Respite provision thrown in at deep end

[Lesley25]

i am trying a respite provision for the first time for my 16 year old son and the only one that accepted my son is a private one through social services.

I’ve been told to try to and allow him to go straight from school as we’ve previously done with his old respite and “see how it goes”.

its the only provision respite that said they could meet my son’s needs as he’s quite complex.

My question is the staff seem intuitive but I can’t help feeling they’re planning on “winging it”, my son’s going to have a meltdown when he goes and that breaks my heart but everyone around me says try it- it’s your only option, and it’s a nice enough house, (I’ve seen it).

i am so torn. I think I’ve resigned myself to being in the next street sleeping In my car but also what if the respite provision doesn’t tell me how he really is? It’s a private provison after all.

what would you all do?

Would starting small help?

When DS1 swapped provider, we built it up very slowly.

Thank you, you’re right, small really is the only way. Visits first, gradually we will get to the respite sleep part..

When DS1 changed provider, he met the new provider in the January but he didn’t stay overnight alone until August. Even then, circumstances forced our hand. In an ideal world, it would have been another month or so, I think.

That’s how long it took our first provider, now ds is older I wondered if it could be shorter and wondered what others did too.
Thanks @StrivingForSleep