Are you having more luck with the LA now Xmas has been and gone? I found mine sort of stopped doing anything mid December.

If he has capacity are they going to let him write his blog? I’m sorry it doesn’t sound a very open/transparent place - and they just should be :(

Great idea

Does anyone know how contracts are agreed between providers and commissioners? My son's providers clearly behaved legally in serving short notice (they certainly acted within the terms of their contract - no doubt about that ) but the impact of that short notice has been huge. Should commissioners be insisting on terms that give service users better protection or does the law just need to change to ensure that our dudes and dudettes are protected from short notice periods?

Just musing really on what changes in law/current practice would best protect our family members.

Gosh that's awful :(

Not unpaid - especially as I am self employed and so my earnings have gone right down the pan since notice was served!

Not really. Just that he was okay when we left but upset the next day. He is moving ward & I think I am going to try and arrange regular Skype calls once he is in there. I am finding the distance incredibly difficult. We're seeing him again in at the beginning of the week after next. After 18 years of seeing him pretty much every day it's not easy.

The local LD team have arranged counselling/therapy for us (a sign that they understand how traumatic it has been for us all) - I am so worried about how my son is feeling though. My husband won't be able to go as he is on minus holiday because he had to take a lot of time off while our son was with us. I suspect it might open some floodgates for me!

Ah - looks as if it would be hard to get financial help with visits - this may be a useful link for others

http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index...id=52&Itemid=20

I hope it is back up soon

I think it is for LAC - although I will ask as he was a LAC for a year until turning 18 a few months ago (he moved into residential aged 17, so although we still had parental responsibility and it was 5 miles from home so I saw him every day, he was a LAC). Thanks for the suggestion - I will look into it.

He seems pretty bewildered & confused (hardly surprising). The setting itself has lots of positives - lots of open space, outdoor activities & the sorts of activities he likes. Things like OT (which he badly needs) onsite. I don't know whether he will ever settle so far from home. He's used to seeing me about 5 times a week & his home area is very important to him. It took us over 7 hours to drive home.

It's released a slow burning anger in me that his old providers put him in this position. All they had to do was agree to keep him until his new provision was set up. With that agreement the right sort of providers (with experience, the right skills & a track record of working successfully with people like my son) could have been brought in. My younger NT sons will have more protection against eviction than him. It can't be right.

Oh yes please - that would be interesting. I really want to prevent other families ending up in this situation.

About to set off on the long 2 day trek to see my son (meeting my husband two thirds of the way there - he is working in London today -then we'll drive there,see son and drive back tomorrow).

He had lots of blue lights in the month prior to admission - (I lost count in the end. Four? Five? Maybe six). They really did try to prevent hospital admission (which helps to know TBH). If his original provider hadn't given such impossibly short notice he would not have been admitted.

I am hoping the CTR will be the week after next. Will chase again today or tomorrow (am largely driving the next 2 days!)

I'm not sure. Will aim for every other week I think. Luckily I run my own business and I can work anywhere I have a wifi connection - so I have more flexibility than most people. However, we have younger children who need me at home - so it will be a difficult time of needing to be in two places at once.

Thanks for posting all this info on CTR's - very helpful.

Incidentally he's never been away from me for more than a few days before, so being so far away is going to have a massive impact :(