Social worker

[Annea]

Because my eldest dd with A/S was diagnosed priavately, she fell through a gap and ended up with no extra support.

I am now wanting a social worker to come and board but how do I go about getting a social worker??

 

I am in Torfaen in South Wales but when I look at the local council web site it is just a mountain of confusion (to me anyway )

 

Anyone know how i get in touch with one?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Anne

[shortcake]

Hi im in london but i work for s/s (for my sins! elderly stuff not kids tho) I think you are best contacting your local council direct and ask for the childrens duty desk hopefully they should be able to direct you to the right dept or at least aim you in the right direction? Maybe ask your GP as well. Hope this helps

[Annea]

Thanks Shortcake and Di (who pm'd me) I have now got hold of someone....

 

Thanks again

 

Anne

Edited September 25, 2007 by Annea

[MelowMeldrew]

I don't see the point personally, during my time my son was allocated 6, we only ever met 2, and my son never met one of those, and he only lasted 2 weeks apparently. Because my son needs absolute continuity, it doesn't seem feasible to use a social worker, perhaps its just Wales ? Social workers don't stay long enough to warm a chair at their desk.... a complete waste of time...

[Cariad]

Because my eldest dd with A/S was diagnosed priavately, she fell through a gap and ended up with no extra support.

I am now wanting a social worker to come and board but how do I go about getting a social worker??

 

I am in Torfaen in South Wales but when I look at the local council web site it is just a mountain of confusion (to me anyway )

 

Anyone know how i get in touch with one?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Anne

 

Hi Anne, I remember going to Torfaen years ago!! Back to the question, you have to go through your GP or CHAMS at your hospital (again through the GP). I used to have a SN health visitor, they then passed the DS onto a social worker as he was 7 or 8 I think as he was too old for the SNHV. So book an appointment with the GP is your best bet.

[TuX]

I don't see the point personally, during my time my son was allocated 6, we only ever met 2, and my son never met one of those, and he only lasted 2 weeks apparently. Because my son needs absolute continuity, it doesn't seem feasible to use a social worker, perhaps its just Wales ? Social workers don't stay long enough to warm a chair at their desk.... a complete waste of time...

they can differ,am have had the same social worker for a long time now,she is also the overall manager of the learning disability team whether that makes any difference-the one had sort of had before her never got in contact with am,other adults am know have had a few different social workers.

 

Annea,is daughter child or adult age?

the way they fund now, in many places means even more people being left out if they are only taking on those with moderate or above difficulties, and they tend to be very biased towards aspergers regardless of skills and difficulties,unless they know asd well.

some people will not be accepted under the learning disabilities team due to not having significant enough difficulties,and mental health won't accept them if they don't have significant enough mental health problems,so some aspergan adults might not be able to get support from them at all.

not sure how different it is to child ss though.

[MelowMeldrew]

they can differ,am have had the same social worker for a long time now,she is also the overall manager of the learning disability team whether that makes any difference-the one had sort of had before her never got in contact with am,other adults am know have had a few different social workers.

 

Annea,is daughter child or adult age?

the way they fund now, in many places means even more people being left out if they are only taking on those with moderate or above difficulties, and they tend to be very biased towards aspergers regardless of skills and difficulties,unless they know asd well.

some people will not be accepted under the learning disabilities team due to not having significant enough difficulties,and mental health won't accept them if they don't have significant enough mental health problems,so some aspergan adults might not be able to get support from them at all.

not sure how different it is to child ss though.

 

 

Schools tend to nag, you get social workers, mainly because they don't pressurise them as we do ! It seems as I insisted on continuity because my son only responds to that they don't bother, as I also insisted they do nothing without consulting us parents first, that was a no-no too, they appear to want to run everything with parents out of the equation. Basically I only took them on in the fist place because I thought my son having an independant social worker gave him more freedom, but it was an abysmal failure. The idea of a social worker is because if you approach areas yourself you want your son/daughter to be included in, they won't listen to you, and refer back to SS again, it got so frustrating you think, sod it, not worth the effort, and they aren't going to be there next week so.... what was the purpose of a SW anyway ? If you get one the odds are 99-1 they know nothing about austism or autistics, if you make it an absolute neccessity, there are no social workers for Autistics in Wales.... just mean-wells from special needs.. we're very badly served in Wales.

[Juney]

Hi,

 

local authorities have a duty to assess under section 17 of the children act 1989 if a child is at risk of not been able to develop and achieving an adequate level of wellbeing, OR if he or she is disabled. or in other words ' in need', only need to provide services if they have the means. Its worth checking out the exact wording. The best people to contact are the local duty and assessment team, who will arrange for an assessment to be undertaken.

 

Like other posters I have found a gap in the services between learning disabilties and mental health teams. I also agree with the fact that few social workers seem to have a good standard of knowlege of autism.

 

 

juney