Gabbie T
What are your experiences of trying to meet your children’s needs?I am a full time wheelchair user. I am responsible for all the repairs of my chair which can cost upwards of £500 annually. We also have to pay for 2 prepayment prescription certificates, two sets of glasses, and as we have 4 Autistic people in the house with different sensory needs, we spend a huge amount on sensory equipment. Not to mention the cost for fuel for hospital appointments which I can no longer reclaim since switching to UC and my allergen-free food. I am the only one currently in receipt of PIP (we are awaiting a decision for DLA for my youngest). I have also been trapped in my house for a year unless I have had someone to assist me lifting the wheelchair in or out of the car due to the cost of adaptations for wheelchair accessible vehicles.
My youngest child has also been out of education as a result of not having her needs met for a number of months, and we were forced to have to pay privately for all of her assessments because of the poor quality of the LA's assessments (which didn't meet SEND code guidelines) and we were refused a plan - meaning we are now awaiting a tribunal date currently set for next year and no real likelihood of my child returning to mainstream education, with only 12 weeks of alternate provision guaranteed. We have had to take out loans to get these and so far have had to spend £6000 that the NHS and the LA should have funded. This doesn't even cover the fact that whilst we are entitled to legal aid, there's not a single legal aid solicitor in the country that had capacity to take on our case who would also support us at tribunal. Being Autistic I am seriously confused by the system and concerned about the prospect of having to represent myself in court but my daughter needs an education. I feel like I have no choice but to be pushed into debt to give my daughter a chance of a future rather than letting the school decimate her mental health by refusing to acknowledge her extensive needs that even our GP saw within 5 minutes and asked why she had ever been placed in mainstream to start with!