How Much Authority Does Social Services Have

Bree

Registered User
Oct 16, 2013
246
0
MOH is waiting for a referral to Social Services for assessment, with the intention of returning to our home. I am waiting for his POA (Health and Welfare) to be returned to me from the Office of The Public Guardian.

I know I will have to have carers for him to a certain extent, if he is not going into a care home, which I hope to avoid. I have approached a young lady who helps me in the home, and who MOH knows well, to see if she would be interested in being one of his carers, as she has experience as an HCA. She has agreed to this. My question is can Social Services insist that I use agency carers, even if I have the POA ?
 

Ohso

Registered User
Jan 4, 2018
167
0
In my experience SS will leave it to you, if they arent getting involved in the payments ( I believe they may offer 6+ weeks of carers after a hospital discharge paid for ny local authority to assess care needs and ensure all is well following a stay in hospital) after that its up to you ( or PWD) if you have POA and have taken over due to loss of capacity then any arrangements you make are up to you I believe.
Thats how it has worked for me/mum, I got rid of the agency carers as soon as I could and found private ones who are so much better.
I am sure others will have advice and knowledge beyond mine, but I think SS have enough to contend with to worry about micro-managing where there is no need.
 

Izzy

Volunteer Moderator
Aug 31, 2003
73,992
0
72
Dundee
In Scotland we have Self Directed Support - which means people can manage their own care budget. I employed non-agency carers for both my husband and my mother. I was fortunate in that our local carers centre supported me in the employment side of things.

I'm afraid I have no knowledge of the current situation in England but I wondered if this factsheet would be of any help-

https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/legal-financial/personal-budgets
 

RosettaT

Registered User
Sep 9, 2018
866
0
Mid Lincs
My OH came out of hospital in April after 10 weeks. SS weren't interested from the moment I said we would be self funding. All he did was to check OH savings were over £23,500. to make sure.
It was the OTs who were more interested in what help I would have but never checked that would be the case. As soon as I said care would be in place by Wednesday the hospital admin worked to discharge him on that date. Never once was I asked if they would be agency or private.
 

Bree

Registered User
Oct 16, 2013
246
0
Thank you for your replies, it has taken one worry away. Can anyone tell me at what level of income/savings are you deemed to be able to 'self fund' please ?
 

Sirena

Registered User
Feb 27, 2018
2,324
0
As others have said, if you can provide the necessary care without SS input they will probably be delighted to leave you to it. When they heard my mother could self-fund, I didn't see them for dust. I chose a care agency and SS had no further input.
 

Rosettastone57

Registered User
Oct 27, 2016
1,839
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Thank you for your replies, it has taken one worry away. Can anyone tell me at what level of income/savings are you deemed to be able to 'self fund' please ?
My mother-in-law had carers in for three years, which I organized myself with a private agency. Social services were never involved, other than when they contacted me after mother-in-law called police. Even then, once the social worker knew what was in place for mother-in-law and I was proactive in providing the care,they weren't interested. When she went into care, we never involved social services either