Dear Theresa,
As you probably know Social Services have the duty under Section 47 the NHS and Community Care Act (and others) to assess needs when requested to do so and then a duty to meet needs once they have identified them. They also have the power to meet those needs in whatever way they feel is reasonable (hopefully, but not always, with the agreement of the service user!). In terms of Personal Assistance this can be with SS own staff (rare now), agency staff, CSVs or, increasingly, paying the user to employ their own PAs through the Direct Payments Legislation. Many local organisations of/for disabled people asssist people to set up these Independent Living Schemes with PA's.
At Brunel we have a few students using PAs and one has a CSV scheme, a problem with the later can be the annual turnover of staff who work on such schemes.
Regards,
Martin Smith.
Head of Disability /Special Needs Service.
Brunel University.
-----Original Message-----
From: Theresa Stone [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 November 2002 13:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Personal Care Support
Dear All,
We have a number of students with personal care needs at Sussex and
are hoping to develop the choice of personal care support available.
One of our concerns has been that, on occasion, Social Services
Departments have preferred CSV on a cost basis. We were wondering what
experiences others had had when dealing with Social Services in
relation to the cost of provision.
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Terry and Jacqui
Theresa Stone, Disability Co-ordinator
Student Services, University of Sussex
Tel: 01273 877465
email: [log in to unmask]
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