ARU Final Report

Full Report – May 2021 19 The drug worker has really helped me, they spoke to me on a weekly basis. I had contact with my leaving care worker from the leaving care team at XXX social services. Yes it has been useful as I have spoken to my worker regularly and he helps me. No improvements required. However, some did suggest recommendations for improvement including consistency in service provision and a shorter waiting time for some services particularly for mental health: It was useful – hard to know how it is useful, because I need it anyway (owing to physical disabilities). Could have been improved – more consistency of carers. …groups were far away… LGBTQ+ one-to-one support - they had the knowledge of LGBT. Improved - every session seemed the same. The mental health support has been really bad. They said they couldn’t offer me therapy to work on my PTSD and trauma because I was using too much cannabis, but I couldn’t understand this, I need help because I am in a bad place. I felt I needed a drugs rehab or even to be sectioned (I have been sectioned before) to keep me safe. I just know I wasn’t capable [of] looking after myself and mental health services didn’t help me at all. When I was under XXX CAMHS, I thought they were a lot better. They weren’t brilliant but they were so much better than XXX… I had a good relationship with my under 18s social worker and used to ring her all the time. I think she gave me good support, but, I think they could have done more for me. …it took a long time to get startedwith themental health team and this wait could be improved as I had to go to hospital a lot before I was helped. Since the pandemic started, nineteen of the twenty- one young people with disabilities have either continued with the support they were receiving before Covid-19 or have had new contact with services. The supports included visits, reviews, and transition assessments to discuss their needs and support, facilitating support from other services if needed, and more informal contact and consistent relationships. For the most part the young people found the support helpful during this time, particularly with the consistency of the services provided. In addition, much of this support was face-to-face rather than virtual: [Young person] has had contact with her children’s social worker as normal throughout this time. That is planned every 5-6 weeks and is always the same format in that he visits and they speak about how she is and how things are for her in hospital. Yes, I’ve had good contact with social services. I have a transition social worker now, who is assessing if I can care for myself and whether I need an adult social worker, she helps me. This service has been really good, it has changed [my] life around, they helped me go to rehab before COVID and then when the pandemic started their service didn’t really change, I could still go and see them which really helped me. There was good ongoing support and I had a good relationship with staff. Leaving care - yes I have had good contact with leaving care and am happy with this support. I turned 18 in April 2020, so I moved from Children’s Services to Adult Services. I do find Adult Services much better. When I want to get in touch with my PA, she always responds quite quickly, and I have a transitions social worker and she responds quickly too. Before, when I was with Children’s Services, it could take a few days before anyone got back to me. Contact throughout the pandemic has been constant with my leaving care worker and also with my supported accommodation provider. All the support has been useful, not sure how to improve upon it.