Social Services - Disabled Children's Team

[bigsnugglebunny]

Does anyone have any dealings with their local team? We have just been referred for a CAF (common assessment something-or-other) to see if my DS2 is eligible for services.

I was just wondering what sort of services they offer, and what sort of help there is.

I was given a number to call, from my son's community nurse - she does home visits every fortnight. She said the fastest way to get help was to ring them directly. However the woman on the phone was very dismissive at first... she kept asking if DS2 has a learning disability, as apparently Autism alone is not considered disabled enough... which I found a bit weird. But yes, he does. She then went on to say that we wouldn't get any help at all for DS1 because Asperger's isn't classed as a disabilty... unless he has ADHD as well, which he has. But for some reason she ignored what I'd said.

Then she went on to ask what services I would need... and I said that in all honesty I have no idea (because I don't know what they offer) and she said that they wouldn't just offer services, I would have to ask for them... What? Huh? So jokingly I said I could do with a maid and a nanny, and she (rather po-facedly) said "we don't offer those sort of services" (Imagine a nasally, whiny, monotone voice) and then went on to accuse me of being a timewaster who just "wants a social worker". So I gave up, almost in tears and rang our community nurse back.

Community nurse rang the SS lady back, and within 10 minutes I had a very grovelly, sympathetic call back from SS - obviously our nurse had given them the hard word... and someone is coming out next Monday to do an assessment.

If you've managed to read this far, well done!

I have no experience of SS at all, and had no idea they even had a disabled children's team - so any advice or experiences you can share would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

The Social Worker from the DCT needs to carry out an assessment of your children's and your familiy's needs. They usually have a criteria which you need to meet in order to receive services from them. The services they offer are usually short breaks(respite) which can be anything from a play session for children with disabilities/additional needs right up to overnight respite.
Ask them what services they provide by way of SHort Breaks - it should be published in the Local Authority website - it is all supposed to be transparent!

Does your area have a Family Information Service (linked to the LA) you should be able to find out about services for disabled children through their website/helpline.

The DCT should not be behaving the way the 1st woman did - it is not down to you to guess what they might be able to offer you - they should assess need and tell you what's on offer - although some LA's prefer Personal Budgets now which means a sum of money to enable you to buy in suitable services for your DC.

Disabled childrens team assess the childs needs (in relation to what is available). They will point you to community services (such as clubs or organisations) if they feel that will answer the needs. They can authorise monthly Direct payments to pay for specialist childcare or authorise short break (respite care) directly for older children. They can also help with referrals to services (such as play schemes and OT appliances).
Ds (12 with LD and autism) gets one night a month at a respite centre which gives him a chance to learn independence and enjoy fun with children with similar needs and me a full nights sleep!(I have dodgy health)
The team SW will assess( using a form) both the needs of the child and the rest of the family ( siblings etc). Money is always short and nothing is handed out easiy, so you may need to be specific and persistant. For instance I asked for overnight respite, continance support, and access to holiday play schemes. It took a while! I would also point out that it is extremely hard to get any upgrade of what is initially offered so don't accept less than you need (I should have pushed for more respite - once a month is not really enough for ds to build his indepedance skills - a friend turned down 12 nights ayear auguing for weekly and got fortnightly after deliberation).

I had no idea they existed either and only got access after intervention from others. They will only support those most in need and as far as I understand the childs needs and then siblings come above the needs of parents.
Good luck

i have gone down this road. Initial assessment was rubbish with a social worker who was just trying to palm me off by suggesting I ring local charities to see if they could help me. Eventually got nice social worker who arranged some support for ds for a carer to come and look after him once a fortnight for a few ours so I could get out occasionally. I would have a think about what you would find most useful. Also try and put it into my child needs language as this ticks lots of boxes. You can also talk about the needs of his siblings. Think about spelling out why your ds needs additional support. Ie because he needs high level of supervision or because he is challenging or anxious or whatever. don't be afraid to spell it out as they may totally miss the point.

First off you are absolutely entitled to an assessment for you (as a carer) and any disabled child - even if you are a complete time waster they are still legally obliged to do an assessment! They cannot assess you over the phone.

Councils can use eligibility criteria for services but first they must do an assessment and decide what the needs are. So they are not allowed to put you off asking for an assessment.

Our council has similar criteria for asd which locally we are challenging. Autism is not enough and you have to have challenging behaviour or SLD on top. But that should only apply to the criteria for the child to have services. For you as a carer they have to look at your needs / the family as a whole.
If you look at Contact a Family website they have leaflets on SS assessments. Also look at Council for Disabled Children there is legal info on there from Steve Broach a barrister explaining what should happen eg assess first, then apply criteria.

It is perfectly possible looking at a family as a whole to decide that a very severely disabled child with a large number of local relatives who all pitch in and give parents a break does not have a need for services; when a single parent with no family support and a high functioning child who refuses to leave the house does need services. The issue is whether you are getting a break from caring / & the family situation as a whole. They will want to know if you have any helpful relatives and use that as a reason not to give help.

In actual fact when the SW came out she took the view that as DS was too young to assess his IQ and eligibility that she would scrap the criteria and decided that if a child (in her opinion) merited a statement of SEN then she took that as disabled enough.

It does help if you can work out in advance what you want from the assessment and how it could be achieved. we wanted to take DS1 and DS2 on outings and needed someone to look after DS3 - they never got to spend time with both parents together and DS would not tolerate eg theatre, cinema, bike ride. We got 2 hours per week (3 in holidays). We were able to say that one of the staff from nursery could come and look after DS - they had no respite services themselves for a child his age - so they suggested direct payments so we could pay the person we had identified. It you sort of set up a solution and lead them to it often they will agree. But if we had not had a clear plan and a clear solution she would have said we have no respite for 5 year olds and left it at that.

From the initial 2 hours we then got on the list for a monthly sitting service, and extra funds for a sitter to go to meetings (we do voluntary work). DS1 and DS2 also got invited to a carers / sibling group where they go on outings and even a residential weekend.We could get more holiday support now (eg 1:1 in holiday scheme) but as DS education runs through the holidays we don't need it.

What is a Social worker HA HA 2DC's 14 and7. DS is deafblind CP, epilepsy JEJb fed, and DD 7 has Emanuel Syndrome PEG fed. We have not seen a SW for 4 years (since DD's adoption) Thank god for the NHS. Sorry for rant but you do need a SW hope you have some support soon.

Oh2old Sorry you have been abandoned. We all seem to loose the SW after our initial assessment. Can you ask for a further assessment after all the 14 year old is coming up to transition so will have very different needs to years ago. Good luck to you all.

2old, that's awful - SS really are crappy then?

Thanks for all the replies, I've been making some notes - and the Contact a Family website is brilliant, thanks.

Our local authority (Northumberland) website is very ambiguous, it talks of "some services we might offer" rather than giving anything concrete... Urgh.

Anyway, we're not really looking for respite from the children as such - more things and activities that we can all do together to engage and work with Joey's social skills and communication. Perhaps also referrals to play schemes that he can go to with his brother.

I'd also like to get some sensory equipment for his bedroom, weighted blankets, special lights to help calm him down when he's having a meltdown - so I'm going to ask if this is something they can either provide or fund. He has extremely high activity levels and is constantly on the move, so I'm hoping that we can also look to hire/borrow/buy equipment to deal with that.

So, we'll see what Monday brings...

Hey how did the visit go? What happened and were you offered services in the end? Sorry for bumping thei up but Im having an assessment next week for direct payments so Im curious