Today is a new day!

POSITIVE_AND_FOCUSED

taxi73 wrote: »

just accept it's on 9.9 as thats a good rate.

looks like the schoool are trying to help and parentlink may help you to get her to school in time by taking her or something.

Thanks for the advice taxi. Re MBNA yes, Ive been thinking about it this afternoon, and the 9.9% rate is the best I have on my debt now, so I feel I need to be v grateful for that and just focus my energies on getting the debt down. Also, would rather spend my time on my business and increasing my income instead !!!

Hope you are ok. Thank you once again

POSITIVE_AND_FOCUSED

Verbatim wrote: »

Dear P & F
You're doing a great job battling on all fronts. Do take care of yourself and accept as much support as you can/ feel comfortable with. I'm glad your mum has really come up trumps in supporting you and that good things seem to be coming your way after all the turmoil the school has put you through.
Not sure about MNBA but can't you accept the lower interest rate and still pursue your claim with the ombudsman?
As your dd gets older I expect things will get easier and you'll look back at this diary and be amazed at how difficult things were "then".

Thank you Verbatim. It has been wonderful the amount of support I have had from everyone but my mum in particular has been wonderful. I am sure all will be well and I hope you are too!

POSITIVE_AND_FOCUSED

Spoke to MBNA yesterday, to the person in fact who wrote to me regarding my interest rate issues. Have said a big thank you to him for the new rate, and he said he was glad to be of help. He is happy to also change my repayment date so that I am not late with my payment, and he will be refunding any late charges that may occur this month. My plan is to use my widows pension which is £200 approx after tax to pay this off each month so I feel really pleased I will see more debt repaid each month. Problem solved!

Have recd a letter from the the Head of Service for the County for Attendance and Behaviour Issues. It would appear both he and the Head of Children Service Complaints want to meet with me at my home if preferred before my MP's appointment next Saturday! To discuss a way forward with regard to the issues around the referral to Social Services. It's quite simple really. I just want the lies removed from our file. I will re-itterate that I do NOT have difficulty caring for my daughter, She is not late ALL the time or MOST mornings. Its 11% of the time and that has been during a year with one of the coldest snow/icy winters. She has NOT been emotionally upset due to the CONSTANT lateness. I HAVE never met with the school to discuss strategies when the referral was written so I do not like the implication I am an "awkward, difficult" parent, and I have NOT written to the school regularly detailing our difficulties on a daily basis. Any lateness is NOT due to walking my dd to the school although I concede my walking is slow and if the EWO could have been bothered to speak to me to find the true reasons rather than asking office staff instead, perhaps we wouldn't be in this mess at all. I do not see how the way I used to bathe dd when she was 3 years old has anything to do with the issue at hand which is her 11% lates before registration and I do not see how the way I felt after my husbands murder and the trial 4 years ago has anything to do with the fact that dd is 11% late NOW. How can it possibly be supportive quoting my sadness and my physio reports and occupational therapy reports from 4 years ago when this has all been about her 11% lates in the now. It should not be considered a crime to be a parent with a disability for I do not know what else they are trying to achieve by saying all this. We are still on our "own" in that they have criticised me but not given an ounce of support or help whatsoever. Also, the fact that everything has been discussed behind my back, they were simply happier talking about me and dd rather than to me. I will say to them I know other families with worse attendance rates, worse late rates, they have not been subjected to this process at all. Why have we been singled out, what purpose? So, if they can sort that out I will be happy!!! I want it sorted because what if I did fall seriously in the next 5 years say and I really could not look after dd. They will look at our notes, and say well she was having difficulty in 2010 so lets consider taking dd away from her. No, we are doing very well actually, and we have done for the last 7 years. The Education Welfare Service are the last dept on earth I would go to for anything.

Will get on with the day theres money to be made!!!

InaPickle

You're doing well, PaF: well done!

I admire your tenacity.

POSITIVE_AND_FOCUSED

Well, I def feel that my guardian angel is saying to me to absolutely never give up! I have totalled the savings on my outgoings to with effect from November and they come to the grand total of £192 so far. This includes the reduction in my mortgage as the fixed term has ended and I can at last benefit from the low base rate. Ive revised my mob contract and my land line contract and have cancelled two direct debits relating to my business which I was not utilising to justify the spend. I am today going to review my electri/gas after I get home from collecting my lovely orders Im expecting this am!!! Hoping to pick up at least £400. So, with my reduction in MBNA interest rate its not going too badly. After Nov I will be able to see how much easier budgeting will be as things are tight at present, very tight , and where I can put more money to pay off one of the debts quicker that sort of thing. So, positively positive all round!

beanielou

More positive vibes your way.

Verbatim

New budget sounds great.

POSITIVE_AND_FOCUSED

Absolutely feeling on top of the world today! Had my meeting with the Head of Behaviour and Attendance in the County together with the Head of Complaints. It was at my home so they would have travelled an hour or so to get to me! Mum was there too, and she counted 24 verbal apologies. They are sorry the lates are described as "constant", "most", persistent", "all the time". They agree that is not the case. They are sorry best practice and policy was not adhered to. I should have been spoken to. In fact it should not have involved the Welfare Office at all, it should have been a discussion with me and the school and thats that. The feeling is the Educ Welfare Officer got herself in a hole and dug herself deeper and deeper in order to get out of it. They felt she acted in good faith, I said I felt if that was so she would have spoken to me at the v least so the records were correct. There is NO evidence of the "emotional upset". So, they are going to detail that in their notes. Info should not have been obtained from office staff. Info such as I had met with the school when I hadn't had come from the school, the Head which begs the question was she lying to the EWO. My diary from 2006/2007 should not have been used to quote from and they are unclear why the EWO used this info so presumably she will be asked when they next speak to her. The comment that I have "great difficulty caring for Jill" will be addressed as it is untrue. Sorry, sorry, sorry. The Head of attendance was a lovely guy, very good personal skills, felt v comfortable in his presence, he got to the nitty gritty and a note will be going on our file to record the outcome which wiill basically cover all the issues detailed that are untrue. The Head of Complaints was again a verly nice lady, she took the minutes and assured me that everything would be covered in her letter to me next week to provide written comments regarding the meeting content. If I need support from the EWO in futured they have given me thename of someone else I can deal with so that was reassuring. The thing that made me feel really great strangely was that he said he very rarely receives such articulate, clear letters from parents and complimented me on my complaint letter!! They could see from the photos off dd all around that she is a happy little girl and they wanted to assure me that all that had happened was not to attack my abilities as a parent. He wanted to be absolutely clear about that. That was such a relief I can't tell you. In fact both mum and I were quite tearful at that point and with the apologies coming in virtually every sentence, that made me q emotional!. I think they could then fully appreciate the stress and upset this situation has caused us.

The other good news is that the school are wanting to contribute to dd doing a class of some kind for dd, they have suggested an Art therapy class. Now one of the things as a result of this saga has been dd has been really worried and upset the school wont want her anymore. Her behaviour has not been the best, but Ive been able to say to her that the school thinks shes so special that they want to support her and since then, albeit just two days she is turning her behaviour around and really doing her best to concentrate better and do as shes told and be thelittle girl she has been for thelast three years until this situation started to unfold. So, just maybe this is the end of the nightmare for her too!

Other news, Im still seeing my MP today. Its been arranged for a couple of weeks and dont want to cancel it at late notice and I can at least brief him on how the school and EWO have resolved the situation. Furthermore, I want to utilise the opportunity to hghlight the need for greater rights for disabled parents, to highlight the profile of various charities who have been a huge source of support, ie, they still need funding!!!

So, on that note a charity I discovered during this process, The Disabled parents network, sent me an email yesterday offering their services and I am hoping they can help me navigate through the benefit system and Adult Social Care to just check whether there is anything out there that could support us as a family that we don't currently have or know about that could help me to work more eficiently with less tiredness, anything really!

Other news, hanging in there re finances. Will have to contact my mortgage co as I will not be able to pay my mortgage till a week after it is due at the end of the month. Why? My order from Kl arrived but went back as it was saturated with something that had leaked all over everything. I had just one garden broom for £8.25 to del yesterday!!! I am set to get the revised order middle to end of next week and so I will be a week behind. Have contacted all my customers, they are v understanding, but it impacts on when I can get future orders through and of course that effects my income. So, have projected my sales against outgoings last night into the second week of Dec and I know that I will be ok to pay my mortgage on the 4th Nov instead of the 28 Oct and then again 3 and a half weeks later on the 28th Nov. I feel v confident as the sales are just rolling in with Xmas round the corner, that saidmy sales have always been v consistent over the last 9 years or so. Gosh, that was when I was selling £5K every 4 weeks and managed to qualify for a trip to Rome which my dh went on too. It was absolutely fantastic. This weekend Im sitting on £900 orders I should be putting through on Mon but wont be able to till the end of next week. Frustrating or what! Never mind my plan on paper shows I will be able to catch up and with my £230 savings in outgoings I am convinced Iwill be earning far more than I need by £400come the end of Nov to cover all the bills. Now assuming that happens my feeling is I should be able to do that every 4 weeks and my debt etc will be a long distant memory BEFORE I am 50 in 5 years!!!

Off to do brekkie, get dressed, go to the MP and have a nice afternoon with dd. We love sat eves with Harry Hill and the X factor! Tom am cooking to make dishes for the freezer, will put 5 things on ebay, do the ironing etc, and get ready for next week. Plan to make a friend a peach crumble to say thank you for giving, yes giving, us some almost new duvets and pillows. My friends and customers humble me with their kindness and support, almost willing us to get through these times. As for the chile miners if they can be successfully freed when the success rate was initially 2% then anything is possible and I just do not want to give up ever. Yes, am feeling on top of the world today. My little family unit , me and dd are doing ok, and all will be well.

InaPickle

:j YAY! :j

A postive outcome and resolution at last!

Glad to see things going your way at last. Have a most EXCELLENT weekend off the back of it! :T x

beanielou

lt all round.
So pleased for you