Katherine, with the understanding that there'll be hundreds here who know more about the system than I do... Check if your council is one of many (most?) who have a one-stage,in-house complaints 'system'. It should say online, but some, including my own, keep it as a dirty little secret. If you want...

Capacity to care seems to be a movable feast-I remember concerns being raised because I was over fifty...

I've phoned the psychologist, and we're all to meet to decide if Eliot can go out with just the one paid carer, and myself. Since I'm just a cipher, the current contacts are called '2:1' and involve Eliot walking around parks and shopping precincts with three carers-two paid ones and myself. Staff t...

I got a phone call this morning telling me that Owen self-harmed at the bungalow yesterday, and terrified the hired-carer so much that she locked herself in a room leaving Owen the run of the building. So the situation is: (1)Owen self harms at times but is allowed home with me. No-one gets in touch...

Thanks for replying,Colin. While Stoke council generally have the two-stage process for complaints, for adult social-services it's one stage, but I'm not sure it gets a mention online. Here's something from Newham council's webpage https://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/Services/Complaints-process.aspx: "W...

As I say, staff have apparently been holding their own Community-Accessing Risk-Assessment meetings to decide if Eliot still needs (a) 2 carers @ £30 per hour for the two, or (b) 1 carer per hour @ £15 total. They've gone for (a) every time. I've just phoned the psychologist and she sounded a bit su...

Things are getting worse. They've added something new to Wednesdays. Today we investigated the wealth of local history by going to Hanley museum and viewing the Mesolithic and Holographic Manuscripts exhibits. We went for a coffee after 20 minutes, and contact lasted an hour overall, compared to the...

HoneyBadger, Thanks for the comments. Most of the staff formally worked for Children's Services and were 'seconded' to the bungalow when a council centre was closed down ten years ago. I think it was that or redundancy. My wife's handing the boys and the bungalow over to them must have seemed a gods...

From minutes I've read, the most common tactic seems to be: "Mr.Green claimed that he was being treated unfairly". "The social-worker stated that this was not so". We 'claim'. They 'state'. Don't think that any of our meetings have been minuted in five years. Certainly I've not seen any, even for re...

We had the family-being-together time for March on Monday. They arrived 15 minutes late. We drove to a country park-40 minutes. The cafe was closed-second time this year. We walked for 40 minutes. We drove back for 40 minutes buying Slushies on the way. In the car, Owen and I held hands,and I could ...