DLA form - how much detail?

[lou031205]

Portage worker came out to advise on DLA form for DD.

She said to just bullet point for each section, ie.

-No sense of danger
-No appreciation of consequence
-Cannot be left alone.

I asked about giving specific examples but she said it wasn't necessary.

But I was wondering what you experienced claimants would say?

I was thinking of giving examples such as "DD can't be left unattended at any time. She recently turned on the gas in someone's kitchen when visiting..."

What did you all do?

I wouldn't give specific examples, but I wouldn't just list like you have either. Elaborate on what you have, and repeat repeat repeat in each section.
For eg..instead of just saying no sense of danger, I would write, DD cannot be left alone either at home or when out because she has no sense of danger at all and can and will find herself in very dangerous situations very quickly. Therefore she needs to be supervised at all times. Or something like that iykwim

Have just done DD's renewal btw, and that is how I did ours We have it now until her 16th birthday :D hurrah! no more forms for years!

I give examples where I can as many of those we have are so extreme (eg broke into cupboard and stole syringe then filled with substance (still no idea what and left where young brother could find.

it may be that this is not needed but the plainer and more emphatic the better ime, the people at DLA aren't trained in SN so you haev to be blunt.

My SN HV did ours and we did give specific examples where necessary.
For instance, DS can be sick after every feed (like lots of other babies) and requires numerous changes most days. But, changing DS who generally has a higher tone, leads to an even higher tone which makes dressing and undressing very difficult and distressing for us both. So, we take a lot of time changing him and soothing him which prevents him tightening up. Not like lots of other babies.
Repeat yourself lots of times. Lost count of how many 'DS is significantly debelopmentally delayed' and 'DS requires constant supervision and care' were written down.
Also, for the 'how many minutes each time' part write constant/ongoing throughout the day rather than try to quantify it (which is very difficult) unless its something like a bath, which for us takes 20-40mins each time. So we put down 40 mins.

We didn't exaggerate anything on the form, but did put the worst case scenario every time.

HTH x

Ok, thanks

What would you advise:

Sometimes DD sleeps through, others we are up with her in the night once or twice for around 10 minutes, others a lot more. Recently it has been 40 minutes, 1 hr, and 1hr50minutes.

So what should I put on the form? Sleep is pretty bad at the moment, but we might go through a relatively good spell in a few weeks time?

I was always told to describe to worse possible day/night you could have. And take a photocopy of the completed form for the next time/renewal.

Good luck.

Or you may continue to have a really bad time (hope you don't) but that is what they need to know - how bad it is. Our nightwakings with DS are a minimum of 30mins - it is very rare to be any shorter (tho he does sometimes) and once or twice he has slept through. The 'good' nights are a minority, especially at the moment.
Put the worst down. If things improve for a considerable amount of time after the award, you can let them know.
Oh, and yes, definitely photocopy.

i agree (tho mine was for me not a child)

i was told to paint things as black as they get, not to minimise difficulties .

i was also told to give relevant examples alongside the bullet points(to make it easier to read) and repeat, repeat, repeat as often as relevant

Agree, you need to emphasise where the difficulties are and so need to put tdown all the worst bits.

It's tough doing it for the first time. We are so used to talking positively about our children it is hard to list all the negative stuff.

Good luck with it all.x

Thanks, this is so helpful. It was only yesterday that the Portage worker pointed out things that I hadn't fully appreciated.

She was watching the DDs (DD1 is 3.1, DD2 is 16 months) and pointed out how 'odd' DD1's walking posture is. She walks slightly bent at the knee with her bum out and lifts her feet with each step then puts them down with a clonk. She pointed out that DD2 has a more natural walking posture than DD1 already, and DD2 took her first steps on Christmas Day

Everything you can think of even if its little and use your worst case senario for each ....I was also advised for the sections that you may not yet know but possibly say yes....though extent unknown.

Good luck its depressing as you end up putting the worst of everything down and that life is really grim, though sometimes it may be Im sure its not always IYKWIM.

I put in lots of detail. The format I used was:

Ds needs help with [activity].

He needs someone to [details of help needed].

Without this help XYZ would happen. (Give examples if you have them, eg the time when your dd turned on the gas).

A normal child of his age would be able to do [activity] with little/no help (detail where possible).

It's horrible to write, especially the "a normal child" bit as it feels so disloyal and negative, but I think it helps to put in as much detail as you can.

Thank you, I am going to try and start a rough draft of the form this weekend. The first report from the Paed says "sleep not a problem" we were having a good spell.

But we talked at great length on Wednesday about her sleep issues, so I think I will wait for his next letter before sending it in, if it comes in time. I have until Feb 9th before I lose money if the claim is successful.

That's a good point, busybeingmum, when I say we might deal with her for 10 minutes, or 40 or whatever, we then lay holding our breath that THIS time she is going to settle. So sometimes it can be a good half an hour after she has settled that we can actually get back to sleep. She often goes quiet for 5-10 minutes then starts round x.