Anyone used a care agency for carers via social services?

[Lesley25]

My social
worker mentioned this but she seemed to talk a lot about the disadvantages. I’m not sure if it was to put me off, (I have recruited carers previously through special schools) but I’m struggling with the amount of hours I need versus their flexibility.
Hence the reason I thought I’d ask on here

Hi,

This is my first ever post on Mumsnet!

We have a 3 year old with profound complex needs (she's still very much like a 3 month old, non verbal, non mobile with poor posture and limited head control) she is on 17 does of mediation a day - we were awarded a respite care package this year for 24 hours via our social worker through an agency. This came as a shock to us as we've been just scraping through on our own with very little support since her epilepsy diagnosis at 6 months.

We had a false start, the first carer they sent ran a mile when they heard about our daughters needs - we've since got a new one who started this summer. She's really good. It was a bit tricky at the start as she was working around her husband's shift work and we were getting comfortable with her but after we had a bit of a bad patch (daughter sleep about 30 mins a night for 2 weeks) she said she was going to do nights (almost insisted) and we've now got her two nights a week.

It helps us a lot as it allows us to have at least 2 nights good sleep a week and gives us time to do all the housework that gets ignored due to our daughter needing almost constant care.

I think the agency we're using is quite small and new though so YMMV.

Thank you for posting.
your experience sounds positive. I’m just on the fence because I’ve always picked my own carers but my child is a lot older so I’ve been able to get the contacts from ss.
but they’re in short supply now.

I’ll give it another think.

Keep posting if you need anything. You’ll be surprised how much it really helps .