Respite for children with autism

[snowquartz21]

Hello,

I was advised to post in this forum for help with my query :)

Was just wondering if anyone could help me. Basically I am self-employed and am beginning to offer respite to families with children in the autistic spectrum. I have experience with autism (my sister is severely autistic and I have worked with autism in play schemes and social skills group for about two years) but I don't know how much I should charge.

Initially I was going to charge £12 and hour but decided that was too much so now I am thinking £10 an hour as that is about the price direct payments would pay anyway...

It would be great to get some opinions on how much you would pay an hour.

Thanks in advance

I babysit for two families, one with a severely autistic son once a week and one with a daughter with severe GDD when her parents need me too. I get £9 and £10 an hour.

I would pay 12 an hour - are you in London?

Why don't you start with the lower rate, and if demand is there you can increase it? I don't think £12 an hour is unreasonable in the part of London I live, but I personally couldn't afford that and we don't get direct payments.

I think your skills are very much in demand though so take what you can get.

Thank you so much for your replies folks :) Feeling reassured that what I am thinking isn't too much as I was worried that I was charging too much! I am going to do that Starlight and see what happens :)

Sickofsocalledexperts - I am in London now but will be in Portsmouth doing the respite...not sure if people there will pay that much, but hopefully things will work out :)

You may have to think about stuff like insurance etc so factor all that in. A local agency charges £16 per hour (although obviously the agency take a %). It may be worth looking at agencies too as they will cover the contracts, insurance etc etc. and see what rate of pay they would give you as that will give you an idea of the local price.

i get direct payments and the council pay me £11.50 to pay for a carer - the council recommended carers cost £17 per hour so quite a big shortfall for me to find myself. i pay a carer directly and pay her £9 per hour - i am her employer so a company i used then takes of her tax and insurance. another care company charge £12.75 but the carer who does the work gets about £8 per hour. i also pay for travel costs and travel time

bjk if you cannot find suitable carers for £11.50 the council should cover the extra. We get £16 p/hr to use the agency carers as we spent 2 years failing to find anyone suitable who lasted more than a few weeks. The SW said they would cover the extra cost. - as agencies can bill SS directly it actually cuts out a lot of DP work / admin. For the council it actually costs about 1/3 on top of the £11.50 because of the admin eg CRB, checking your statements etc they have to do. So the actual difference between an agency rate and a DP when they take into account the work for SS is not that different. You should go back and say you cannot get a carer for £11.50 and they need to increase the rate. Even with the £16 agency fee we STILL had to put in extra training to get the person able to manage DS.