Day Services for people with learning disabilities

[Mynamenotaccepted]

Son with Down Syndrome, gets usual benefits, PIP and ESA goes to Day Services and our council is going to start charging 31.50/week. All his mates are also being charged. Am feeling a bit disgruntled as people over a certain age are moaning about 3 pound/week for TV licence.(sorry I digress!) How many of your young people are paying towards day care?

Were going through this at the moment, ds starts college in September for 3 day but will need day services for the other 2 days.

As our ds gets higher rate pip and the impression were getting is that most of it will be used as his contribution towards his day service.
Were most probably going to have to fund his transport there as its out of area despite it being the only suitable one that meets his needs.

Don’t get me wrong we knew we would have to use some of his pip or esa as his contribution, but whats the point of being given a personal budget to meet his needs when you can’t actually use it for what its meant for.

Hello,

Sorry to gatecrash the thread. However there seems to be a bit of a gap between the ideal of 'personalisation' and the reality. Personalisation should mean that the individual has a real choice in terms of the type of and amount of services s/he can access, but in reality, choice may be restricted and/or expensive. What is more, I know when we were looking for provision for our eldest son, there were three providers of daycare in our town, and they all offered more or less the same thing: some life skills training, a chance to cook/eat a meal and some semi-educational activities. It did not seem all that 'personalised' to me.

My eldest is in residential care at the moment and there all his income (except for £25 p/w spending money) contributes to the cost of his fees. This means he has little option but to follow the programme of activities in the home.

Like you, I do not have a problem with individuals contributing towards the services they use. My main issue is that the services are not always as personalised as they should be.

KittyC4

I guess they give it in one hand only for it to go straight out in the other, and £25 pw isn’t a lot so who buys your sons clothes/shoes or trainers ? it all adds up, And I agree that the service your son gets and needs should be personalised around what best suits and meets his needs, why shouldn’t we get good value for money if our young adults are having to contribute so much financially you should get a say in how the money is being spent that benefits him.

@KittyC4
How did u go about finding residential care for your ds? Is it in a supported living set up or care home?

Hi,

My son's adult social worker found the placement when my son reached 18. The family was in crisis at the time. It is a residential care home with 6 other residents, but the residents are quite independent.

I see, thank you. Need to keep looking...