Disabled parents and school

jetta_wales

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

So you don't receive ESA/DLA or any help with the rent?

Clearly I get DLA as has been mentioned many times throughout the thread. We don't rent and no we don't get any help with our mortgage.

jetta_wales

lindos90 wrote: »

As Ive said before, its all about interpretation and what advice individuals have been given (which is not consistant or clear).

What you really need OP is to get your SW to really look into it for you. Explain why its not possible for your partner to do the school runs, perhaps get a costing for how much a taxi would be 4 times per day. Ask if a proper assessment has actually been done, are they declining because they have assessed and you dont meet their criteria (if so it would be useful to see that criteria) or are they simply saying 'dont think thats in our remit'?

It may well be at the end of the day you are not entitled to support to get your kids to school, either from the adult team, childrens team or the LEA, but without someone doing a real comprehensive assessment of your situation, (which may include a case conference), then you dont realy have an answer. If thats the case then thats it, but at least you will have it explained and I think it would be worth persuing to actually get someone involved professionally. Everyones situation is different, but without an assessment of your individual situation, its all just guesswork and supposition.

Have you contacted anyone on the disabled parents forum that I told you about?

This is a fairly lengthy document, but there are several areas that seem to apply to you. It may be worth sifting through it and discussing it with your SW. It doesnt specifically say anything about school runs, but it talks about disabled parents needing support to look after their children (and I would see the task of the school run falling within this)

http://www.frg.org.uk/pdfs/6.%20ssfor%20disabled%20parents.pdf

I'll be speaking to her in the morning and I will try to nail them down to actually deciding something one way or the other and I'll ask about a case review and also self directed support which is something I've read about in information from the RNIB.

Somebody else asked about Carers allowance which is certainly good thinking but I don't know of anybody else who could help and claim Carers for doing so. We will certainly add it to the brain storming pool though.

lindos90

Strapped wrote: »

Parent doesn't need to travel with the child. A lot of the kids at our school come by taxi, and believe it or not, are not just shoved out of the car onto the kerb.

ETA: And drat, broke my resolve not to post any more on this thread!

I was thinking that the service would be looked at from the point of view of enabling the OP to take her children to school, rather than someone doing it for her.

A similar dilema example, elderly lady with poor mobility, unable to do own shopping on her own. Should SS provide a home carer to visit and get a shopping list, go to get the shopping and return with the shopping, or should there be an option for the lady to be assisted by the home carer to get to the shops herself, as this would enable her to be more independent?

Just a thought OP, is your social worker from the general adult team, or a specialised sensory team? (Councils may run things in differently, but ours had a specialised team)

daska

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You don't pay a return fare for a taxi. Sending a child to school in one would be two single journeys.

Only if the taxi firm will take unaccompanied children. Please feel free to ring a few and see how many decline to accept the fare.

Richie-from-the-Boro

daska wrote: »

Only if the taxi firm will take unaccompanied children. Please feel free to ring a few and see how many decline to accept the fare.

Speak to your local Hackney Office, they have lists of pre-vetted companies as long as your arm looking for work. These lists include disabled access vehicles / PH vehicles / and they control the fares you can be charged for the service

daska

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Speak to your local Hackney Office, they have lists of pre-vetted companies as long as your arm looking for work. These lists include disabled access vehicles / PH vehicles / and they control the fares you can be charged for the service

How would I find my local Hackney office? My local cab companies won't touch unaccompanied child fares, referring me to social services or the LEA.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Have a look for Taxi and hackney carriage licensing in your local area, someone covers it, its been legislated for decades, I've just googled and the first one that came up was Bristol for example.

Each council will have one it comes under the Public Protection department, it's usually a section that covers the licensing of Hackney Carriages and Drivers, Private Hire Vehicles, Drivers and Operators etc, bus drivers too as I remember !

daska

will ring them tomorrow!

GlasweJen

North Lanarkshire doesn't provide an escort unless the child is disabled. They join up kids though so driver calls at house 1 and picks up, goes onto house 2 then 3 before going to the school.

My mum takes 5 kids to school (she's a 7 seater private hire driver), the kids are all primary 1 except one who is the sister of one and in primary 3, they have no escort.

My dad drives a eurobus (wheelchair accessible private hire car) and takes a child in a wheelchair to school with no escort as the child does not need assisting once in the car and there are no mental health problems that make the child unable to report any issues. The child is in primary 5 and was stuck with my dad for 7 hours in the snow in December.

They both have disclosures which are renewed every year.

GlasweJen

And Jetta, I can't provide a link. That was a decision from a meeting with social services that I attended about 5 years ago when I worked with CAB, it wasn't a tribunal so the result wont be available online but you may want to ask your social worker about it? The client had MS and used a wheelchair, her husband was expected to take the kids to school even though he worked full time as she used the high rate mobility money to get a car which her mum drove as her carer.