Social Services help?

elvis86

pigpen wrote: »

Then you get the pitchfork brigade.. 'they shouldn't have the children if they can't cope/afford them/stand on their head and juggle 12 balls with their feet'..

I get where you're coming from, but are you really saying that there's never any truth in that at all, in any case?

If a family is going to require so many publicly-funded resources, I don't think it's wholly unreasonable to ask the question as to whether the parents should have continued expanding the family, if they could reasonably predict this being problematic (eg not being able to cope with the 2 kids they have but having 2 more regardless).

pigpen

elvis86 wrote: »

I get where you're coming from, but are you really saying that there's never any truth in that at all, in any case?

If a family is going to require so many publicly-funded resources, I don't think it's wholly unreasonable to ask the question as to whether the parents should have continued expanding the family, if they could reasonably predict this being problematic (eg not being able to cope with the 2 kids they have but having 2 more regardless).

no.. some people shouldn't be allowed to breed and some shouldn't be allowed animals never mind children but the pitchfork brigade aren't very rational about it.

alexandrajj

gizmo111 wrote: »

The 8 year old will probably get support and activities from here http://www.youngcarers.net/?gclid=CMmc5qqC0acCFQoa4Qod2G3HDQ

To be honest the family sound like they are getting what is available generally - for holidays and days out etc ss will normally look to local charities. School and nursery should be at CIN Review and they are usually quite up on local activities.
Clothing, bedding etc is all basic stuff and should be funded by the family - any requests for this I would be thinking where is the benefit going - am I missing some neglect issues here? Think carefully before requesting just for the sake of it - it could have unwanted and uneccasssary repurcussions

Thank you. As far I know the parents haven't attended CIN reviews. Do parents usually get invited? There's no contact with the schools (as far as I am aware) as there are no issues at school other than 10 year old has a school action plus and the 6 year old is on school action. No issues with attendance, standard of behaviour (SEN taken into account), attitude, motivation etc.

Garden is safe for kids (just cosmetics - grass needs cutting, weeding
needs doing etc) the family certainaly aren't well-off but suitable clothing, bedding, food etc are all adequately provided. House is OK but a tidy & a clean wouldn't hurt (hence the cleaner).

I think if a SW looked at the situation then the main issue I would guess would be a lack of social opportunities for the children. No time to relax for the 8 year old especially. No escaping the combined difficulties of the family. I think the aim is to try to "manage" the situation to keep it on an even keel as the mum is the main carer & if she gets ill then a crisis could occur.

PS. gizmo - what qualifies a child to be "in need". There's no accusations of abuse, mistreatment or threats to remove the children. School maintain they are making progress. Permanent parental relationship, permanent housing situation, no alcohol or drugs....

gizmo111

alexandrajj wrote: »

PS. gizmo - what qualifies a child to be "in need". There's no accusations of abuse, mistreatment or threats to remove the children. School maintain they are making progress. Permanent parental relationship, permanent housing situation, no alcohol or drugs....

From the 1989 Children Act S17
For the purposes of this Part a child shall be taken to be in need if—
(a)he is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for him of services by a local authority under this Part;
(b)his health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision for him of such services; or
(c)he is disabled,
and “family”, in relation to such a child, includes any person who has parental responsibility for the child and any other person with whom he has been living.


Adhd can be classed as a disability.
Broadly speaking in the real world CIN children are either those that need some support but like this family it is difficult to identify but clear that something is needed, children who have just come across our radar and investigations are ongoing to see what future plans should be - either CP Plan or proceedings, and children coming off CP Plans and remaining open for 3-6 months and children who have been returned home who remain open for a monitoring period.

The parents and school, health etc should be invited to CIN Reviews - sometimes called Family Support Plans and they should all have a copy of the minutes. There is nothing stopping this review being held in the home, but they should be 6 monthly and there should be a plan which when acheived the case will be able to close. How long has it been open?

Ada_Doom

Maybe look at Homestart? They provide volunteers who can do lots of different things for families who are struggling, from doing a bit of cleaning to being an extra adult so that the family can go out. Sounds like the 8 year old could do with some time out, maybe with her peers. I wonder if she could get funding to do after school clubs, with maybe SS helping with arranging and paying for transport? I think I would want to ask her school what is availbale, and make sure they are aware of her home situation.

It is difficult as there is lots of help out there but sometimes accessing it can be daunting. Is there a local Surestart centre? They can be a good first point of contact. I agree that SS hsould be telling this family what is available.

sounds like you are a good friend to this family. Good luck with your efforts to help them, I bet they really appreciate it

Nicki

Both homestart and sure start will only support families with a child under 5. OP says the youngest child in this family is 6.

To be honest, the more details OP posts, the less bleak the situation sounds. Autism is a spectrum and there is a wide range of need. Neither of the children in this family has a statement (and one doesn't even have a diagnosis) so they are obviously reasonably highly functioning and in mainstream school. Mum and Dad have some degree of mental health problem, in common with 1 in 4 of the population, and there is some social service support in place. They are in fact a lot better supported on what's been posted than a lot of families.

To put things in perspective, my child is severely autistic with severe learning difficulties and no speech. I have 2 other children, and we get no services or social services support, other than that my child attends a special school. At the same special school are lots of families who get no or minimal additional support. There are also families there who have 2 or more very disabled children (non verbal and still in nappies aged 10 +) plus other children, poor family circumstances and they do rightly get some level of respite care and social worker support. Just having a diagnosis of a disability does not qualify a child or family for help, and the help there is has to be rationed as every family can not get every possible service. The family we are discussing here hasn't even identified a need which isn't being met. They are simply wanting to know which services are available so they can apply for as many of them as they can. If the children were very severely autistic i'd have more sympathy, but if they grab all the services in their area, then other possibly more needy families will end up languishing on waiting lists with no help available to them, and I suspect this is what the social workers are trying to prevent by asking them to identify what their needs are, rather than presenting them with a menu of services to choose from.

Savvy_Sue

To be fair, it didn't come across to me that this family was trying to get all they could out of the system.

When I had PND, there were times when I knew that I needed help, but articulating what help I needed was extremely difficult. If Mum has MH issues and all her concentration goes into keeping things going - disabled partner, 2 children on the autistic spectrum, and a 3rd child - asking what extra help she'd like may be a question she can't get her head round. And it may be obvious to those outside the family that it could really benefit the middle child to have some time away from being a carer (however informal), but for Mum and Dad it may just be something they're too close to, plus what's the point of thinking "how nice it would be for little Bonnie to go to Brownies but how on earth would we get her there and back?"

Whereas if they were given a list of things which SS MIGHT be able to help with, or perhaps had helped other families with, they could think what would really benefit them.

Of course, what would make SS really happy would be to have a family with no unmet needs, so perhaps by adopting the 'tell us what you want' approach it's easier to keep the requests at bay.

It's years ago, but I remember seeing a TV programme about a couple who'd had sextuplets when they already had a girl a few years older. She helped out around the house a bit, as you do, and the couple only realised through this interview they gave how many hours she actually spent just washing up (pre-dishwasher days here!) And they started to make sure she had some personal time, not just as big sister to these sextuplets. I think that would be my worry, that this little girl is just swallowed up by the amount of attention going to her brothers.

Savvy_Sue

just to add when I was running out of school clubs, SS would sometimes pay for children to attend if the family was 'under pressure'. This sometimes included transport to and from the club.

alexandrajj

gizmo111 wrote: »

Broadly speaking in the real world CIN children are either those that need some support but like this family it is difficult to identify but clear that something is needed, children who have just come across our radar and investigations are ongoing to see what future plans should be - either CP Plan or proceedings, and children coming off CP Plans and remaining open for 3-6 months and children who have been returned home who remain open for a monitoring period.

The parents and school, health etc should be invited to CIN Reviews - sometimes called Family Support Plans and they should all have a copy of the minutes. There is nothing stopping this review being held in the home, but they should be 6 monthly and there should be a plan which when acheived the case will be able to close. How long has it been open?

SW have been involved since the youngest was born (6 years). But in fleeting fits and starts. When the mum was poorly 2 1/2 years ago their involvement increased.

alexandrajj

Nicki wrote: »

Both homestart and sure start will only support families with a child under 5. OP says the youngest child in this family is 6.

To be honest, the more details OP posts, the less bleak the situation sounds. Autism is a spectrum and there is a wide range of need. Neither of the children in this family has a statement (and one doesn't even have a diagnosis) so they are obviously reasonably highly functioning and in mainstream school. Mum and Dad have some degree of mental health problem, in common with 1 in 4 of the population, and there is some social service support in place. They are in fact a lot better supported on what's been posted than a lot of families.

To put things in perspective, my child is severely autistic with severe learning difficulties and no speech. I have 2 other children, and we get no services or social services support, other than that my child attends a special school. At the same special school are lots of families who get no or minimal additional support. There are also families there who have 2 or more very disabled children (non verbal and still in nappies aged 10 +) plus other children, poor family circumstances and they do rightly get some level of respite care and social worker support. Just having a diagnosis of a disability does not qualify a child or family for help, and the help there is has to be rationed as every family can not get every possible service. The family we are discussing here hasn't even identified a need which isn't being met. They are simply wanting to know which services are available so they can apply for as many of them as they can. If the children were very severely autistic i'd have more sympathy, but if they grab all the services in their area, then other possibly more needy families will end up languishing on waiting lists with no help available to them, and I suspect this is what the social workers are trying to prevent by asking them to identify what their needs are, rather than presenting them with a menu of services to choose from.

Fair point. I don't think the family are out for all they can get - if they were then i think they'd be whinging at the SW all the time. However your opinion does put things from a perspective i'd not thought of. That being-

Nicki wrote: »

if they grab all the services in their area, then other possibly more needy families will end up languishing on waiting lists with no help available to them, and I suspect this is what the social workers are trying to prevent by asking them to identify what their needs are, rather than presenting them with a menu of services to choose from.