Our Care Act Advocates support people to raise their concerns and complaints, and to ensure that people are fully represented in the decision-making processes that impact their lives. We provided Charlotte (not her real name) advocacy support and this how we helped her.
Charlotte's Story
Adult social care instructed an advocate as part of a safeguarding process for Charlotte (not her real name), a 21-year-old woman who has down’s syndrome and a learning difficulty. One of the actions identified during the safeguarding process was to have an advocate for a care act, care and support plan review. Charlotte can communicate verbally but likes to sign and use pictures and symbols.
Charlotte’s parents have their own support needs and another child to support, and the home environment can feel pressured.
Charlotte was funded for a Personal Assistant (PA) for 8 hours per week in term time and 16 hours per week in the holidays but hadn’t had a PA for over 2 years.
Support from an Advocate
The advocate met Charlotte on several occasions often taking pictures and symbols to help her communicate her views and wishes. The advocate also met with her dad and grandparents multiple times to get an understanding of her life and her interests. Charlotte was particularly interested in music and dancing.
Charlotte didn’t do any activities outside of school, so the advocate researched all the activities available in a 10-mile radius of her house. The advocate met with Charlotte, her dad, and grandparents to discuss which activities she would like to do, along with the family's capacity to take her places.
It was agreed that Charlotte would go to her grandparents from school on alternate Wednesdays, her grandparents would take her to a learning difficulty disco in a nearby town and then she would stay at their house that night. Charlotte also began going to their house from school on a Friday and staying there until Saturday afternoon, which gave Charlotte some peace and quiet to do her own thing and her parents some respite.
The advocate managed to find a PA for Charlotte and liaised with our Direct Payments team and Adult Social Care to arrange for the PA to start work with her. The PA covered the 8 hours per week in term time and 16 hours per week in the holidays. The PA was a signer and would spend time with Charlotte doing sing and sign sessions as well as taking her to shows.
Charlotte was coming to the end of her final year at school, so the advocate met with her and liaised with school and family to decide on placements for the next year. It was decided that Charlotte would attend 2 different day services for a total of 3 days per week.
The advocate visited both day services to speak with and observe Charlotte and the advocate also asked for feedback from staff at the day services and dad and grandparents on how they thought things had been going. Charlotte enjoyed both places, but it was felt that service A was slightly better for her as this was a higher ability group.
A review was arranged with Charlotte, her dad and grandparents and the social worker, PA and advocate. Unfortunately, 4 days before the review the PA decided she couldn’t continue working with Charlotte. At the review which the social worker wasn’t able to attend, we discussed the options of trying to find another PA and the difficulties and uncertainty of this, or attending another day service on the day when they have the signing choir. It was agreed that this was the best option, and a funding application was put in for an extra day at this service.
The impact
Charlotte went from having no additional support and no extracurricular activities to having a PA for 6 months offering lots of stimulation. Getting respite from a pressured home environment by staying at her grandparents 3 times per fortnight and her grandparents taking her to a learning difficulty disco on alternate weeks, which Charlotte loves. Charlotte started attending day services which she really enjoys and that offer her social and learning stimulation.
Charlotte and her family had little or no contact with their social worker and were unaware of the services or activities available or how to recruit a Personal Assistant. The advocate used ways of communicating with Charlotte that suited her best and met and communicated with Charlotte and her family regularly and served as a link between the family and social worker to get things done.
Want to know more?
If you would like more information on our Advocacy Services, please click the link to go to our website page. You can find out more about Direct Payments here.
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Helpline: 03003 038037
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