My individual budget is now very much sorted and I have learnt a lot over the last year. It is therefore to close these blog and for new entries will be on my other blog on www.simonstevens.com,
The blog/site will remain available to view for as long as possible,
One important skill of employing staff which people don’t realise or think about is Ego Management. By this I mean ensuring staff are happy in your job and feel comfortable the tasks you require them to do.
It is not about always being nice to staff but rather to give to offer them respect and to manage them with dignity. It is means when staff do someone wrong, you need to employ techiniques where they are able to understand and accept what they have done wrong.
It has taken me years to fully develop the skills for ego management and it can still hard as people can be so unpredictable.
It has been almost a year since I started to get involve in individualised budget and I can honestly say it has improved my quality of life in many ways I would not have expected. I feel more confident about my social care after years of uncertainly and I hope this will continue for many years.
I will continue to blog about relevant issues although I will my personal assistant is taking a back seat as I am able to get involved in other activities.
I am sorry for the gap in my blog. I am been very busy with one first and another. Anyway I had enjoyed the experience of my first live-in PA or rather I have not enjoyed! My first PA was a friend from secondlife who I believed would be able to do what I needed very well although he lacked some confidence. I however found out he was one of the most untidy, messy, filthy, selfish and lazy I have ever needed to work with. While I sacked him for making a complete mess of my home, it was a few weeks before I could get him to leave my home and took a lot of effort to make him realise he was not welcome.
I have learnt a lot from the employing my live-in PA and it is mainly what to do. I was too kind at times and I did not set down the rules properly. I have advertised for my next live in carer in the Gay Times and I can assure you things will be different! I am always be a good employer but I will not be messed about!
I am aware I have not blogged in a while and this is an update of what been happening. Things over last 2 months have been extremely good.
I know have an overnight PA which is not a CSV but a private friend I have employed in a relationship which is working well. With an excellent daytime and weekend PA, I now have my best team of (3) personal assistants I have ever had. This means I am firstly more relaxed and secondly, I am able to do a lot more. I am not sure how long this will last but I am enjoying every minute of it.
Also, as an ‘active’ individual budget user I have been asked to get involved in a number of conferences which is very exciting. Personalising in social care is a very big issue right now and I seem to have a strong voice in this and the current discussions going on!
For me personally, IB was a success and I look forward to the next chapter.
Happy New Year to everyone who reads this blog. I believe 2008 is going to put me in an extremely good position in the future as I become more stable and strategic in my work and personal life.
My new year revolutions are;
1. pay off all my debts asap2. to make peace with everyone I can3. to go on holiday at least every 3 months4. to have much fun as possible5. to have a healthy lifestyle
Yestersday I attended Coventry City Councils’ presentation on the research of service users experience of having an individual budget at Coventry University. This is included a series of visual presentations including my blog displayed on a computer. Then there was a formal presentation of videos and powerpoints made by service users including my own which was great and quite emotional. The event was attended by social services staff, big wigs and services in a way I felt was equal.
Individuals budgets is the start of a new era in the relationship between social services and service user and this is very exciting. IB has never been about more money about a cultural change.
As someone with moderate to severe cerebral palsy, I have been a user of social care and other services since 1992 when I was 18 and went to university in Coventry. At that age I was a young fit and healthy person with cerebral palsy who was enjoying his new found freedom as a university student.
As the years have gone on and the freedom of studenthood as been replaced by running my own company, my personal assistance needs have increased. Also with the increased advance of aging I have due to cerebral palsy this has on paper, put me to a stage where I believe I ideally need assistance 24/7 in order to maximise my lifestyle.
The difficulty with this is I have a level of impairment which is in the middle. I can technically walk and talk and perform many activities but in a fashion which has been increasingly difficult as I have got older. Within a traditional needs led assessment it could be argued that I can perform the many tasks needed and I do not need much assistance. However this does not take into account my work commitments as someone who owns my own company which means I need to focus on my work and not my personal assistance.
Also, it does not take into account the effects of myself performing tasks in terms of my management of time, the use of my energy and the amount of time needed to clean up after me. Within a traditional assessment, the fact I was deemed to be mostly physically independent in term of needs means cost cutting without any insight to the implications in terms of personal hygiene and mental well being.
Under the individualised budget pilot in Coventry I received an outcome focused assessment. In this kind of assessment, my aspirations and the bigger picture is taken into consideration. Therefore, my ability and desire to work via my own company is taken into consideration as well as the associated needs to this in terms of my general physical and mental well-being as someone who works. The assessment looks at what is best for me long term and not just short term.
So Plan A is the perfect personal assistance situation when I have all my positions filled with good quality personal assistants which understand me and my needs. With this, I am able to move forward with great leaps as the assistance I have helps me maximise what I can achieve 24/7. I would be able to perform any activity I wish whatever time of day it is.
However, in the real world this does not often work that way. Staff can go sick or it is difficult to recruit staff and therefore it is important to have a backup plan, hence ‘Plan B’. So plan B is basically how I cope when I do not have any immediate care.
It works on the assumption that I will receive care at some point and therefore the mess created by myself looking after myself will be cleaned up. It also works on the assumption that some preparing is needed to ensure I am able to perform plan B such as ensuring jars and bottles have been loosened so I am able to open them myself. It is also good if food and drink is prepared for me although it is not the same as if they were eaten or drunk freshly.
Plan B also requires an accessible environment which works on my abilities, I am currently working on getting a level access walk in shower. In this way, social care assessments need to look at both Plan A and Plan B in order to promote independence and have coping strategies in place.
While Plan B is not ideal, it is better than no plan at all and I feel its adoption in social care assessments will be good for everyone involved.
One of the most revealing aspects of the assessment and working with Andrew is the realisation that the fact I work and run my own company was seen as unusual and that it is assumed most younger people do not work!
This is clearly concerning and we need to change this assumption.`
My personal assistance support package feels very secure at the moment although I do appreciate that there remained some long term unstability is how I will be assessed in the future. My impairment and therefore my personal care needs are unlikely to improve and most likely worsten.
I feel that my personal care package is like a jigsaw puzzle where every piece is important to making up the total picture. Even if one piece of the jigsaw is removed then my personal assistance is shattered and my quality of life is not as he should be.
I hope in the future people are able to understand this and take it into account when they do reassessments to ensure social policy does not result in personal distressed.