Autistic son entitlement to his own room?

suzyread
suzyread Community member Posts: 1 Listener
edited June 2022 in Families and carers
 have four children in a four bedroom house, two of my children are autistic.
My eldest gets a discretionary payment for her own room due to her needs.
I am trying to apply for a disability grant from our local council to convert my loft so that my autistic son can have his own room. 
He recieves middle rate personal care payment dla
And lower rate mobility at present. 
According to my own research based on middle rate care he is eligible for his own room.

School have made their own statement to support the referral, the impact of sharing on both children. 

His peadiatrician will not support it as she does not see him for his autism or behaviour, only for his sleep and his diet. She says he would need to be under camhs for them to comment on his behaviour. 

His diagnosis report details that he needs his own space to regulate and find peace.
There is impact on his  younger sister who he shares with when he is violent.

The occupational therapy service that the council use are denying he has any rights to his own space as an autistic child. Currently they are refusing to even accept our referral let alone assess us.

I have contacted BRAAIN a so called local autism support service, who referred me to citizens advice , I was wondering if you could support me at all in applying for this ?

Comments

  • Biblioklept
    Biblioklept Community member Posts: 5,260 Championing
    What are the rules for the grant @suzyread

    Extra bedrooms are usually when you can evidence sharing has an impact on their development, just being autistic doesn't automatically entitle. But surely can evidence the pressures on sleep and disturbance caused by sharing impacts development?? 
  • Ross_Alumni
    Ross_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,611 Championing
    Hello @suzyread and welcome to the community :) 

    Thank you for making this post, and sorry to hear about what you are going through. Have you been in touch with CAB yet? Are they supporting you?

    It must be really frustrating as a parent to know that your son would benefit from having his own room but that you can't secure the funding for it as yet. Hopefully you get a positive resolution to it soon though.

    How is the rest of your family coping with this situation? You mentioned that your son can be violent towards your daughter at times, which I'm sorry to hear. Are you confident that, aside from not having the funding in place to give him his own room, you have the right support in place to manage those situations so they happen as little as possible? 

    Scope have some family services that you might be interested in accessing, you can read about those here.

    This is a very supportive and welcoming site to be a part of so I’m hopeful that you’ll find it to be a positive outlet. Feel free to have a look around and get involved wherever you’d like 😊 I have included below a few of the pages I’d recommend having a look through to get used to things:

    • The virtual coffee lounge which is one of our categories, in which we play games and talk about general subjects such as hobbies and interests
    • The recent discussions page, which shows an overview of everything happening across the community
    • The categories page, which shows a full list of discussion groups on the community

    If you have any questions at all then don’t hesitate to ask.

  • Tori_Scope
    Tori_Scope Scope Posts: 12,443 Championing
    Hi @suzyread ;) I was just wondering how you've been getting on since you last posted here on the community. How have things been?