Are social services always this crap- and how to chase?

[Jimjams]

Back in June I rang SS to request help over the summer holidays. I rang the children's disability team (having a disabled child and all that!) and was told they were the wrong people and I had to see the referral and assesment team. Eventually got hold of them and had half an initial assessment with an "assistant SW" (who apparently isn't a SW at all???) She said she agreed I should receive some help and would come back and finish the initial assessment. She never came back but rang a couple of times to ask the same question (do we get DLA?).

Anyway had a letter today saying that the children's disability team (ie the people I originally rang) have now accepted his case, and they are aware that I have had an Initial Assessment and a Core Assessment (WRONG I have had an incomplete initial assessment- AFAIK a core assessment is different and hasn't even been started). The letter also says they are now just waiting to find me a SW and then they'll be back in contact.

FFS!!!!! It's obviously too late for this summer but I would like to have direct payments in place by Easter. Any ideas how to tackle this? I think on Monday I'll ring and point out that I haven't had a core assessment. Someone told me that if I request one they have to carry one out within 7 days- anyone know if that is true???

We coped last summer because I can take DS1 out when ds2 is at nursery (and the nursery manager knows the score and gave ds1 1 session a week for 3 weeks)- but by next Easter we'll have number 3 so will be totally housebound unless I can have another pair of adult hands.

Anyone found a way to chase SS that doesn't involve banging your head against a brick wall?

I dont know whether this will help or not, but my mum was reffered to a SW that specialised in "CF". I am almost certain your paed could refer you to a SW that specialised in "autism" (hahah, yeh right) i am so bloody sorry you are going through this, i find it bloody disgusting. it makes my blood boil. i feel so frustrated that i am ignored and I wonder whether they even know what it does to families. That stupid cow who is our nurse, has organised to come round on my daughters parents evening , even when she 'works' for the school, I have started to think she has done this on purpose. she already not turned up once. i give up with them all. not meaning to rant on your thread, just sharing your frustration.

I know i asked my Mum before to ask her friend about respite but she only got it through paying private, even though she had gone through SS. Her daughter has severe Retts.

have you tried direct payments? i havent myself but arent they suppossed to pay for a carer/respite? As i say i dont know much about them

Bugger, what a very useless post from me

Hi Jimjams

I don't have any experience with Social Services personally, but I am doing a contract for a Local Authority Social Services department at the moment, and have worked in Local Government. In your position, with the knowledge that I have, I would write forcefully but politely to the Director of Social Services explaining all your points (but be 'to the point' and say what you need to in the fewest possible words - they are v. busy people), and once you've made your points about how rubbish it has been so far and your concerns about next year when your third child arrives, spell out exactly what you would like to happen now.

To be called a Social Worker, the member of staff has to be fully qualified (I think it's degree level). There are far more staff who are not fully qualified, but who have a wealth of experience. Social Services have terrible problems recruiting and retaining staff, which is probably why you haven't actually seen a SW so far.

HTH and that someone else has some personal experience.

Just remembered - I think you're in Cornwall - if so , I could mail you the name and contact number, address and e-mail of the director if you want it. Also, her secretary's details. It's all available as part of Open Government, but I've got the details easily to hand if you want them.

I had a social worker finally visit to assess us....just for general support etc.

after 3 weeks i had a call from a parenting support group offering me a place on a course.....that's all i got.

the social worker prattled away about 'holiday clubs' etc but i've heard nothing more- i feel very bitter and know how you feel JJ- i just feel that people have to actually harm their kids before they get listened too.

Not Cornwall...... but thanks!

mrsF my friend (who took over a year to get direct payments sorted) has a friend who has just qualified as a SW. her friend says it is an absolute shambles - half the records are paper and half are on computer and no-one knows where anything is. She says she's frequnetly embarrassed as she's turning up to do assessments a year after a referral.

Forgot to mention holiday clubs (alhtough I have in here before). I was sent details of a holiday club for 8-13 year olds with physical disabilities (when of course ds1 is 5 with no physical disabilities). What a waste of a f stamp!

I have to say I've had my share of frustrations with the NHS and the LEA, but for completely shocking inability to do anything without making a cock up the award has to go to SS. They make the NHS look decent and the LEA look good.

I managed last year to find a Autism Holiday Club (wiltshire) which runs 2 days a week in summer,christmas,easter and 1 day in all the half terms....i pay just £5 each for my 2 lads. Whilst there they get to do arts,crafts,music and sometimes circus skills,film-making etc

it's based in the Autism Unit at a local mainstream school-charity funded. i guess around 20 kids go- and there is 1:1 care for a few who need it- and then around 1:3 for the others.

They take loads of photographs which are given to the parents- this is for me a 'magical' part as it means i get to see my kids happy in a place where they are cared for and stimulated and UNDERSTOOD!

WHAT ANNOYS ME IS THAT NONE OF THIS IS NATIONWIDE.....I FEEL LUCKY TO HAVE THIS AND FEEL SAD THAT OTHERS CANNOT BENEFIT TOO

the charity also now runs a saturady club for the kids too.....bet you can guess which charity i support now!

Don't want to crow, but my Soc Svs dept have been fantastic. I think maybe its because we're an inner London borough with a lot of deprivation, refugees etc so they are well up on how to provide svs and have to fairly provide them for all. Do you have a sympathetic Paed or CDC person or even someone at school who could kick them up the a**e? Maybe when you write you should state that you would think X hours would be reaonsable, you would like DPs and you know plenty about how to run DPs (sort that out later). Also, do they mean a CORE assessment or a Carer's assessment? I think poss the latter. There must be some complaints mechanism or, if you don't want to go to that extreme, someone who is in charge! Sorry, not much help

I think they mean core assessment as that's what they said they needed to do (and is what friend's have had done when they've applied for dp's)

Trouble is SS is in crisis here. Our city actually has one of the most deprived areas within Europe in it- and they're not really coping with that. They had a slating in their recent assessment and whilst babies are being killed through neglet and cruelty (several- and I mean several- cases last year) disabled kids and their families who aren't at risk don't really feature. Of course we have a large vulnerable elderly population as well. It's also a very small authority- so always short of cash. They do seem staggeringly inefficient though.

the core assessment is the big huge thing isn't it asking why your child hasn't been vaccinated (looking forward to that question!)

Hi Jimjams.

I wish I was even slightly surprised at your experience thus far.

My experience with children with disabilities social work teams in SE London (I have just finished working in the voluntary sector in the area- to take up a SW course as you know!) is that the system does sometimes seem to make it quite difficult for individual social workers to practice well, unfortuately. The eligibility thresholds for accepting children as in need of services are very high, IMO, and there seems to be huge pressure to close files quickly. This leaves a large number of families dependent on re-contacting the duty team should they have ongoing support needs which were not recognised and/or addressed in the initial assessment (v common) and means that few families with disabled children seem to benefit from any kind of continuous working relationship with a social worker allocated to their family. Other problems are around who pays for any services that are assessed as being necessary, particularly when families are not on benefits of any kind. Sometimes strong family relationships/support from local friends seems to mitigate against any services being provided in the first place, no matter how disabled the child happens to be. In practice there still often seems to be lack of resources in ss and (maybe consequently?) also a culture of crisis management to a large extent. Families who are not in total disarray are thus often left waiting for far far too long, as you have been- even though "proactive" and "prevention" are big buzzwords atm...

Quite apart from these sorts of systemic problems, I'm afraid that a lot depends on how lucky you are in terms of being allocated people who know what they're doing and will do their best for you and yours within the constraints of the system. I've met a few brilliant social workers, more utterly awful ones and quite a lot who do ok with a nudge once they've sorted out what they should be doing.

As far as chasing goes, I would use the complaints procedure, if you feel strong enough, at least as a threat initially and if necessary as a means to getting the services you need. I think you definitely have grounds to complain (on the basis of your post) because you haven't been kept fully informed about the process (at the very least) as you don't know whether you've had a core assessment. You could also complain that the social work assistant did not carry out the full initial assessment as planned. Further, it sounds to me very much as if they cannot possibly be within their suggested time-frame for responding to you- but this is worth checking. I certainly think it's worth bandying about your intention to complain next time you ring them up to ask what is happening. Hopefully it will put a rocket up their bums and if it doesn't then you NEED to complain. If I'm right in thinking you're in Devon, it tells you how to go about complaining here . It may be worth getting further advice from the Disability Law Service or the Contact a Family helpline just to see what the legal/good practice guidelines are nationally and to see what they think you could do/get them to do it for you if at all possible.

Do hope you will get somewhere soon.

Thanks scummy- I'm in Plymouth (different authority - left Devon a few years ago and has been a bit disasterous I think). I thought I would phone the duty team on Monday (so may get phoned back by Friday if its anything like the past experiences!) to say that their letter is incorrect - that they haven't completed either of the assessments they seem to think they have. There is a very helpful (apparently) woman who runs the DP scheme so I may try her as well. The irony is they keep running conferences telling everyone to apply for DP but then there seems to be nothing in place for assessing families needs. The assistant SW I had just spent her whole time telling me she knew nothing about direct payments and didn't know how they needed to be assessed.

Dh isn't being very helpful with this as he doesn't want SS involved anyway. He just gets in a grump and says "we don't need them". He may not need them- but I do during school holidays - he goes out to work all day- I'm the one stuck in as its not safe to take DS1 + DS2/DS3 out without adult help.

So if I'd stayed in Bromley I may have come across you scummy? Please move down here!

Yes, I can only imagine how hard it was in the summer, jimjams. For most of the families I was working with it really was the worst, worst, worst time of year too. Even some of the families I'd always thought of as almost superhuman in their coping skills had a really hard time of it, especially those with little or no childcare.

I think it's well worth trying the dp woman direct- she may be able to chase her colleagues for you or even start the dp ball rolling independently of them.

If all else fails complain, though.

Bit further in than Bromley.

Once I've got this qualification and am officially a pariah I may well move down to the SW or oop north maybe.

The SW doesn't need to know about DPs really, all she needs to do is assess your and DS1's needs. Then how the support is provided is out of her hands really. She should include the fact that you want DPs but she doesn't need to know any more than that. Is it worth phoning and waiting for a call back? What about phoning as planned and then going into writing or is it possible to email them at all? I email ours every time I need anything and copy the Manager. God, although I think you should pursue it, its really something you could do without isn't it?