one to one childcare payed for by social services ..anybody have experience ??

[dette]

my baby great neice(14month) has cerebral palsy and her parents (my nephew and his wife) have been talking to their nurse about respite care.They are really struggling to get simple things like shopping and cleaning their house and taking their other 3 kids (8 6 and 4)out swimming etc.i have LO as much as i can but they dont like to ask.They have been told there is funding available through social services to pay for care if they use a registered childminder (ME).They said if they can pay me then they'll ask me more .how does the payment work .what do i charge as i would be doing it "one to one" so she is using 3 spaces ?

[KatieFS]

I think you have to be a network childminder. Contact your council for clarity xx

[lynnfi]

You do not have to be a network CM as far as I know. I am not and did respite care on a one to one last year. LA (acting on behalf of SS) asked me for my fees which were a bit above what they were giving (sth like 4.5/hour, not bad, but depends on areas I guess), so I agreed to their fees. After the day of care they just sent me a form to fill in with the number of hours I had done etc, and I was paid 2 weeks later. Very easy and straight forward.
I hope you can get it because it seems like a very nice plan. Good luck.

[lisbet]

I guess it is done differently in different areas but here the childminder needs to be enrolled on the enhanced provision scheme, then someone like a HV refers the family and a placement officer matches up family to childminder, and then all three parties sign a council childminding contract. The council have an hourly rate and if need be they will pay 3x that for 1-1 care. They pay 4wkly.

Where I am they usually want you to be have a level 3, 2yrs childcare experience and a good ofsted (but they have discretion to accept someone with 2 of the 3 criteria) and they could interview and enroll someone pretty quickly if need be. If it's a similar system where you are I'm sure they'd jump at the chance of having you care for your great niece

Hope the council give you useful info and it all goes smoothly

[ceegee]

Sounds like direct payments.

I get this payment as A a childminder and B as a parent of a child with Autism.

Basically social services will recognise there is a bed for parents to have a break and be able to go shopping, have alittle bit of time to theirselves without having to think about 24/7 care for their child with special needs.
They will then decide how many hours and how much ( we get x6 hours a week at £8.75 ph )
We can then employ someone to look after our child (we have employed a TA in my sons class)
As a CM it means I have a little chap with SN one day at the weekend and get an inflated payment for it and mum and dad get a family day with their other children who do not have special needs.

Its very simple and for us our social worker is great and worked out a great care package for us.
For you as a childminder if will give your nephew and wife a much needed few hours off and encourage their child to understand change.

PM me for more details if you want xx

[dette]

loads of great info here xx thanks everyone

[Tazmin68]

Hi

I have children who are paid though social services. In my case the children are not disabled in any way but may have developmental delay or neglect and where I am we are paid for 15 hours at the rate of £4 per hour. The worst thing is getting them to pay out. We have to submit weekly diary sheets to prove attendance and it takes weeks to get payment from social services for example I submitted two weeks of diary sheets on Friday 14th feb I have just had a call they are being put through today on the computer system which is too late to get paid on Friday 22 march and there are no payments going out on the 29th as Good Friday so I am going to be paid for those on the Friday 5th April. Because placement was extended I have been waiting 3weeks for new diary sheets I received those yesterday got parent to sign them today and posted back god knows when those payments will be actioned.

I cannot wait for this child to move to 2 year old funding as that payment structure is far better organised.