28
February 2018
And the good news is Ferretfingers’ enablement officer has swung it that £2k of his care package budget can be spent on respite weekends with LD:NorthEast. That's using the funds left over after paying for his weekly days at Rising Sun Farm and Gary Mather Centre.
Not enough for another day a week but all rolled up together and we've enough for two or three weekends.
Woolerwoman
That's really
good! That bit of flexibility has its uses.
Bentonbag Looking back it’s
a whole year since I instigated the process of getting Ferretfingers’ care
package and payments sorted out. In that
time the local authority’s ‘system’ has changed at least twice, forcing the
enablement officer to” input everything again” and/or “wait until it’s fixed so
we don’t have to input it all over again”.
The original enablement officer has been off sick several times (don’t
blame him) and has now vanished and/or been replaced. That being said both the enablement officers
we are in contact with are known to and rated by staff at LDNE. I don’t blame
the front line workers. I blame the
people forcing local authorities to squeeze a quart out of a pint pot.
Woolerwoman What a time you've
had. It's not just stupid it's cruel.
Bentonbag His services have
continued, and been paid for, in the mean time. BUT it's all up for review in
July again, or maybe not, you never know .....
Additional Information and Update
By
the way that rolling it up and “swinging it” was at my suggestion; the local
authority would have been quite happy for the money left over after paying for
two days a week at a day centre was left unspent and in their bank account.
When
Ferretfingers was first assessed for a care package by the local authority he
came out with 150 “points” worth £150 per week to be spent on services.
That was some ten years ago.
My
needs as his carer have also been assessed and fed into the care package
budget.
He
still has 150 points.
They
are still worth £150.
In
the meantime service provider costs and charges have gone up.
Care workers need to be paid a living wage
however much local authority finance departments try to squeeze their
employers.
Also,
because Ferretfingers is in receipt of PIP and ESA he is expected to pay
towards his budget.
This currently
stands at £22.18 per week, and whilst the budget has not gone up over the years
the amount he has to pay has.
We
are in the fortunate position to be able to pay for some respite and outreach
work from our own funds.
Many, I’d guess
most, other families caring for a disabled or autistic person do not.
