Pathfinder bids

[tiredoffightingwithjelly]

Just in case anyone wants to look at their LA's bid, here is the link:

www.sendpathfinder.co.uk

Would be interesting to compare the claims of the LAs with personal experiences!

Typical! We have nothing in our area, same with a few things we have no NAS either.

Well, there may be an upside in being in an LA that isn't a pathfinder. In order to run the pilot for personalised budgets for disabled children, our Children's Disability Team is having to cut other services to find the money. There is no extra money for pathfinders it seems, though I could be wrong

I think ours got £150,000 for merging services (disabled childrens team of social services and SEN team), which they had planned to do anyway!

I think all successful bidders got £150k Agnes not sure if this was doubled in your area but my understanding is that this amount was the incentive.

Very interesting, tired, thanks for posting. I am slightly dubious about the figures quoted for tribunal wins for my LA; it seems to contradict SEND tribunal statistics. But what do I know......

My LA is one of those running a pilot and I have volunteered to be a parent rep

I volunteered too peaceflower, but the parent partnership scheme is very close to our LA and by error (yeah right) I have been missed out of information giving and being involved despite contacting them the day the pathfinders were announced!

Did you notice complaints statistics weren't required on the bids and nor were any LGO findings against the LAs divulged?

PF my tribunal was left out of my LA stats too. Apparently they did not lose any that year...could have fooled me!

Yes, every now an then I contact them to ask to be a pilot family, or to simply find out how they are chosen but alas.........

I feel an FOI urge coming on to find out if they have all lied on their tribunal results - that would be fun to out them all as lying on their CV. Are the SEND tribunal stats out for that year (2010) I thought they had not done them for a while?

There appears to be someone on a mission on that website. SEND refused to give them stating admin time so person asks once a month for two months at a time or something. If/when I ever get a minute I was planning to help out.

Oh the bids do make the authorities sound like they really care . I look forward to my meeting this week to discuss my possible representation on one of the workstreams set up to pilot this. Apparently there should be one or possibly two on each workstream.

I will let you know if I am successful

In the response to the sen green paper my la stated clearly that they were strongly opposed to personalised budgets.

In their pathfinder bid they stated how fantastic they thought personalised budgets would be.

Star I wonder if the money as the incentive helped them to change their position?

Well the instructions for completing the pathfinder applications forms said they'd be prioritising LA's who were interested in piloting personalised budgets.

My LA is very good at tick boxes and form filling. In some ways that is helpful because SA timelines etc ate adhered to etc. But it also shows their talent for manipulation and politics.

I got it wrong about there being no extra money, but this is what I meant www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/07/10/2011/117575/disabilities-green-paper-pathfinders-to-pay-twice-for-services.htm

Thanks belle that was an interesting link, it would be interesting to hear from anyone on a pilot plan.

I have been offered a role as parent rep on my LA's pathfinder project! From the initial wad of info I've been given, it seems that my LA will be recruiting parents for the single assessment plan from next month and starting trials in June.

I am feeling quite excited about it all , and just need to work out if I can commit to the meetings in view of my current situation with dd and ds.

That's great iceflower. I would be really interested in the role that direct payments are going to play in your LA - does the wad of papers indicate this?

My biggest concern is that the added "choice and control" that single plans are allegedly to offer parents is not being tested. It certainly isn't in my LA. It feels a bit like buying a car and then it being delivered without the engine to me! Perhaps parental choice and control was not really the driving force behind the proposed changes......? Could it be about something else........any ideas anyone!?

How about a group of us attempt to scrutinise and share our LAs actions in relation to pathfinder tasks?

That way we may have real life experiences to contrast and compare with the findings of the pilot schemes?

I am hoping that in these times of austerity the pathfinders' activities are being carefully monitored to ensure the aims of the project are fulfilled and that no LA agendas skew either the activity or findings.

We are going to see if we can apply for payments for SLT but I am sure there will be some reason why we can't despite what the regulations say.

If LAs have negotiated service level agreements with other providers like SLT already (and have paid them) £X for a job lot of SLT then I can't see how they will ever say allowing you to have that money directly will be cheaper.

That seems to me to be a very obvious flaw in the plan. LAs seem to work on either a contract with a local service to provide all the SLT service in a particular county for tuppence hapenny under very limited conditions (i.e. no direct working with the child - heaven forfend!) or they put pressure on an NHS service to get involved and visits school and train staff and it comes out of the NHS budget.

If you come along and say - I want £300 for SLT and £400 for OT, they are likely to say get knotted as we effectively pay nothing for these services at present.

I have sought clarification on this issue from legal authorities!

Unfortunately, my LA is only trialling personal budgets in social care, so I'm no help there then

From an initial conversation with my linkperson, it seems that a lot is up in the air at the moment, lots have been discussed and nothing decided yet. For instance, in the proposed timetable, parents are being recruited at the same time as training for professionals begin .

Sorry, me again, I wonder if anyone else on MN is a parent rep on a pathfinder project?

Me too AT, I'm going to ask to go elsewhere, I expect to be told firmly where to go but not for the first time! Still no harm in asking, the rhetoric's no use if they continue to do what they have always done.

Our OT manager and ed psych had verbal fisticuffs at an annual review about service level agreements and failure to make statement specified provision, of course they denied having done so afterwards, something else I must have made up!!