Do mencap do respite for kids with autism?

[jennybensmummy]

our social worker, well the duty one who in her words got lumbered with us, has referred us to mencap for respite as ive been begging for 6 months for some we got referred in february and have not hear anything yet, i thought mencap focussed more on adults, am i wrong or is the sw more useless than i though?!!? and also how long does it take to hear about it any ideas?? im struggling to get hold of this duty social worker who filled in referral and noone else in her office seems to have a clue

oh i dunno then, going to try to ring social worker again today but not expecting her to be there, she never is and never returns calls!! we live in nottinghamshire

Locally mencap just work with adults.

Has SS carried out a care assessment on you? You can request one and they have to do it (on you as a carer- not just your child).

oh i dunno they are useless, got to ring them back later!! noone seems to do anything for us its all me begging so ill be phoning them later and speaking to a different social worker as the onewe had (well duty one who got stuck with us on a temp basis) is now on annual leave!! typical! will ask about a care assessment thanks

Yes do, once you request one certain legal 'rights' kick in.

We had duty one for years (was crap situation). Had just got a personal one back (temporarily) and it is so much better.

Mencap does a summer holiday playscheme in our area but only from 8 upwards. Not much use to us unfortunately

Mencap run saturday (over 8) and holiday (over 4)clubs in an adjacent local area to where I live (only adult support in my home town). They aim to provide 1 saturday a month. It is subsidised but not free unless ss pay or concessions apply. Can you contact mencap direct and ask what they do locally? You may be able to get things up and running from the other end so to speak. Good luck!

Sorry don't know about mencap but what about Crossroads? I know they do respite care (usually in the carers own home but not always).
Website is :here
You can access local schemes from there.