Enhanced payments in SGO for Disability/Special Needs

[CY23]

Hi there
We are in negotiations for support plan for SGO. We look after our Godson who has Autism, ADHD, Attachment difficulties, Sensory and communication difficulties, learning disorder and he has high anxiety and he self harms. He is on a Child in Need plan and attends SEN Specialist school. We have identified that we incur extra costs by having to pay extra for 1:1 activities and hobbies as he is unable to access group activities. He isolated himself at school and does not interact. We have asked for an enhanced payment in the SGO for extra costs due to disabilities and effects of young childhood trauma. We have been refused. We don’t understand as his previous mainstream school had to apply for ‘exceptional funding’ for 1:1 transition around the school and for social/ recreational at break/ lunchtime. This is in addition to his already 1:1 in class. He is on the highest band 6 funding and was granted the exceptional payment to school. This is exactly the area where we incur extra costs by having to pay 1:1 activities as he cannot access groups, we have tried. His Occupational Therapy report recommends 1:1 swimming lessons after the group lessons failed. He has a passion for figure skating and after the group activity failed we pay for 1:1 lessons for him to learn skating. He is also movement seeking so this helps to regulate him. For comparable cost six skating lesson course costs £66 and one private lesson costs £22 for tuition and £14 ice time so a total of £36. This helps to instil self confidence and a belief in himself as he has had an abusive past where he still calls himself stupid, fat, ugly, useless which are the messages he heard growing up.

We have other extra costs, mainly travel as he cannot travel on the bus. He has all kinds of triggers, meltdowns and challenging behaviours in response to stress and overstimulation which lead to him hurting himself or others or running off. He has had incidents at school of inappropriate sexual behaviour where he had to be supervised and he’s been excluded from hurting his teachers. He has tried to strangle and choke himself in the classroom and asks his teacher how he can die etc. He has started to internalise his behaviours where if something upsets or triggers him he walks off somewhere quiet and hurts himself so he always needs someone supervising. He has weekly therapy with a Child Psychologist.

I believe that there is provision in the guidelines for the LA to use their discretion to give an enhanced payment in SGO for extra costs arising from disability, special needs and traumatic childhood experiences, equal to the fostering allowance and I believe that he fits the criteria. I know it is discretionary but I do not feel that they have used their discretion reasonably.

However, we have been refused twice at panel. Their reasons were ‘the 2017 SGO guidelines don’t require us to fund children’s activities’. My response was that ‘the guidelines do require you to consider the extra costs incurred’. They have ignored this.

I would be very grateful for any advise around this.

Just to add that we do get high rate care and low mobility in DLA for him but we use that to fund a vehicle which we needed to get as his school is over 5 miles away and we have to take him to contact in our town, appointments, Child in Need meetings and therapy in the next town, some 12 miles away and to contact to see Dad where it is 194 miles one way. We previously had a two seater van that was a work vehicle so we had to put down a deposit in the car and then the DLA is used fit the monthly payment, insurance and petrol.

We are on Income based ESA and don’t get any Child tax credits or UC as we are stuck on Legacy as the moment. We also did not get a fostering allowance when he came to us four and half years ago as they said that it was private. Two Judges in this SGO process have told SS that it was not private and they have conceded this and put Looked After in his support plan.

I would appreciate any advice on where to go next as I believe that he fits the criteria as he has complex needs that do cost us extra regularly but as they keep refusing what do we do now? Thank you if you can help

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Cally,

Thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear that you are struggling financially and feel that the local authority is not offering reasonable support.

From your post I think that the special guardianship order has not yet been made. For this reason I would encourage you to continue challenging the local authority where you feel they are not being reasonable. Once a special guardianship order is made by a court it is much more difficult to get a local authority to agree to additional financial support.

Have you had any legal advice from a solicitor? A solicitor will be able to check that what the local authority have offered you an allowance that is in line with what they are legally obligated to offer. The local authority should offer to pay for this legal advice. If you have not spoken with a solicitor yet then I would suggest that you ask the local authority to arrange payment for this and then you can seek this advice. A solicitor may also be able to liaise with the local authority on your behalf and put additional pressure on them.

In the Special Guardianship Guidance, published in 2017, it does state that:

“Regulation 6 sets out the circumstances in which financial support may be paid to a special guardian or prospective special guardian. These are:
(a) where it is necessary to ensure that the special guardian or prospective special guardian can look after the child
(b) where the child needs special care which requires a greater expenditure of resources than would otherwise be the case because of illness, disability, emotional or behavioural difficulties or the consequences of past abuse or neglect”

In paragraph 67 it also states that the local authority can “disregard means where they are considering providing financial support in respect of:

• any special care referred to in regulation 6(2)(b) (see above) which requires a greater expenditure of resources than would otherwise be the case because of his illness, disability, emotional or behavioural difficulties, or the consequences of his past abuse or neglect in relation to a child who has previously been looked after by the local authority. This will allow local authorities to provide a financial package for a particular child to facilitate the making of a special guardianship order”

You can find a link to this guidance HERE.

You may wish to argue that although the guidelines don’t specifically mention funding for ‘activities’, it would be reasonable to consider that a child should have access to these activities and that they could take into account the additional expense for him to access these.

As I explained above, I would encourage you to continue challenging the local authority as you stand a better chance of getting more financial support if you do this now, before the special guardianship order is made.

It may also be useful for you to know about the Adoption Support Fund (if you do not already). This was set up to help pay for essential therapy services for adoptive families and has since been extended to special guardian families where the child was previously ‘looked after’. The fund is available to children and young people up to and including the age of 18 (or 25 if the young person has an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP). The funding is to cover therapeutic services, such as play therapy, Life Story work or direct work with a child. Currently the funding is £5000 per child per financial year.

You mentioned that you get some financial support from DLA payments for your godson. This information on the Kinship website may also be of some help:

“PAC-UK advise SGs about the possibility of accessing extra funding through Disability Living Allowance which has a mental health component. This allows for attachment and developmental trauma issues to be detailed as the basis for, non means tested, extra funding. The adoptive families and SG families we work with have had a 100% success rate at accessing some increased funding to support them.”

I hope that this is of some help to you,
Best wishes,
Suzie

[CY23]

Thank you Susie for this information. I appreciate your help.