Essex County Council and Unpaid Carers

I am an unpaid carer.

I do receive carers allowance by those of us who receive carers allowance are still classed as unpaid carers.

I have 4 children, 3 of whom have autism. Two of the three also have physical disabilities, one of them on top of that also has degenerative disc disease in their spine. Their care needs are high. I also provide care for an elderly relative which involves me going into the home at least twice a day.

My children’s needs are high and I often find myself only getting 4 hours of sleep a night, sometimes less, it is absolutely exhausting. I’m a lone parent so it’s all on me.

I also have a physical disability, I receive the high rate of the mobility part of PIP, which I use for a motability car, I receive the standard rate of the care component of PIP.

I receive absolutely no help from anyone.

So I can be constantly on the go from 8am until late at night, have to travel all around town. I get absolutely no time to myself, i’d like to work or volunteer, that is impossible. Maintaining friendships is out of the question, I haven’t sat in a room with a friend for over two months now, I just don’t have the free time.

The amount of things I have to do during the day makes my physical disability worse, I can sometimes barely walk by 5pm, yet I have no choice by to cause myself further pain and damage by carrying on regardless. I don’t have a bedtime routing because i’m so exhausted by then that I haven’t got the energy to wash my face and brush my teeth. I wear contact lenses and sometimes I haven’t even got the energy to take them out.

I also sleep on a sofa as we are overcrowded.

The only help I receive is from my child who doesn’t have autism, although that child does have ADHD and is a school refuser. Cannot fault the school in everything they have done and are doing.

The school appears to have the same views of Ofsted as I do and are one of the reasons I think Ofsted ratings are pointless. The school refuses to do what is needed to get an outstanding rating as they feel this would be detrimental to the children. They have low scores in league tables because they give each child the same chances and will never turn a child away if they have SEND or need extra help. The whole ethos is to do whatever they can to help each individual child. Parents adore the school, Ofsted just think they are good.

My life isn’t doom and gloom, and our home is full of laughter, quite often at my expense, we are very close and our home is full of love.

So last December I asked for a carers assessment, I was told to do it by someone from ECC. I did one back in 2019 at the urging of a social worker and they refused to assess. So I had the assessment done and it’s been refused. I don’t know the details as I haven’t been told anything apart from that there isn’t enough money and if I want help I have to use my PIP to pay for it as ECC can’t afford it.

My child who is the one that helps me is under young carers but won’t join in with the activities, they are online and child just isn’t interested.

I could have access to groups and things as a carer but I haven’t even got time to see my friends so I definitely haven’t got time to participate in groups or anything like that.

I’ve currently got a rare day where I could stay in all day if it wasn’t for the fact that i’ve got to spend all day catching up on cleaning and clothes washing and shopping and I need to go to the dump, so i’m busy all day.

Essex County Council has produced six commitments to carers and an all age carers strategy which is here:

https://assets.ctfassets.net/knkzaf64jx5x/6k7lTuiQFl8oo4oDCO8uQQ/6b3f4e0deebee1055db863c460be77a0/Essex-All-Age-Carers-Strategy-2022-2026.pdf

It opens as a PDF

It’s all a load of rubbish.

It namechecks 4 cabinet members of Essex County Council who are involved with all of this:

Cllr John Spence who is Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health

Cllr Louise McKinlay who is the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community, Equality, Partnerships and Performance.

Cllr Beverley Egan who is the cabinet member for children’s services and early years.

Cllr Tony Ball who is the cabinet member for education excellence, lifelong learning and emplyability.

The whole of the carers strategy is just a complete whitewash. They mention the legal stuff they have to abide to like a law abiding local authority, yet I can point out in detail where they have broken the law regarding my assessment.

They are stating what they do for carers but that only covers a minute number of carers who have managed to actually be provided with help. They mention the amount of carers assessments they have done each year but unsurprisingly haven’t mentioned how many of those assessments have resulted in help being given to the carer.

My assessment will be in this years figures, looks impressive but they are failing carers continuously.

I’m just looking at the care act 2014, the actual legislation, the actual law that Essex Social Care are bound in law to follow.

Those screenshots are from here:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111124185

Every single thing i’ve highlighted applies to me.

The only reasons i’ve had for the refusal of support is that Essex County Council haven’t got the money and I should use my PIP money to get whatever help I need to support me in my caring role.

I started this post about 15 hours ago, that easy day I was talking about never happened, i’ve had to leave the home twice for caring reasons, as well as my in home caring responsibilities. It’s now 2:34am and it’s the only chance i’ve had to finish this blog post which I really want to do because i’m a bit angry.

It’s humiliating asking for help and then being told there isn’t any money. It was suggested I apply for a carers assessment by a family worker who really got to know myself and my children and how our family works.

Essex County Council just don’t care about carers. They have carefully worded their commitment to carers and an all age carers strategy to not include in the carers who desperately need help but who Essex County Council refuse help, in my case citing not money and that I should use my benefits to pay for any help.

I could probably access one of the carers groups, I don’t think they cost the local authority money so they would probably let me access one of those, except I don’t have the time, and if I did i’d spend it having a cup of tea round a friends house or doing something out of the home i’d like to do.

I’d like to do some volunteering, i’d actually like to get a job, or get a degree, or something, anything.

Not if you are an unpaid carer in Essex,

Support for families in Essex is dire in it’s entirely. Ended up on a child protection plan with three suicidal children, one making a serious attempt, when I asked for help.

A social worker told me I need an OT assessment, so I had one, on the 14th August 2020. It went really well and I was so happy that things would be easier.

Of course it being Essex County Council, and I believe as a result of having put a complaint in, the OT assessment I had doesn’t exist. No trace of it.

I don’t think that is strictly legal to just wipe things out of existence when it suits them, but then they did it with a child in need meeting when professionals all agreed on what would actually help my children. That meeting didn’t look good on Essex County Council, and it meant them helping my children, so that meeting no longer exists.

They have broken the law with my carers assessment, not too bothered about the law but i’m not going to be able to continue like this for long before I end up ill.

Those four cabinet members I mentioned. Louise McKinlay, Tony Ball, John Spence, and Beverley Egan don’t care, they only care about that document which doesn’t tell the whole story. There is a reason they didn’t state how many of the carers assessments they actually provide help for, my guess is not a lot, those that get refused help will just be told the local authority cannot afford it and that the carer should pay for help themselves from their benefits if they want help.

There is not a professional who i’ve told i’ve been refused who hasn’t been absolutely gobsmacked because they know how much I do and how exhausted I am.

I was hoping to lighten the load on my child who hasn’t got autism, who does far too much for a child their age. They are trying to get back into school after refusing for almost three years. We were hoping i’d get support to take some weight off of that child, and also so that i’d be able to concentrate on helping that child get back to school instead of being in a state of permanent exhaustion.

I’d also like to spend some time just being a proper mum, doing some fun stuff instead of, in the words of my youngest “never stopping”.

I was also meant to be having another OT assessment done, not heard anything about that and it’s been months.

I just haven’t got the energy to chase things up, and there is little point in doing so, would a second OT assessment get anything done? Given there is no record of the one I had done two years ago, there is no point as the chances are they would just act like i’m going to get help and then just delete all record of it.

I could put in a complaint, but the complaints department is set up to get the Local Authority out of doing anything, so that would be a waste of my time.

I could contact my MP, but when I think of all the things I have on my plate I just feel exhausted thinking of doing that.

It’s easy enough to prove they have broken the law, as it’s clear i’d be getting support if they hadn’t broken the law. I can’t argue with their findings from the assessment because all I know is that Essex County Council havent’ got enough money and if I want help I have to pay for it out of my benefits. Not sure exactly what i’m meant to be able to afford with my benefits in a cost of living crisis, but Essex County Council doesn’t care.

You’ve got the four councillors i’ve mentioned sitting back smugly because to their peers and their tory voters it appears as if they are supporting carers with their all age strategy. Without those four councillors stating that it’s almost impossible to get any help in the first place and their all age strategy only covers those who they deem worthy of helping.

Again, I strongly suspect it’s because i’ve raised complaints that they have refused.

I’m too tired to really do anything about it other than highlight it on my blog.