Leaving school seems to be a time when families are often left to “grapple around in the dark” for provision. My best advice would be to ask for a Social worker (SW) before they leave school.
As with most
things, SW’s are a mixed bag. We were
fortunate as our SW was willing to be creative and think outside the box. She did a “needs and well-being assessment”
on Heidi and discussed Direct Payments (DP’s). This is money paid to the
disabled person or a family member and can be used for a variety of
things. We did not know at the time, but DP’s are available to children
as well. So if there are things that
your child would love to do without you, or you need respite, I recommend applying
for DP’s.
According to our
SW we used DP’s in an innovative and creative way – so much so that she had to
check with her manager that it was allowed.
Remember, I had three other children at home most of the time and my patience is small. When it comes to watching Heidi cook it’s even smaller, so my best intentions of teaching cooking, cleaning, washing and other independence skills very soon went out of the window! So we used DPs to employ someone one morning a week, when she learnt to cook (that was Monday evening’s dinner sorted), food shop, clean and other household tips that I never knew existed!
The SW works out
the number of hours the person is entitled to, a bank account just for DP’s is
set up and the money is paid by the council to the account. I had to be vetted and shown the system but
Penderels Trust do all the contracts, time sheets and pay slips. They also have a Personal Assistant (PA)
finder service, where PA’s advertise themselves and also where you can
advertise your need for a PA. Penderels
work in lots of areas in the country but the SW should know of a service local
to you.
Heidi preferred to
call her staff “Future Guides”, a name created by Heidi and her peers at an
advocacy group – the person “Guides them now and into the future”. Most of the people we have employed have been
friends or friends of friends – thankfully all have remained friends. I also employ family members as casual staff members
– this is allowed as long as they do not live with the person they are
supporting.
Our job
description and interview were done by Heidi.
The job description focused on what she could do and what she needed
help with but also the fun things that she hoped she would do with her Future
Guides.
The interviews
were hilarious with the most important questions being which football team they
supported and if they would help her to attend a Justin Beiber concert.
I have heard of
people using DP’s for a variety of activities – respite, shopping and cinema
trips, accompanying people to clubs, church, pubs and night clubs – whatever
the person wants to go to.
A word of advice; keep
the activities updated. Once they can go
to the cinema without staff, for example, move on to going to the gym, shops
and so on.
Suzie was a Future
Guide for a friend; activities ranging from learning to cook vegetarian meals
to helping him learn the bus route and going to the gym.
However,
this was only one morning a week sorted.
Heidi was still very keen to work in a hair salon. The school had suggested the mainstream massive
college where Heidi could do an NVQ in hairdressing but thankfully we found a
small college with a training salon.
She loved the NVQ
courses in hairdressing and customer service and enjoyed getting to know the
other students and staff.
On other days she
did voluntary work at a charity shop and a café.
There are other
options too: mainstream FE college with or without a special education unit, or
moving to a residential college where they will learn hands on independent
living skills and complete a course which will help them find work at the end.
Thankfully Heidi
left school before Education Health Care Plans were introduced, but from other
people’s experiences I would suggest starting their after school Plan in about
year 10. Then there might be some chance
of it being ready when they leave school!
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