Nick Presmeg, John Spence, and Essex County Council are ignoring the Care Act 2014

I have 4 children, 3 of my children have autism. Therefore I am an unpaid carer. I receive carers allowance, a whole £81 per week. To claim carers allowance you have to be caring for at least 35 hours per week. I could only dream of that being all the hours I care for.

The care act states quite clearly that I should have support through the local government for the effect that my caring role has on my life, and my mental health.

Here is a timeline of myself trying to get help this year. There is a professional who was working with one of my autistic children involved who I shall refer to as Person A. This is another huge issue with ECC, Person A works for ECC. Person A is very clearly all about supporting anyone and everyone she can, she’s absolutely brilliant and I cannot praise her enough.

Person A was trying to support my daughter, but there is a huge issue with me, I struggle to help because i’m split three ways between three people with autism, having to care for each of them, as well as my other child. We met a few times with Person A who supported my daughter with next steps, she then decided to help to support me as that was the biggest thing she could do to support my daughter.

Person A decided to refer me to Essex Adult Social Care for help as a carer.

On the 2nd August 2024 I met up with Person A and she supported me while making the call to Adult social care. Details of that call are a little bit hazy because it’s been a few months and i’m not very well in the head.

Person A gave me some mental health numbers, I was in a bad way, including informing me about the NHS 111 mental health helpline. The week after that meeting I was in such a state that I called them. To be fair i’m still just as in a mess as my mental health is struggling due to my situation and not a chemical imbalance in my brain. My dire situation is causing the depression and suicidal feelings, but it’s not something that can be fixed by anything other than having support.

On Wednesday 21st August I had a 2 hour interview with someone working for Essex County Council Adult Social Care. I don’t think she is a social worker, she is just the person that gets all of the information. She was absolutely lovely, she was kind, and patient, as I kept on crying. She went over everything and highlighted what I needed support with. She said i’d hear from a social worker shortly.

Person A kept in touch and kept on contacting Adult social care on my behalf, though that did no good. I eventually hear from Adult Social Care a few weeks later, to tell me that a social worker would call be to arrange a date to come round. That was I believe in mid October.

Then nothing until Monday 18th November 2024 when I finally got a call from a social worker. I’m actually not surprised at what she said because Essex County Council does not care about carers.

She said that I can only get help as a carer if I need help with my personal care. That is what a social worker acting on behalf of Essex County Council said to me after I asked them for help as a carer.

I said something about the care act and help as a carer and that I should get help, her responses was that she doesn’t think so, she’s never heard of that. I said it again, she said she’d ask her manager. That was two weeks ago and i’ve heard nothing. So that’s another carer needing help who has been conveniently crossed off their list.

It’s clear that Essex County Council aren’t even teaching social workers the basics, like the care act. They clearly aren’t teaching them about carers and the law that states we should be supported. Or it’s possible, in fact likely, that they are told to get rid of us in any way possible.

This is of course all done with no paperwork. I don’t have names, I don’t have emails, I don’t have text messages. Even though I have stated that due to my mental health I need written confirmation of everything because my memory has been affected by my mental health. They make nothing accessible.

That’s it, there isn’t anything more, i’ve been refused help as a carer by Essex County Council because I do not need help with personal care. So if you are a carer in Essex and can wash and bath yourself, you are out of luck.

It doesn’t matter what the law is, the Care act might as well not exist, it certainly doesn’t in the eyes of Essex County Council. It’s a total disgrace.

Cllr John Spence, he who runs from carers, is an absolute disgrace. Looking at his website he has listed lots of positions he has held with regard to the church. Including being a lay canon of Chelmsford Cathedral in 2006.

John Spence clearly hasn’t got a religious bone in his body and it is all for show. Jesus is all about helping those less fortunate than yourself. John Spence is earning £41,397 per year in his role at Essex County Council. He is making money off my misery, and the misery of all of the unpaid carers in Essex. If he was at least trying to change things, or even apologetic that things aren’t great and working hard to change things, it wouldn’t be so bad, but he is constantly praising himself for things being wonderful when they clearly are not.

Nick Presmeg is earning £174,178 per year and the social workers he is ultimately in charge of don’t even know the very basics of the care act. The Essex Social Care Academy are the ones who are meant to make sure the social workers knowledge is sound, but they are too obsessed by winning awards at the Social Worker of the Year awards to even care. Ultimately though, this is on Nick Presmeg, he gets paid each year an amount of money that would be life changing to many, it would be life changing for me. He gets paid the big bucks, he is responsible.

So i’m left in a deep depression due to the situation i’m in with no way out. I have very frequent suicidal thoughts, something with the social worker who I last spoke to knew, as she said she saw that i’d been in touch with the crisis team. There is no way out of this, i’m trapped. My mental health is deteriorating day by day and there is nothing I can do about it.

I desperately need a hysterectomy, and have done for 2 years. I have an extremely high risk of cervical adenacarcinoma, i’ve already been misdiagnosed with it because the precancerous cells they found were so far advanced that they were iniitally mistaken for cancer when screened. It was only because they are double checked that it was found not to be cancer.

The cells I have are CGIN, a quick google will show that these are rarely picked up on a cervical smear test and I was very lucky mine were found. I could have cells that are developing into cancer right now, or cells that have already developed into cancer, because I haven’t had a hysterectomy.

I cannot have a hysterectomy because of my caring role, I have nobody to care for those I care for while i’m in hospital and then when i’m recovering. Due to the cone knife biopsy I had 2 years ago of my cervix, I do not have a lot of cervix left, the doctor really went for it, especially after he saw how bad the cells were. This means that it is likely I will need an abdominal hysterectomy, so the recovery time, and the time in hospital is much greater.

This is something that was discussed in the 2 hour interview I had on August 21st, where I was told they would be able to make sure I can have my hysterectomy.

Essex County Council however would only support me as a carer if I can’t take care of my personal care. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

It is highly possible that I could end up with cervical cancer due to Cllr John Spence and Nick Presmeg and their terrible running of Essex County Council Adult Social Care. They don’t care, i’m just a nobody to them both. It’s not the people that matter, it’s the power and the showing off they do.

I don’t know what is going to happen now, i’m in a total mess, I can’t cope, I can’t see a way forward, i’m struggling to function, I just don’t want to be here any more. Every single day is just drudgery, and getting nowhere, I have no friends, I have no life, i’m extremely depressed with no hope of things every getting better.

There isn’t anything I can do now. My case will have been closed, and I am not going through that again, I was stupid enough to think that this time things will be different and i’d get help. There is no point in asking again, it’s clear that Essex County Council will just disregard the care act yet again, and make things up as they go along, again.

You can’t make it up, refused help as a carer because the carer can wash themselves, i’ve got to hand it to them, their excuses for refusal are rather, well interesting, if not bizarre.

I believe the CQC are in the process of assessing Essex County Council Adult Social Care at the moment. I am going to try and contact them to give them a rundown of what’s happened to me, i’m hoping that if I give them permission to access my records they will also be able to fact check to prove what i’m saying is true.

I was on the list to get informed of all of this and to be involved, like I was before when they were doing a test run, or whatever that was. Ever since I told the CQC the truth of what had happened, and after myself, and others were crying last year at the carers thing, it’s clear I have been taken off their list for coproduction. Funny that.

If I do end up with cancer, which is quite likely given my medical history, I will take some kind of action. Whether that be legal action, so suing, or going to the press I do not know. It will likely be going to the press. If I took legal action it would probably be a pay out of £5k and a gagging order, which nothing.

In case there is any confusion over whether that is a threat or not, it most definitely is. Unlikely to work, but on the off chance either John Spence or Nick Presmeg have any morals or decency left, it may mean that they change the way they do things to make it so that other carers who need surgery will get the support they need, and are entitled to under law. Think how much better it would sound if I end up with cancer and it’s in the press if you could at least say you have changed the way you do things so that carers who need surgery get support to be able to do so.

That’s it, i’ve got nothing more to add, there is nowhere else to go from here. Unless I suddenly cannot wash myself i’m on my own. Given that is unlikely to happen, i’m on my own.

I found this video of Cllr John Spence from a couple of weeks ago. I’m not even angry, he’s pitiful more than anything. A man so desperate for power that he is willing to talk utter nonsense.

Yes I’m aware of my rights, however Cllr John Spence has quashed my rights as an unpaid carer by a member of his department telling me i don’t have any rights.