Busyknitter

We first decided that we needed to ask for help getting some respite care at the end of last summer. A social worker came to see us in the autumn and the funding was approved at the end of November. 4 hours a fortnight during term time and 6 hours a week in the holidays.

We opted for Direct Payments, which means that social services puts the funding into a bank account for us and we get to employ a carer of our choice. It’s a bit bureaucratic and you have to find a suitable carer yourself, but the plus side is that you remain in control. We have been very lucky to find just the perfect person living literally 50 yards from us. She’s a social work student and already knows T a bit , as she is on his 1:1 rota at Junior Church. But it’s taken ages to get everything sorted; bank account, CRB checks, contract of employment, employers liability insurance etc, etc, etc.

So today was the very first session, 2.5 hours of freedom. In the end we decided we couldn’t let the occassion pass without a family celebration, so Mr. BK, and I have just taken S for a slap up lunch, while T spent a couple of hours happily bouncing on his new carer’s sofa.