Parent carers provide support to their children, including grown up children who could not manage without their help. The child/adult may be ill, disabled, have mental health or substance misuse problems.
It can be very difficult for parents to recognise that they are also carers as looking after our children is 'just what we do'. Identifying your caring role can open the door to support and assistance should you need it.
Help for parent carers of children under 18
Parent carers of children under 18 have similar rights to other carers but the way that some services are offered to them is different. They can apply for Carer’s Allowance or a GP Carer’s Break payment in the same way as the carers of adults. They can also access any of Action for Carers’ support. However there are a couple of significant differences concerning Carer’s Assessment for Parent Carers and Parent Carer Break Grants.
Parent Carer’s Needs Assessment
Parent carer's, like all carers, are entitled to a Carer’s Assessment to see how the local authority can support them with their caring role. to find out what help they need and how these needs can be met.
Parent carers have a right to a separate Carer’s Assessment. In practice, however, your own needs for a break may be considered in conjunction with your child’s assessment by children's services, if eligible, under the Children Act. Any assessment of your disabled child should take into account the needs of the rest of the family members, including parents and siblings, and consider their needs as a carer and capacity to continue with caring.
The Children and Families Act 2014 amended the Children Act 1989 to give any parent who is caring for a disabled child the right to an assessment of their own need for support. This is called a parent carer’s needs assessment.
By law, the local authority has a duty to carry out an assessment whenever it appears to a social worker that a parent carer may need support. So even if the parent has not asked for an assessment.
It’s important to ensure your needs in relation to employment, training, education, leisure, maintaining relationships, social/ family life are discussed with you and taken into account when planning any package of care for your child, so please draw this to the attention of your social worker. If you are entitled to social care support, any package of care provided by the local authority should include a break if you have indicated this is something you need.
Any parent who is caring for a disabled child can ask for a parent carer’s needs assessment. This will be carried out by the local authority.
What support can I expect after a Parent Carer’s Needs Assessment?
We can expect greater clarity on which steps should be put in place to support us. These include:
Support services to be put in place to help us provide care
Have direct payments setups for us to help us provide care
Financial support for respite breaks (they can also come from direct payments)
A one-off payment to meet a specific need, known as the S17 payment (or S17 Financial Assistance). This is basically a way to access a financial payment to support the welfare of a child. It is usually accessed via something called a "Child in Need" assessment. We can ask our GP or social worker for an assessment.
Remember, talking about our feelings and asking for help is not always an easy thing to do. Carers have shared that they can feel quite low after an assessment - as we spend the time talking about "how hard" everything is. It can be helpful to anticipate this and plan for some quiet time afterwards, or arrange an activity that will help to lift our spirits.
Short Breaks
Short Breaks are available for disabled children and young people and are intended to have positive benefits for both children and young people and their parents and carers. Short Breaks provision can range from a few hours a week to an allocated number of overnight breaks per year and anything in between.
Short breaks aim to provide parents and carers with:
- A necessary and valuable break from their caring responsibility;
- A chance to rest and unwind;
- To spend time with other members of the family.
Financial support
Neurodivergent Families
Daisy Chain have a Welfare and Benefit Service which may be of interest to Neurodivergent families you support. For more information, please see poster below and attached.
The team can help with:
- Benefit entitlement checks
- Benefit applications
- Mandatory reconsiderations
- Appeals advice
- Advice and help for access to work applications and disabled students allowance
- Signposting and referral to other services.
If this sounds like something you need help with, complete Daisy Chain's online referral form and a member of the team will be in touch with you as soon as possible.
Contact Cheryl directly with any queries/ further assistance- cheryl.deery@daisychainproject.co.uk
You may be entitled to other financial support, find out more here.
NHS Continuing Care
Where a young person under 18 has needs arising from disability, accident or illness and these needs cannot be met by existing services, they may be eligible for additional funding from the NHS.
The children’s continuing care team in partnership with children, young people, their families and professionals known to them use the National Framework to identify the level of need and eligibility for children’s continuing care.
The team comprises of a children and young people’s health assessor and a clinical nurse specialist who commission packages of care on behalf of North East and North Cumbria ICB to meet the identified health need. This is via a range of options including personal health budgets (PHB’s), notional PHB’s, commissioned packages from complex health care providers and jointly commissioned packages with Local Authority. The aim of the package is to support the child or young person to achieve their outcomes in their Education Health and Care plan and to give their parents a break from their caring role.
To find out if you are eligible for Children’s Continuing Care support, ask the health professional you are under for more information.
Parent Carer Forums
The way parent carers work with service providers is by joining parent carer forums.
A parent carer forum is a group of parents and carers of children and young people aged 0 – 25 with SEND. They gather the views of local families, from all communities, so that they are representative of their local population. They work in partnership with local authorities, education settings, health and social care providers, and other local organisations to highlight where local services, processes, and commissioners are working well, and to provide challenge when changes or improvements need to be made.
In the film below from Contact you will hear about the history of parent carer forums, how they work, who they work with, and why they are so important.
Local Parent Carer Forums
SEND Family Voice Redcar and Cleveland- email: info@sendfamilyvoicerc.com
Parents 4 Change- email: info@parents4change.co.uk or phone: 07975621843 or 01642 956742
Looking after yourself
As with all caring, it’s so important to also look after yourself. Depending on the care you’re giving, you may be more physically or emotionally drained. It can be hard, but try and find time for your own health, relaxation and social life.
How to get support for siblings
If our disabled child has siblings, it's very likely that they are also "young carers". It's helpful to know this, as it can open up support for them. Find out more about young carers provision across the South Tees.