Social services assessment advice needed

[Graciefer]

Yesterday I had the specialist health visitor and family support worker here to do some work with DS2.

Whilst they were here, I mentioned the summer holidays and that I would like to get DS1 (who is 5 and severly autistic) into a playscheme for a couple days over the summer holidays, but had been told that he would need his own worker and we would have to seek the funding for this.

The specialist hv said that they were trying to bring this centre in question back on track (not sure what she meant by this) and that she could refer us to social services if we liked, to see if they could fund this.

We said that would be great and thought it would be months before we heard anything.

However today I had a call from a lady from social services (a reply in a day, you could of knocked me over with a feather), saying that they had received a referral from the specialist hv and that they would like to come on Monday morning, along with someone from the child disability team to do a dual assessment.

Now we have not had any dealings with social services before and I am now feeling a little apprehensive about it.

So I wondered if there should be anything I should be asking for, pointing out, definately not saying etc. Any advice would be gratefully received as I am not even sure what a dual assessment entails.

We have two children, DS1 who is 5 years old (severly autistic, non-verbal) and attends a SLD/PMLD school and DS2 who is 7 months old and has Downs Syndrome and bi-lateral talipes.

I am a sahm and DH is also home after giving up work to help with caring when DS1 was diagnosed (he is on a long term sabbatical according to him, lol).

Sorry for the long post, but I am quite worried now, not sure why but I am feeling paranoid about saying the wrong thing.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Brilliant its something at last. You must be relieved.

Just make sure that you DO open the bank account asap (as this is needed b4 all the dp paperwork can go in and is usually what holds up the dp. Probably easier said than done I know, but just don't want you to miss out.

16hrs per week is a good result (believe it or not). I have friends with profoundly disabled children and they don't even get half of what you get (and my friends are told that if they don't spend what they do get, they will have their DPs reduced) so be thankful grateful for your generous offer because getting anything from SS is just a lottery.

IME - barclays let you open up a current account immediately.

The SW will be dropping a leaflet in about DP's tomorrow, so will be reading about what sort of account etc, to open after I have read that.

Although I am relieved, I am also a bit anxious as now I have the stress of working out how to spend them, trying to employ someone etc, I actually feel under more pressure than before now.

I know that probably sounds extremely ungrateful, especially given the fact that DP's are such a postcode lottery, but its just the way I feel.

Really unsure what I will do, I had approached some of the TA's from DS1's class about work over the summer holiday, but that was more a case of them attending a scheme with him or something. I guess I will have to tell the SW my concerns, although I think it may be better to wait to get the allocation confirmed in writing, before going down that route.