Equal rights

[fatcat]

in my local authority carers with SGO's could claim full maintenance from the local authority and also claim tax credits on top. now the maintenance is reduced by the tax credits. apparently the local authority used to turn a blind eye, but then a carer pointed out that this was unfair for carers who can't claim tax credits, so now its being reduced for all new sgo's. doesn't seem that this carer proved very helpful after all, even though they said they were fighting for all carers. they just screwed it up for everybody coming after them.

[youngagain]

I think it is wonderful what you all do, I wish that we would have had the same support.Does not the children act state somewhere that it is illegal to divulge the identity of of any families involved in care proceedings to anyone outside of the care proceedings i.e. professionals and parties to the proceedings?

[maricharle]

It's certainly an excellent idea. Reminds me of some of the work my sister done for years with victims support who helped people through trauma and in many cases court. They also worked closely with the victims, police, and the courts and were given training. I just wonder if their is some form of support for those doing the work in terms of training as I would imagine this would be essential in keeping up to date with policy changes and practises.

I've always found in life it's a good thing to give something back to the system when you have gained from it. I was given the responsibility of caring for my wonderful grandson and would at some time like to give something back to the system that help me ensure his future. I'm not sure how I will do so yet but I will find a way.
It's great to know what others are doing as it gives you ideas as to what you can do. Good luck to all of you and those you are supporting.
I look forward to a day when all carers and their children are treated equally

[nanaJ]

Hello Youngagain - I think it has been relaxed slightly in that you can show close family members the paperwork etc in addition to legal advisers which has always been the case. You can also disclose details to the Legal aid board (or whatever it is called now)for the purposes of an application for legal aid and it's relative merits as well as opposing the granting of legal funding.

There are so many anomalies, for example the CSA cannot be informed of any court details which I would have thought as a government department supposedly dedicated to collecting child support could be informed of work arrangements declared in court. There have been instances of contempt of court reported (source: Family Law Week) for such disclosures. All very confusing indeed.

[Piglets-House]

Youngagain, don't be offended by this comment but I think you have an obvious grievence with your local authority that you have either not been able to resolve or not happy with its resolution. You are so negative about everything Kinship Care. If you don't like the situation you find yourself in then change it, if you can't then embrace it because it is very wearing to be so negative about everything all the time. Children proceedings are not exclusively closed they have to allow the same rights as other cases including Mckenzie friends. As far as confidentiality goes the carers I work with as long as they are happy for me to be involved then that is fine by me I do not offer legal advice and I do not tell them what to do. I question why they do certain things and question why the LA do things in certain ways but that is only to try to empower them to then question those things.

Maricharle I enjoy what I am doing not only because it is rewarding but also because I think we have a unique prospective as kinship carers ourselves.

I did not have a good experience with Social Services when I first got involved with my 2 young charges but that does not stop me from telling other carers that they must engage with social services as much as I know I didn't it is a fundamental process that if not done will achieve nothing, unfortunately for some people too much knowledge is dangerous and negative comments are not helpful to carers who are wanting help and are trying to help others by offering advice and a shoulder to cry on or even a cup of tea and a chat with someone who can fully appreciate how they feel.

[Help 1870]

quote:Originally posted by nanaJ

Help, I wondered where your referrals came from? Although it is wonderful to have an advocacy service such as yours which has the best interests of kinship carers at heart, I do hope you are also protecting yourselves, are insured and have the support of an umbrella organisation or even a statutory body who can advise and support you on any legalities.


The referrals come from many sources, FLO's, Solicitors, word of mouth, other organisations who support us and more importantly from the SW's working with the families.

This last one I think shows that even SW want the families to have support that they know they cant provide themselves and recognise the value of having someone independent as a 'buffer' when things get tense.

Yes, we are careful, and are supported by a number of organisations as well as individual professionals, we have done very much what you did Nanaj.

Confidentiality is the key to being able to help carers, and confidentiality is something we take very seriously.

I can only reiterate again Youngagin, if it was illegal we wouldnt be able to do it or be welcomed as we are.

[maricharle]

quote:unfortunately for some people too much knowledge is dangerous and negative comments are not helpful to carers who are wanting help and are trying to help others by offering advice and a shoulder to cry on or even a cup of tea and a chat with someone who can fully appreciate how they feel.

Hi Piglet Just hope you did not think I was dismissing the work you are doing when I asked about trainning as I am genuinely interested in finding out more. I wanted to clarify this fact as I was not sure of the comment above and wouldn't like you to misunderstand my reasons for asking.
As I said before I wish you and those you support all the best.

[Help 1870]

Maricharl, there are a number of organisations all over the country that specialise in training advocates, the difficulty for groups like us is how expensive that training is.

There are many forms of advocacy, we are probably best described as Peer advocates in that we have experienced similar problems and have a good understanding of what carers are going through. Often its dificult for carers to get across exactly how they feel because they become to emotional, once a professional understands how they feel in simple terms more often than not the manner changes.

In order to help though you must be able to be able to form a balanced view and see the position from both sides. There is no point in supporting a carer in asking for the moon because they just wont get it, so being realistic in terms of needs v wants is helpful.

I agree with piglets house that if you dont like your situation then either embrace it or change it. If something hasnt worked so far its not likely to work at all, so take a different path. There are some people though who's experiences have tainted their whole view. I look at some cases that have finished with a less than positive result and wonder if a different result would have been acheived had a different stance been taken at some point, any point. We have taken on what seemed to be very intractable cases with both sides being very stubborn, or one side even shutting down entirely and refusing dialogue. we encouraged carers and professionals to deal with each other in a different way and have secured some very positive results. But everyone needs to work together and sometimes people have to accept that what they are asking for or wanting is unreasonable.

[Piglets-House]

quote:Originally posted by maricharle

quote:unfortunately for some people too much knowledge is dangerous and negative comments are not helpful to carers who are wanting help and are trying to help others by offering advice and a shoulder to cry on or even a cup of tea and a chat with someone who can fully appreciate how they feel.

Hi Piglet Just hope you did not think I was dismissing the work you are doing when I asked about trainning as I am genuinely interested in finding out more. I wanted to clarify this fact as I was not sure of the comment above and wouldn't like you to misunderstand my reasons for asking.
As I said before I wish you and those you support all the best.





Absolutely not directed at you and no misunderstanding taken. xx

[Piglets-House]

When we are put into difficult positions we all react with a fight or flight response, we don't sometimes have the ability to look from outside the box. I think Peer advocacy is a good description for what we do or even peer mentoring because we are trying to get the carers to look from outside the box, we have the ability to retain a certain level of emotional detachment. But to understand the situations these carers are in because we have been there and if we haven't then we know someone who has.

I have been accepted to do a homestart course in April for 12 weeks which will give me invaluable input in respect of child protection/safe guarding/domestic violence and drug awareness which will all be relevant to the work I am doing now with carers. So at the moment it is peer mentoring but eventually I will hopefully have the backing of Homestart in being able to offer advice and support thus avoiding any of the issues that NanaJ raised but still retaining independence from the LA to assist carers.