These are notes from a parent group session led by Michelle Stone from Richmond Council’s Community Advice and Support Team about Carer’s Assessments. Anyone not already known to adult social care will pass through this team.
This document has been written on the back of a newsletter article from the Down’s Syndrome Association about whether parents can charge their young person rent and a contribution towards other household costs if they are living at home.
This is a link to page on the AfC local offer about Short Breaks Funding and from this page you can apply online for the funding. From this link you can also see more links to further short breaks schemes and funding.
Some years ago Contact had a document about direct payments (DP) to pay for social care for children. There doesn’t seem to be a current document but there is still plenty of information on the website. I still have a copy of the 2014 document and can email it to you on request. We must, however, be aware that some information may not be current.
This document gives an overview of what a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DoLS) is and when it might be used. A DoLS can only be used where the young person is subject to high levels of care and supervision but does not have capacity to consent to those arrangements – usually in residential care or hospital.
When a person is deemed not to have the mental capacity to make a decision any decision taken must be in their best interests and this is a term given meaning in the Mental Capacity Act. The information in this document comes from a training course available on an NHS training website.
A mental capacity assessment doesn’t have to be formal or recorded in formal way, especially for day to day decisions. However, your young person may have an assessment carried out in a more formal way with the results recorded more formally and it can be helpful to see what that might look like.
A guide from Mencap about using the Mental Capacity Act and how it affects parents and disabled young people. It is written with disabled people with more complex and profound needs in mind.
A few pointers to help you think about what support you provide to your young person, how long it takes, etc in preparation for a Care Act Assessment.