How Long does it take to Train a Carer?

Imagine the scenario...

Carer applies to a care agency to work as a night carer for a child with complex needs.

Carer already does this job but has to be employed by agency as previous funding coming to an end.

Agency happy to employ carer but first needs to do their own CRB.

Carer already Crb checked for Church but Agency has to carry out own.

Agency needs Carer to do 4 training days....of these about 4 hours is relevant to the work carer will be doing. Carer has to do 4 full days in training Centre 45 miles from home no expenses offered.

Once training days completed all goes quiet, A talk with SW causes a chase up and Agency assures carer they are in contact with Service user....Service user has however heard nothing, Carer is aware of this as works for Service user daily.
Eventually Agency does make contact and arranges to come and discuss care plans...of course carer is fully aware of care needs she has been caring for child for 18 months. However care plans must be written before carer can start.

Day of Care plan appointment arrives but Agency person doesnt! No call no appology just a prolonged silence.

A need for contact with the medical advisor leads to conversation about Continuing care....Informing him that nothing has yet come into play results in sharp flow of steam escaping from his ears! He assured me that he would sort this!

True to his word two phone calls the next day result in a new appointment to write care plans and this time it happens.

However 1 week later there is still no sign of a date this will start!
Today we had a visit from Eve's Social worker and a continuing care manager....to review the continuing care package....that would be the package that has not yet been delivered then???

It was an interesting visit. Our house is somewhat in confusion....the lounge is suashed into a corner as the plasterer is plastering walls and leveling floors.
The Kitchen is in the throws of revamping and much of the loose belongings and spare furniture is crowded into Rosie's room, the only available space to sit is Jonathan's room...and so we cram a couple of extra chairs into Jonathan's room to have our meeting.

It was useful, we managed to update the medical information and agree that the allocation of Continuing Care Funding was appropriate....and then muttered about the time it has taken to get one carer from application to postion of working....how long has this taken...

8 Months and counting!

The Continuing Care lady though has come up with a propostion to try and recover some of the extra monies we have had to pay out for the night care so far. She is going to run this by the panel and see if All the hours our carer does can be paid for by the agency with Continuing Care funding, this will free up our Direct payments to use for other care needs. It will ensure that we have enough care for holidays and emergencies as these have been coming under threat due to haveing to pay the night care from this budget.

To top all of that I have actually interviewed a prospective carer for the evening hours today and she is going to do a trial next week.

Oh please pray this carer wants to make it a permanent placement, she seemed really nice and Rosie took to her and she was not phased by any of Rosie's antics this evening.

And now this evening I am say in my Lounge with all walls plastered! The floor has great holes and grooves in it ready for the concrete to be laid to fill the gaps and hopefully begin to level things out! It is not going to be a simple job to level this floor but just the fact the preperation has started makes me feel we are a little bit closer to having a proper Lounge again!

The next plan for this week is to see if we can find our bed! It has been buried under the junk moved by necessity as the plasterer has moved through the house...I want to sleep in my own bed soon! For a couple of weeks I have been unable to lay down due to my cough, but the last two nights I have shared the inflatable bed in Eve's room with Eve...so hopefully I can now consider moving back into my own bed....David was in Eve's bed in the girls room but that has been inaccessible since last Wednesday and he has been on the settee...it would be nice to be back in the same room even maybe the same bed????

Once the lounge is finsished PLasterer man will become Pointing man and move to the outside of Jonathan's room.....you knew there was a reason the weather broke this weekend didnt you? I mentioned on Friday that maybe he could look to doing the outside of Jonathan's room seeing as the weather was so calm and dry for October! ue the rain clouds and the wind then!

Tomorrow we have the Transitions Social Worker and Connexions Worker coming out to discuss Rosie. Looing to the future and what we envisage as Rosie's future!

I dont do future!

Prayers appreciated!