RESPITE/SHORT BREAKS
When young people move into adult services the way that respite or short breaks are managed changes.
WHAT ARE SHORT BREAKS
Following as assessment by Social Care & Housing, short breaks for young people up to the age of 18 are provided by Holly House or Barnardo’s. This finishes when a young person reaches 18 and the management of short breaks is taken over by the Community Team for Learning Disabilities – which is the adult team. Within children’s services there is no cost to the family when a child has an overnight stay. However, there is a charge for overnight breaks within adult services. The charges are based on the amount of DLA a young person receives. There is one rate for young people on the low and middle rates, and another for those receiving the high rate of DLA.
WHERE DO THE SHORT BREAKS TAKE PLACE?
Overnight stays are arranged at a unit situated on the Cardigan Road in Haverfordwest called Bryn Heulog. The house is open for 50 weeks every year and has adapted bedrooms for any young people who are unable to access stairs. The aim of the unit is that young people have a break from their family homes, and perhaps try new experiences and meet new friends. It also enables parents caring for young people with disabilities to have a break from their caring role.
WHAT ACTIVITIES ARE ON OFFER?
The respite base provides an opportunity for young people to have a break away from their ‘ordinary’ lives. Many young people choose to have breaks with their friends – meeting up with them in different surroundings. Sometimes young people choose to meet new people during their breaks. The staff ensure that the young people have as many experiences as possible during their stay, making use of community facilities in the area.
THE FAMILY AIDE SERVICE
As a young person approaches their 18th birthday, the Child Care Support Co-ordinator from children’s services will begin to liaise with the Co-ordinator from the adult team. In adult services the workers are called ‘Family Aides’, but their role remains the same - to build confidence and independence and to enable young people to access community services.
As far as possible the Coordinators from both teams will try to make sure that a young person can remain with the same support worker, if that is what the young person would prefer.
WHO CAN USE THE SERVICE?
If young people are already using respite services before they reach 18, they will transfer to the adult team and begin to use the services offered by them if they have a support worker. However, overnight respite is not automatically transferred from children’s to adult services and parents would have to request a stay at Bryn Heulog for their young person if they felt this was needed.
If however, a young person has never received any support they can approach the Community Team for Learning Disabilities and ask them to undertake an assessment of their needs. This is done by ringing County Hall and asking for the Adult Assessment Team on 01437 764551.
IF YOU NEED FURTHER INFORMATION
About Family Aid services:
Marilyn Buckley Telephone: 01437 776091
About overnight respite:
Michelle Parry Telephone: 01437 760185
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SUPPORTED LIVING/HOUSING CHOICES
The Social Care & Housing Department has a duty to assess the needs of people with leaning difficulties. They also have to take their housing needs into account. This means that, wherever possible, people with learning difficulties have the same choice of housing options that is available to others.
WHERE DOES THE HOUSING COME FROM?
At the present time, housing is available from one of the following sources:
Local authority accommodation – council housing
Pembrokeshire Housing Association
Private landlords
A family home
A house bought on the open market
FORMS OF SUPPORT
Many young people now choose to move away from the family home. Few will be able to make this move without lots of support. The support offered would reflect the needs of the young person and might be:
Staff available within the house on a 24 hours basis.
Staff available on site – through a sheltered warden scheme
Staff offering support at times agreed through an assessment – maybe to help with shopping, budgeting, cleaning etc.
HOUSING CHOICES & SUPPORT?
Some people decide they want to live alone, and for some sharing a tenancy with others would be preferable. Again, this is decided through a careful assessment of the young person’s needs.
The level of support that would be required would also be decided through an assessment. It may be that the young person needs individual support or, if they are sharing with others, it may be that the support is shared as well.
WHO PROVIDES THE SUPPORT?
Support can be provided in lots of ways, but is usually in one of the following ways:
Staff employed directly by Social Care & Housing or the NHS Trust (or a combination of both).
Staff employed by a private care provider or a housing provider.
Staff employed directly or indirectly by the individual through Direct Payments (further details about this scheme is on the DIRECT PAYMENTS sheet).
A RANGE OF CHOICES
There is much more choice now for young people who feel they would like to move out of their family home. It may be that they might rent a flat from the Pembrokeshire Housing Association and have a medium level of support. The CTLD also have an Independent Living Team who can provide support for people who want to live semi-independently in this way. This service would be funded by the Social Care & Housing Department and make use of something called Supporting People Grant / ILF or possibly health funding.
If a young person has needs which require more support and they choose to live with friends, they might rent from Pembrokeshire Housing Association. This could be from a range of houses available to others seeking suitable housing or could be a specially adapted bungalow. The funding for this young person might come from a combination of the Independent Living Fund, Transitional Housing Benefit, Social Care & Housing and the NHS Trust. For this young person a team of support workers providing 24 hour support may be needed. A private care provider might provide this.
Each young person’s needs would be looked at individually, so that everyone was clear about how and where they would like to live and what support they would need.
HOW LONG DOES IT ALL TAKE?
Moving house for anyone is never a fast thing to do. For young people with learning difficulties it is even more important that things happen at the right time and that all the information is available to make sure that decisions about housing and levels of support are the right ones.
A young person and their parent or carer should contact the Community Team for Learning Difficulties to seek an assessment of their needs. They would also need to fill in a Housing Application Form. Getting the money to help the move happen takes time. For example, if someone needs to use the Independent Living Fund it would take around 3 months to get the money through.
MORE INFORMATION
Helen Sinclair Independent Living Co-ordinator
Community Team for Learning Difficulties
Haverfordia House
Winch Lane
HAVERFORDWEST SA61 2DN Tel: 01437 762300
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SOCIAL CARE & HOUSING DAY SERVICES
Day Services are provided by the Social Care & Housing Department to help people choose what they want to do during their day and support them to do it. They aim to assist young people to be part of their own communities, to use and develop new skills and enable them to have new experiences.
MOVING INTO DAY SERVICES
If a young person over 18 wants to use a day service from the Social Care & Housing Department, someone from the Community Team for Learning Disabilities will visit him or her to carry out an assessment. This will identify what the young person’s needs are and how the day services might be able to meet those needs.
This might mean that the young person goes along to visit the day service closest to his or her home to find out what it has to offer. The day services are based in Social Activity Centres.
WHAT NEXT?
If the young person decides he or she want to use a day service, the staff there will need to have some information about the person in order to be able to plan and prepare for when he or she starts to use the service.
Someone from the day service will initially take on the role of being the young person’s Key Worker. This Key Worker may change once the young person has been using the services for a while and gets to know everyone a bit better.
THE ROLE OF THE KEY WORKER
The Key Worker is available to help the person decide what they might like to do. They will do this by talking with the young person about likes, dislikes, interests and past experiences. The Key Worker will help the young person co-ordinate his or her day service by putting together an individual programme for him or her to follow.
This programme will set out what activities are going to happen, who with and when.
WHAT IF THE YOUNG PERSON DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THEY WANT TO DO?
The day service will arrange for the young person to have the opportunity to try lots of different activities to try to help them decide which activities they would like to continue with. The young person may want to try something new, and these taster sessions are planned to help them decide.
WHAT OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE?
There are different opportunities, such as education, employment or job sampling, different leisure activities, and community work are available. There are three day service bases around the county and each one has a different variety of opportunities. Where the opportunities take place depends on the activities the young person chooses.
The main purpose of the day service is to enable the young people to participate and be part of their own community. This could mean that the person could be using a mixture of resources and visiting different places to do various things.
HOW OFTEN CAN THE YOUNG PERSON USE THE DAY SERVICE?
This depends on the assessment of the young person’s needs. The day service is available five days a week, but the young person may only want to use it one or two days each week or for part of some days.
Each day service has a set number of places for people, so this may also affect how many days can be offered to the young person.
CAN A YOUNG PERSON CHANGE THEIR ACTIVITIES?
Changes can occur on a regular basis and young person can have a variety of new experiences. They would be encouraged to complete what they are involved in, if it involved following a course for example.
PERSON CENTRED PLAN
All young people should have a person centred plan when they start the day service. This is a plan that helps a person look at their life and decide what they would like to do. The planning process should help the young person to plan and organise support to do the things they want to do.
LOCAL OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COMMUNITY
Young people can benefit from any of the following activities: -
Making use of facilities, cafes, libraries etc.
Encouraging new friendships
Job sampling
Providing a shopping service
Developing new community projects
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES INCLUDE
Paid work
Venture – supported employment agency
Job sampling – in various places
Work experience
Voluntary work
R.E.A.D.Y. recycling project (MENCAP Scheme)
Shopping project
Local businesses
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
Catering
Pottery
Retail
Horticulture
Independent living
Craft
Numeracy, literacy and communication
Information Technology
Technology
LEISURE OPPORTUNITIES
Swimming
Horse riding
Bowls
Stackpole Centre
Multi-sensory rooms
Golf
Fishing
Photography
Aromatherapy
WHERE ARE THE SOCIAL ACTIVITY CENTRES?
Portfield Centre
Snowdrop Lane
Portfield
Haverfordwest
SA611BS
TEL:01437 762762
The Avenue Centre
Greenhill Avenue
Tenby
SA70 7LB
TEL:01834 842224
The Anchorage Centre
Commercial Row
Pembroke Dock
SA72 6JU
TEL:01646 686177
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Contact:
Marilyn Buckley
The Community Team for Learning Disabilities
Haverfordia House
Winch lane
HAVERFORDWEST
SA61 2DN
Tel: 01437 776091
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SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT
Support will enable a young person to make informed choices about their future, and to fulfil their potential in voluntary or paid employment.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Key Steps aim to support people into volutary work, training, work tasters and paid employment. As well as paid and unpaid employment, they offer advice and guidance on benefits and how a young person could be better off in work. They also have a trained Job Coach who can support young people on work tasters on a 1:1 basis.
WHAT KINDS CAN THEY OFFER?
A personal development plan tailored to meet a young person's needs.
Advice and guidance
The setting up of work tasters.
Preparing a young person for work and providing necessary training and support whilst in employment.
Help to identify potential part time or full time voluntary and paid employment opportunities.
Liaising with employers on a young person's behalf.
Help with a young person's job search ... including:- Writing a CV, filling in application forms and practice with interview techniques.
WHAT IF I NEED MORE INFORMATION?
If you want to know more, you can contact:
Key Steps, Supported Employment Service, Brickhurst Business Park, Johnston, Haverfordwest, SA62 3BP
Telephone: 01437 891816. www.pembrokeshire-frame.org.uk/keysteps.html
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ILF
INDEPENDENT LIVING FUND
The INDEPENDENT LIVING FUND is a trust set up and paid for by the Government. It seeks to support long term, independent living for people who are severely disabled. It does this by supporting them to live at home – their own or their family home – without moving into residential care.
HOW THE FUND WORKS
The ILF Fund works closely with the Social Care & Housing Department helping to pay towards community care packages. The packages that a young person is assessed as needing must cost more than £200 each week. The Fund makes regular contributions towards the package and payments are made directly to the person receiving the service.
WHO CAN APPLY
Young people CAN apply, but they must meet ALL of the following conditions. They must:
RECEIVE SERVICES TO THE VALUE OF AT LEAST £200 PER WEEK, or Direct Payments from the Social Care & Housing Department to the same value. The young person’s Social Worker or Key Worker should be able to tell them if this applies to them.
BE AT LEAST 16 – ILF is not available to someone after the age of 66.
RECEIVE THE HIGHEST RATE CARE COMPONENT of Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
EXPECT TO LIVE IN THE COMMUNITY for the next six months.
HAVE SAVINGS OF LESS THAN £8,000.
If the young person meets all the conditions listed above then the ILF Fund can pay up to £375 per week on top of what the Social Care & Housing Department are contributing towards services. Social Care & Housing will assess whether the young person may have to make a contribution from their own benefits.
As a general rule young people would be expected to contribute HALF of their care component of DLA and their ENTIRE Severe Disability Premium – if the young person is receiving Income Support. All of these contributions would go towards care costs.
HOW CAN A YOUNG PERSON APPLY?
The young person needs to get an application form from the Social Care & Housing Department at County Hall, Haverfordwest, or directly from the Fund – the address is at the end of this sheet.
The young person, or his or her parent/carer, fills in SECTION ONE of the form, and SECTION TWO is for the social worker to complete. When BOTH sections are completed the form is returned to the ILF Fund. The young person needs to make sure he or she has spoken to their social worker BEFORE filling in the form.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
If the young person meets ALL the eligibility conditions the ILF arrange for one of their social workers to visit the young person’s own social worker.
They will be asked what their care needs are NOW and what their FUTURE care needs will be. They will also need to know about how much the young person gets in benefits and how much money they have saved. The ILF social worker will then complete a report, recommending the level of care that the young person will need. The Fund will then decide how much financial help it is able to give. If the young person is successful, ILF will write to tell them how much they will receive.
HOW DOES THE FUND GET USED?
The money given must be used, in full to pay the wages for someone to provide personal and domestic care. The money cannot be used for other things – such as equipment, adaptations, heating bills or transport costs.
The young person can choose who they want to employ, but the money cannot be spent on employing a relative who lives with them. The fund will want to know the names, addresses and National Insurance numbers of the people who are employed and they will also need to know how much they are being paid each week.
Sometimes agencies are used to do all the work connected with employment issues and the Fund will want to know the name and address of the agency and how much they are being paid.
AND FINALLY…
When the young person knows how much they will receive their social worker will help arrange their care. They then have to let the Fund know, so that they can start paying. If an application is not successful they will write and tell the young person why.
WHO TO CONTACT
INDEPENDENT LIVING (1993) FUND
P.O. Box 183
Nottingham NG8 3RD
Tel: 0115 942 8191 or 0115 942 8192, Fax:0115 929 3156, Email: funds@ilf.org.uk, website: www.ilf.org.uk