Direct payments

[dizzy34]

I havent applied for direct payments before, mostly because i am a social worker myself and didnt want one of my collegues involved with the family (stupid i know).

Well today i made a referral to ssd to be assessed for direct payments. spoke to one of my best friends who is the dissability social worker and she said that we will qualify bust obviously she couldnt say how much we would get.

Does anyone have any idea how many hours we would get. DS1 always has fits through the night, (up to 5 per hour on a bad night), he stops breathing and needs resus and suction, he is fed by pump, he is quadriplegic and reg blind.

(I work within adult services - don't think it is different for children)
'being assessed for direct payments' isn't strictly how it works. The child and family should have 'an assessment' as usual. Direct Payments comes in as an option in terms of service provision, i.e. you might be offered local authority carers or a dp. If you decide to take dp, then the la gives you money to pay for the services you are assessed as needing. From what you say it sounds like you intend being the carer yourself, in that case you have to be able to declare this as paid employment, i.e. in terms of to other employers, paying tax and NI etc.
How much money you receive depends on the outcome of your assessment, i.e. how many hours care the assessor decides you need.

Well I hope you get a good number of hours. Do you know what might be available other than DPs? SOmetimes there can be good local schemes but, as amber says, once you are assessed to need X number of hours then you are entitled to have them as DPs. The way I did it was to accept the first offer (2.5hrs a week), just to get in the system and have the principle that we need support established. A couple of years later we are now getting 10 hours a week which I think is excellent. The drawback to DPs is that there is a lot of admin and you have to find people you like who are willing to be paid this way for that part of their work iyswim. But it is great to have control and I haven't increased my worker's hourly rate although I've been given more, I'm told this is entirely up to me, so I squeeze more hours out of the payments. Good luck.

It varies so much from area to area. My ds1 is very similar to Davros' ds, but we live in a different area. We have always had 8 hours week during term time and 15 a week during school hols. My SW said she had asked for more! I was expecting a lot less.

In our case they looked at what they would give us in terms of respite and holiday schemes (which don't exist) and converted that into cash.....

Hi everyone, thanks for all the info.

Amber - i think it is the same for children. i said being assessed for direct payments because i dont want any other service really. i dont want respite over night etc. i wont be doing all the caring myself. my mum gave up work to have ds whilst i work and i pay her a basic wage. the direct payments will be for extra support, mainly so that dh and i can have a regular night out, and in the future have someone stay over with ds whilst we get a nights sleep.

Davros - we are going to be using claire house hospise as well, but again we will be staying with ds.

getbakainyourjimjams- 8 hours is not bad is it? or is that quite low? its good that they give you extra during the school hols

sounds to me like you'd be entitled to a significant amount of help, especially to cover the assistance you already pay for.
Are you likely to know the assessor? In my authority in cases where the family are know (as an employee) we bring in a social worker from another team/ area to cover the case. that way you know you are getting an impartial assessment and it saves any embarrassment/ loss of confidentiality etc.
hope it goes ok for you

Course you can Fio. I call my workers Family Support Workers, not Personal Assistants as they are called for adults as it doesn't describe it properly. I rewrote the contract of employment to reflect the fact that they work to support all of the family, in and out of the home. If anyone wants a copy of my Job Description or Contract I'd be happy to forward it.

Still on waiting list for an assessment for this (nearly a year now) - the social worker I spoke to was adamant the DPs were to support the child, not the parent, and therefore thought I wouldn't get them (as I am trying to get them to help over school holidays and therefore it is to 'help me not the child'!!!) Well, if I am unable to work and therefore we have no money, this is hardly in the child's best interests is it? Davros, what is your secret?!

caroline I played the big safety thing- the chidren aren;t safe because ds1 require 1;1 supervision. And we can't go out and its not in siblings (or his) interest to be in for 6 weeks.

I don't have a secret except that I'd found out more about DPs before our assessment than the Social Workers knew! Afaik its a Govt initiative and therefore the rules should be pretty much the same everywhere, whatever Soc Svs or your Soc Worker might believe. If you want to get info I suggest you look at the Camden Council website at www.camden.gov.uk which has a whole section about DPs under something like Social Care. Although its the borough I live in, I think they are very good at being on top of and implementing new developments. Otherwise you could try Carers UK but it does tend to be more adult-orientated.

There seemed to be some very clear info on DPs on scope's website
www.scope.org.uk (I think)
there was a couple of big pdf booklets with loads of tips and ideas. Never used it myself, but looked v useful.

Thanks, will have a look at those websites :) Hope you get a decent number of hours dizzy and that you don't have to wait very long.

Caroline, the soc sev have a minimum number of days set by law to respond to a request for an assessment. i would go back to them and ask why you have been waiting so long, because waiting a year is outragous (sp!)

Every Local Authority has to have an independent organisation that helps and supports people using DPs (ours is DISC). You probably don't get put in touch with them until you are in the system but you could find out about your local organisation and ask them some questions ahead of time, I'm sure they'd be happy to help. These organisations should know DPs inside out as they have been supporting adults with disabilities getting DPs for some years.

As amber says, the time they have to respond to requests for assessment and how they have to respond it all set out. BUT making them DO it is another matter...... all about knowing your rights again and why should you have to know them fgs? Its like the old cliche "you didn't tell me X".... "you didn't ask", how do you know the questions to ask?????? Grrrrrrrrrrrr

caroline- have you seen a social worker yet? Who referred you for an assesment? If you get referred for a child in need assessment they ahve to complete an initial assesment within 7 days and a full core assesment within 35 days. That is law and they will be penalised for not complying. If you dont have someone like a community nurse or someone else to speak up on your behalf, get in touch with welfare rights (through your local council) and tell them that you have been kept waiting for a CIN assesment (child in need). Dont leave it, mither them, ring them all the time cos the quiet people tend to get left till last.

That would be it dizzy, I tend to keep quiet and just try to get on with it . I was referred by a social worker but not sure whether it was a CIN assessment - don't think this has been mentioned on any paperwork I've seen. I have an appointment with community nurse this week so will talk to her about it first. Thanks :)