Social Services and statementing???

[deeeja]

Is it normal for social services to be involved because I want a statement for my 35 month old ds(asd). I do not get respite, and have not had any dealings with a social worker.
I am suspicious because my portage worker is claiming that there is nothing really wrong with my ds, and that I am an exaggerating(sp?) liar.
Paranoid? Yes I may be. A teeny bit.
It is a bit odd, don't you think?

shortly after my friend had her DS diagnosed with ASD, she had a social worker come and visit her once, as part of them working out what to do next educationwise/service wise etc, so it may be some routine procedure, rather than anything more sinister.

Hi deeja,
in my experience, a request for info is sent to social seervices for any child being statemented. If the child is not known to them, or there is no info relevent to the assessment then they do not get involved. If the child is known and there is relevent info (for example an initial assessment detailing childs needs) then this is usually provided with parents consent.
Hope this helps

Hi - We are getting a visit from a social worker tomorrow.We have been told it is a standard thing following an ASD diagnosis. I have no idea what to expect, we don't want or need respite so I don't know what their involvement will amount to. I am going to ask if we can get any additional benefits like maybe reduced costs on entry to council run facilities like swimming pools but I feel the answer may be no!

we are going through the statementing process at the moment. LEA has just decided to assess dd1, and I've had a letter through saying they've asked SS whether dd is known to them or not (she's not).

My understanding is that this now goes no further, as SS have had no involvement with us as a family thus far, but this could vary from area to area (so many things do)

At our last review (last week), they mentioned that social services would now become involved. I'm not sure yet what it means, but they mentioned it more in terms of if we needed things like help taking kids to activities, or arranging childcare so that ds could get to an appointment... He's only 14 months old, so I'm not sure how involved they'll be when he's school age. They are supposed to attend his school review meeting in a few months though, so we'll see.

I had a social worker come to see Ds1 in his home environment during his assessments, the result of said assessments being his diagnosis. She wrote up her findings and they made up part of the final decision. There was no impression that she was checking up on my parenting, or that she was there to judge. When his statement was written up no social workers came to visit, most of the findings came from his nursery and I supplied a written report.

One reason for this may be that all children's services now have to be amalgamated into one "super" department. They are supposed to work together and there should not be funding issues from one dept to the other etc. In theory this is a good idea but my experience so far is that it makes little difference. I wouldn't worry, just ask them for things and they will run a mile!