Some good news: vaccinated, a review of the system for vaccinating clinically extremely vulnerable 16 - 18 year olds in Haringey - but is it enough?
- By Brian Leveson
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- 25 Feb, 2021
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Following intervention from HealthWatch Haringey after our blog, there has been a review of the system; however other aspect of support during the pandemic have been sorely missing, leaving us feeling that children with disabilities and their families were abandoned in Haringey in the pandemic.
Vaccinated - and a system review!
Firstly, I just wanted to update you all on our vaccine situation.
As a result of the blog Mike Wilson, our HealthWatch Haringey director, raised a concern with the Haringey Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). They have since reviewed their policy for clinically extremely vulnerable 16 to 18 year olds (on the shielded patients list).
This action took Haringey CCG less than two days to turn around, so kudos to them.
As a result of the blog Mike Wilson, our HealthWatch Haringey director, raised a concern with the Haringey Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). They have since reviewed their policy for clinically extremely vulnerable 16 to 18 year olds (on the shielded patients list).
This action took Haringey CCG less than two days to turn around, so kudos to them.
Today our whole family received the Pfizer vaccine, which is licenced for 16 to 18 year olds.
We are incredibly grateful to Mike and Healthwatch for this intervention.
Support for over 50 year olds and clinically extremely vulnerable adults in Haringey
As over 50's, during this lockdown we have received great support from Circle (HealthWatch / Public Voice over 50s group), have carried out welfare calls. We do not have a social worker and did not need to have one for that support - we just needed to be over 50, therefore a little bit more vulnerable and in need of a bit more support.
As a clinically extremely vulnerable adults, we have also had contact from Connected Communities. This contact came in the form of an unsolicited but helpful text message offering practical help, advice and support, a helpline - and some much needed humane contact. I was advised about medicines delivery and priority shopping through supermarkets. Again, I do not need a social worker for this support and I did not need to ask for this support, I just needed to be a clinically extremely vulnerable adult.
But help was not forthcoming for clinically extremely vulnerable children
If I have a concern about the help we have received it is this, we have had an abundance of support as older adults and as clinically extremely vulnerable adults. However, there seems to have been none as parents of a clinically extremely vulnerable child nor as the parent of a child with special educational needs and disabilities.
The help given by Haringey's Children with Disabilities Team (CWDT) was described in the Tottenham Community Press in August 2020: Haringey Council says that since lockdown, the CWDT has been contacting parents of children who have an allocated social worker in the CWDT, twice a week, offering them support. This support, it says has included provision of food, laptops and opportunities to access education. The council also adds that a multi-agency forum that includes staff from health, education and adult services meet weekly to review the support offered to these children with allocated social workers, based on the assessment of need.
The help given by Haringey's Children with Disabilities Team (CWDT) was described in the Tottenham Community Press in August 2020: Haringey Council says that since lockdown, the CWDT has been contacting parents of children who have an allocated social worker in the CWDT, twice a week, offering them support. This support, it says has included provision of food, laptops and opportunities to access education. The council also adds that a multi-agency forum that includes staff from health, education and adult services meet weekly to review the support offered to these children with allocated social workers, based on the assessment of need.
Were children with disabilities abandoned in the lockdown in Haringey?
So I am left wondering if it could have been arranged for Connected Communities to have reached out to the parents and carers of clinically extremely vulnerable children, for example, or if something similar to the support we have been offered from Circle could have been put in place - or something else.
Why were our needs deemed sufficient for help and support as older or clinically extremely vulnerable adults - but not because of the needs of our fragile clinically extremely vulnerable paraplegic child, who in all likelihood would be six times more likely to have a fatal outcome due to his learning disability (Public Health England) - why is that need not enough?
Why were our needs deemed sufficient for help and support as older or clinically extremely vulnerable adults - but not because of the needs of our fragile clinically extremely vulnerable paraplegic child, who in all likelihood would be six times more likely to have a fatal outcome due to his learning disability (Public Health England) - why is that need not enough?
If you thought SEND was bad - the NHS is seemingly prepared to throw away money to private companies
About 3 or 4 times a year we get the euphemistic message 'Parents please note we have put a letter in your child's bag' - its a world away from how a child's death was handled in my child's first school
More of a trial by ordeal than a well organised clearly set out administrative process for moving the care of vulnerable young adults from Haringey's Children's Services to Adult Services. We have been failed at every stage of the process.
Never EVER get on the bus without a camera running if you need the priority wheelchair space
The reality of using a London Bus in the teeming rain on a Sunday afternoon is no joke when the parents of a paraplegic person in a wheelchair clash with the self-entitled buggy-pushing parents of toddlers.
At 3pm today I received some barefaced lies from Haringey Council Adult Social Care in response to a photograph I published online yesterday and the media interest it generated
Haringey SEND Transport are insisting that a 17 year old minibus with no air conditioning is a suitable vehicle to transport my paraplegic son in this heatwave. The appalling conditions inside the minibus inside the bus is something they knew about last summer, yet they have to date done nothing whatsoever provide a suitable minibus this year nor appropriately mitigate the temperatures inside the minibus.The conditions inside the minibus are so bad that they triggered multiple seizures during the heatwave as my son has epilepsy, which they SEND transport department know about and they also know that they are triggered by heat.It is not just son who is impacted: last year we know of one child who died on Haringey SEND Transport in the summer heatwave and another who had seizures.
I am simply asking a question - are we all absolutely certain that the road closure / travel restrictions (commonly know as LTNs) placed on some of the most severely disabled people who are wholly reliant on cars are absolutely necessary
Haringey's road closures exemptions policy for disabled people is not fit for purpose, unduly burdensome and intrusive - it's time to stand up against the pro-LTN lycra-clad cycling bullies
Is the argument for and against exemptions for disabled people in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods really a case of GOOD versus EVIL?
