Diamond Support for Parents Carers and Advocates

BESPOKE SERVICES

We provide information, advice, templates and help with drafting and preparing Person Centred Plans, Positive Behavioural Support Plans, Care Plans and supporting documents which need to be personally tailored to an individual's specific needs. Through personal experience, we understand that getting the right care for people with additional needs, including Autism and challenging behaviour, is the key to releasing that person's potential to pursue a happy and fulfilled future. 

Helen Adderley: Founder and Principal Advisor of DSPCA - Diamond Support for Parents Carers and Advocates

I qualified as a solicitor in 1987 and was in practice for ten years in Liverpool, Chester and Stockport before having my three sons, who are now all adults.

For the avoidance of doubt, I no longer act as a solicitor and neither myself or DSPCA provide legal services. If you require legal advice please contact a solicitor through The Law Society, or your nearest Ctizens Advice Bureau.

One of my sons was diagnosed with severe Autism at the age of 3, and, some time later, with verbal dyspraxia, school phobia and a fear of children. Following recommendations from a paediatric psychiatrist, he has been educated at home since the age of 6 and can have episodes of extremely challenging behaviour.

Over the last seventeen years, my husband Rob and I have built up a wealth of knowledge and experience in relation to getting the care our son needs. In order to have the necessary educational programme for him funded by the Local Education Authority, which at the time was Cheshire, we had to pursue the case through the Special Educational Needs Tribunal which involved obtaining expert witness reports, instructing a barrister, researching relevant cases and putting together files of evidence running to over five hundred pages, as well as giving evidence ourselves.

Since moving to North Wales, we continued to educate our son at home, funded by Wrexham County Borough Council, until he was 19. I remained one of the team of workers supplying daily education, therapy and care to our son, and, in addition, I worked alongside other professionals to engage, manage and train support workers. At the age of 19 responsibility for the cost of his care transferred to Social Services, and the current team are directly employed by myself, on my son's behalf, under the Direct Payments scheme. 

Funding is provided for care for 6 days a week and, as the employer, I have sought out and arranged for those employees to have thorough, regular and legally compliant training from competent and very experienced trainers. I myself have various training awards including Risk Management and Assessment (BTEC Level 3 Advanced Award), Safeguarding Awareness (Wales) (QCF) (Level 2 Award), Physical Intervention and Disengagement NFPS Level 2 Award, and Emergency Response Belt and Cuff Trainer Training (BTEC Level 3 Award), as well as a sound understanding of the law in this area.

To go alongside this I have developed and put in place a comprehensive set of working documentation which includes a series of detailed Risk Assessment documents, Policies and Procedures created to protect my son and those who work with him, and a fifteen page goal setting Person Centred Plan, which has been accepted and utilised by Social Services to establish and carry forward their funding of my son's care package.

Through my own experience, I understand that for parents, carers and advocates, and for the professionals they engage with, seeking funding for care can be a time-consuming, stressful and worrying time. Whilst it may be accepted in principle that an individual should be in receipt of a care package, actually creating the detail of what that care should look like, and how it will work on a daily basis can be a challenge for all concerned. By using templates based upon the documents I have used for my own son, parents, carers and advocates can be taken through the process step by step, being prompted to ask appropriate questions and to seek certainty whilst maintaining flexibility. This allows  for the creation of a care package which will be what it was always meant to be; highly individual, safe, legal, cost effective, life enhancing and a positive experience for all concerned.