My son's disabled and for years now our social workers have responded to our requests for help by 'taking it to panel', 'it' being mostly our need for respite care.

We are not consulted about what exactly is presented to panel, nor are we told what panel is, or who is involved and we are certainly never invited.

Anyone know who's on these panels and whether we can attend ourselves? Also, what legal status do they have?

Thanks in advance: up:

As far as I am aware there are two panels. Tier 2 and tier 3. Tier 2 is for lower level respite such as holiday club, and tier 3 is more complex packages eg overnight.

Your social worker should explain to you which panel it goes to and also share with you the information that is going to panel. This would usually be the assessment that they have completed. If you have had the social worker for a long time and are already getting some support then they may have to complete an updated assessment for the panel to show how your circumstances have changed etc. In which case I would still ask to see what is written so that your views can be recorded.

Panels are not attended by the social workers. It may be worth you asking who sits on the panels for your information. I believe it is various managers of services.

I hope that this is of help. I would certainly ask your worker to explain more about them.

Panel is like the purse for social services, the proposel is usually taken twice. firstly to get approvel in principal which means that they agree in principal to fund from an agreed date, but a week before you want the funding to start you have to go back again for comfirmed rubber stamping.

It is all to do with where the money is going and how much is in what pot on what day. There isn't enough money to go round.

Sometimes they change your request slightly and hopefully if your SW has done their job well they should have a good idea what the result will be.

Thanks for the replies, that helps a lot. Someone at social services told me there was no reason i shouldn't attend, we were obviously talking at cross purposes! It's a little disturbing that the social worker has to make the case for you, though.