purposes but on getting him Statemented, running his home program, doing voluntary work to support other parents etc etc.

Yup - it would be for respite, just not me that's being respited!

So MMR or not for darling little DS2? (it must have been DTPs I was thinking of).

Could you become a lovely Ed Psych? - that must be biased towards termtime.

I didn't give my DD MMR, not because I think it adversely affected DD or caused/impcated his autism, but I just couldn't bring myself to take the slightest risk with her. I did give her singles though as, for us with no allergies etc, I felt not being immunised at all was also too great a risk. So the singles was a good compromise for us. If I thought we had immunisation sensitivity or that they had impacted DS's autism then I wouldn't consider it at all.

I do want another person - someone to take DS1 off existing nanny's hands a bit during the holidays. I can (just about) cope for myself with both the boys, but couldn't impose that on anyone else. The person I want to ask works with DS1 at his preschool, and I'm sure she'd be happy to do it. It would be about 90 hrs per year, though 60 would do it.

How do I find someone who offers single vaccinations? (out in sticks here)