Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Friday, 26 February 2010
More on absconding
To Marcus Prickface and Antonio Spineless (email)
In respect of the incident which took place at Apple Court on the evening of Wednesday 24 February, 2010, in which a fault developed on Marifa Itchybum's video player. A member of staff speaking contemporaneous to events stated that Marifa had "packed his videos away and was ready to leave" shortly before a spare skart lead was located and the fault on his video player remedied. It is extremely likely, in my view, that an unremedied fault would eventually lead to Marifa attempting to abscond. His subsequent behaviour might also pose a serious risk to staff, children and property at Apple Court.
I understand there is currently no spare video player on site at Apple Court.
Please forward to me (Jonah Itchybum, Marifa's primary carer and father) IN WRITING no later than Tuesday 02 March 2010 a copy of the risk assessment, specific to the risk of Marifa's attempting to abscond from Apple Court, including provision for substituting faulty video/TV equipment and whether spare units have been purchased or otherwise supplied. I am more than willing to advise and support you in obtaining a spare video player as required.
I must insist that you action this matter as per my instructions. My intent is to ensure you are taking every precaution to ensure my son's safety, and that you are prepared to be open and fully accountable in this matter.
I hope you will agree this is a reasonable course of action under the circumstances.
Sincerely
Jonah Itchybum
Phone call at 9.30pm last night from Marcus Prickface, Marifa's key worker, promising to action this matter.
In respect of the incident which took place at Apple Court on the evening of Wednesday 24 February, 2010, in which a fault developed on Marifa Itchybum's video player. A member of staff speaking contemporaneous to events stated that Marifa had "packed his videos away and was ready to leave" shortly before a spare skart lead was located and the fault on his video player remedied. It is extremely likely, in my view, that an unremedied fault would eventually lead to Marifa attempting to abscond. His subsequent behaviour might also pose a serious risk to staff, children and property at Apple Court.
I understand there is currently no spare video player on site at Apple Court.
Please forward to me (Jonah Itchybum, Marifa's primary carer and father) IN WRITING no later than Tuesday 02 March 2010 a copy of the risk assessment, specific to the risk of Marifa's attempting to abscond from Apple Court, including provision for substituting faulty video/TV equipment and whether spare units have been purchased or otherwise supplied. I am more than willing to advise and support you in obtaining a spare video player as required.
I must insist that you action this matter as per my instructions. My intent is to ensure you are taking every precaution to ensure my son's safety, and that you are prepared to be open and fully accountable in this matter.
I hope you will agree this is a reasonable course of action under the circumstances.
Sincerely
Jonah Itchybum
Phone call at 9.30pm last night from Marcus Prickface, Marifa's key worker, promising to action this matter.
Friday, 29 January 2010
An Email from the SS
Dear Jonah
As Marifa is in his transition year it is important that a piece of work called a pathway plan is completed. This plan includes Marifa's likes, dislikes and important information about him to take to adult services. The plan also includes future plans and ideas. Barry Handactor is the Person Centred Planning Co-ordinator (Transition) for Trotters who completes these plans with young people and their families. Barry would like to joint visit with myself and is happy to do an initial visit to discuss the plan with you and Mrs Itchybum? We were then thinking Barry could spend some time with Marifa during half term to complete the plan?
I am aware that Mrs Itchybum has a new job and works full time therefore it may be difficult but if you could let me know?
Thanks
Nathalie Feckless
As Marifa is in his transition year it is important that a piece of work called a pathway plan is completed. This plan includes Marifa's likes, dislikes and important information about him to take to adult services. The plan also includes future plans and ideas. Barry Handactor is the Person Centred Planning Co-ordinator (Transition) for Trotters who completes these plans with young people and their families. Barry would like to joint visit with myself and is happy to do an initial visit to discuss the plan with you and Mrs Itchybum? We were then thinking Barry could spend some time with Marifa during half term to complete the plan?
I am aware that Mrs Itchybum has a new job and works full time therefore it may be difficult but if you could let me know?
Thanks
Nathalie Feckless
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Skin(2)
I taught adults and teenagers English for about a year, on and off, after training as a TEFL teacher. I spent slightly longer working as an Early Years teacher, in classrooms where the majority of children were E2L (English as a 2nd Language). Those experiences, plus having a best friend at school who was born in Nairobi and spoke Portuguese until he came to the UK, have equiped me with the ability to rapidly if roughly assess an E2L speakers language competencies.
Sometimes, it's a scarey skill.
For example, I can say with a fair degree of confidence that the new GP at my Health Centre struggles to understand spoken English because his passive vocabulary is short on idiom, and his listening skills are poor - he hasn't properly grasped how to listen for gist. Instead, he listens on the basis of what he expects to hear, having already assessed the situation by observation. That's not a very professional way to take a history, and that's why he diagnosed me as having 'contact dermititis'.
Nothing has changed in terms of contact, as I pointed out to him, whether it be soap, clothing or jewellry. Having asked me to repeat myself twice, I think he just gave up, treating my views as ipso facto irrelevant. What has changed, recently, is life looking after my autistic son just got considerably more stressful, thanks to you-know-who (I don't mean the NHS - I will simply see another GP in the same Centre). I'm not sure whether the rash is eczema or psoriasis, but it's one or the other and almost certainly stress induced. As well as on my neck, I now have rashes on my arms, thighs, and even on my balls. Yeah, it's a really sexy condition.
So I'd like to say a big thank you to the morally defective superheroes at the Trotters and Apple Court, for making my life that much tougher to the extent that my own body is now fucking up. You ineffectual bastards should be facing gross misconduct procedures, but instead you're sitting pretty, still telling lies, some of you earning more than some graduate professionals despite having failed your GCSEs. You're a human disgrace.
Sometimes, it's a scarey skill.
For example, I can say with a fair degree of confidence that the new GP at my Health Centre struggles to understand spoken English because his passive vocabulary is short on idiom, and his listening skills are poor - he hasn't properly grasped how to listen for gist. Instead, he listens on the basis of what he expects to hear, having already assessed the situation by observation. That's not a very professional way to take a history, and that's why he diagnosed me as having 'contact dermititis'.
Nothing has changed in terms of contact, as I pointed out to him, whether it be soap, clothing or jewellry. Having asked me to repeat myself twice, I think he just gave up, treating my views as ipso facto irrelevant. What has changed, recently, is life looking after my autistic son just got considerably more stressful, thanks to you-know-who (I don't mean the NHS - I will simply see another GP in the same Centre). I'm not sure whether the rash is eczema or psoriasis, but it's one or the other and almost certainly stress induced. As well as on my neck, I now have rashes on my arms, thighs, and even on my balls. Yeah, it's a really sexy condition.
So I'd like to say a big thank you to the morally defective superheroes at the Trotters and Apple Court, for making my life that much tougher to the extent that my own body is now fucking up. You ineffectual bastards should be facing gross misconduct procedures, but instead you're sitting pretty, still telling lies, some of you earning more than some graduate professionals despite having failed your GCSEs. You're a human disgrace.
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
SS Quiz
1. Using Statistics freeware, I am aware that employees of Trotters regularly log onto my blog at work, but always between 7pm and 9pm. Who do you think is logging on?
(a) Someone working late in Trotters IT department;
(b) Hackers who are piggybacking on Trotters' IP address;
(c) Apple Court care workers, who should be looking after the learning disabled children in their care.
2. When Martin Prickface, my son's keyworker at Apple Court, discovered he was being blogged about, how did he respond?
(a) He ignored it;
(b) He complained to Trotters legal team, claiming it was defamatory;
(c) He asked Trotters social services to cancel Marifa's placement at Apple Court.
3. When Chances Manager discovered Martin Prickface was being blogged about, and learned about his aforementioned response, how did she respond?
(a) She agreed with Martin on ever issue;
(b) She was sympathetic with the parents, but could see things from Martin's point of view;
(c) She laughed and said Martin ought to get a life.
4. Nathalie Feckless, Marifa's social worker, rang me to apologise for not being able to attend my son's forthcoming educational review. She stated that she had sent written evidence to the school for the review, but the school had failed include it in the portfolio of evidence distributed to professionals attending the Review, and myself. Why was her written evidence not in the portfolio?
(a) The evidence was submitted late;
(b) The school made an administrative error;
(c) Nathalie had failed to submit any written evidence and had just told me a bare-faced lie.
5. Nathalie Feckless attended a transition review, in which she stated that an invitation to the same review had been sent to Chances respite care, but Chances had failed to even respond to her letter. The Manager of Chances told us that she always responds to review invitations and attends whenever possible. Why did Chances fail to respond to this invitation?
(a) The postman was abducted by aliens before he could deliver the invitation;
(b) The manager of Chances is a liar and never answers her mail or phone calls;
(c) Nathalie Feckless is an inveterate liar and no invitation was ever sent.
6. Why did my autistic son’s social worker’s line manager, Eva Polite, recently draw attention to statements on my blog in order to question my mental health? Is it because:
(a) Social workers routinely inspect the blogs of service users’ parents, in order to assess their mental well being;
(b) The social worker had been recommended to assess my mental health, following a letter from my G.P., or:
(c) My blog recently described Apple Court's manager as socially incompetent, and his deputy as a conceited ignoramous.
7. Before Marifa's first sleepover at his social services run respite centre, the ‘manager’ — Antonio Spineless — made a “solemn promise” that staff would purchase all necessary food items to prepare his tea, supper, and packed lunch for school. When we arrived at the centre, just a few hours before Marifa was due to arrive for his first sleepover, what did we discover?
(a) The food items were there as promised;
(b) They had been unable to purchase all the required items, but asked us if we could supply them on this occasion;
(c) They had failed to purchase all the required items – and we only found that out because we insisted on looking in their fridge and cupboards.
8. Is the kind of organisational incompetence detailed in the above question something we frequently encounter in respect of Apple Court residential respite centre?
(a) No, not at all - it's fantastic, and as that carer said on the phone through clenched teeth, Marifa is lucky to have a place there and how dare we complain;
(b) Okay, perhaps, but it's only now and again.
(c) Almost every fucking week.
9. The unqualified carers at Apple Court make it clear they disapprove of Marifa's special interest in videos. This is thanks to advice from a Trotters care manager, Jackie Leninars, who believes strict and uncompromising limits should be placed on all children with autism's 'obsessions'. What is the basis for the aforementioned manager taking this blanket view?
(a) Jackie Leninars is a qualified psychologist
(b) Jackie Leninars is a qualified TEACCH practitioner;
(c) Jackie Leninars once worked as a classroom assistant in an autism unit.
10. Marcus Prickface, Deputy Manager of Apple Court and Marifa's 'key worker', once described Marifa as "a normal child trapped inside autism", adding that this was his own "theory of autism". How would the overwhelming majority of autism professionals view such a statement?
(a) As a brilliant insight into the nature of autism;
(b) As a unusual but nevertheless helpful perspective on the autistic condition;
(c) As a conceited and dangerous misreading of the uneven profile of abilities in autism, and one more typical of overwrought and inexperienced parents.
11. When Marifa's mother met with Nathalie Feckless to arrange for additional respite during school holidays, what happened next?
(a) Nathalie agreed to grant the additional respite as requested and made all the necessary arrangements;
(b) Nathalie agreed to grant the respite as requested and then arranged for the additional respite to terminate after two weeks.
Send your answers on a postcard to:
OFSTED
Royal Exchange Buildings
St Ann's Square
Manchester
M2 7LA
This Quiz is subject to regular updates.
(a) Someone working late in Trotters IT department;
(b) Hackers who are piggybacking on Trotters' IP address;
(c) Apple Court care workers, who should be looking after the learning disabled children in their care.
2. When Martin Prickface, my son's keyworker at Apple Court, discovered he was being blogged about, how did he respond?
(a) He ignored it;
(b) He complained to Trotters legal team, claiming it was defamatory;
(c) He asked Trotters social services to cancel Marifa's placement at Apple Court.
3. When Chances Manager discovered Martin Prickface was being blogged about, and learned about his aforementioned response, how did she respond?
(a) She agreed with Martin on ever issue;
(b) She was sympathetic with the parents, but could see things from Martin's point of view;
(c) She laughed and said Martin ought to get a life.
4. Nathalie Feckless, Marifa's social worker, rang me to apologise for not being able to attend my son's forthcoming educational review. She stated that she had sent written evidence to the school for the review, but the school had failed include it in the portfolio of evidence distributed to professionals attending the Review, and myself. Why was her written evidence not in the portfolio?
(a) The evidence was submitted late;
(b) The school made an administrative error;
(c) Nathalie had failed to submit any written evidence and had just told me a bare-faced lie.
5. Nathalie Feckless attended a transition review, in which she stated that an invitation to the same review had been sent to Chances respite care, but Chances had failed to even respond to her letter. The Manager of Chances told us that she always responds to review invitations and attends whenever possible. Why did Chances fail to respond to this invitation?
(a) The postman was abducted by aliens before he could deliver the invitation;
(b) The manager of Chances is a liar and never answers her mail or phone calls;
(c) Nathalie Feckless is an inveterate liar and no invitation was ever sent.
6. Why did my autistic son’s social worker’s line manager, Eva Polite, recently draw attention to statements on my blog in order to question my mental health? Is it because:
(a) Social workers routinely inspect the blogs of service users’ parents, in order to assess their mental well being;
(b) The social worker had been recommended to assess my mental health, following a letter from my G.P., or:
(c) My blog recently described Apple Court's manager as socially incompetent, and his deputy as a conceited ignoramous.
7. Before Marifa's first sleepover at his social services run respite centre, the ‘manager’ — Antonio Spineless — made a “solemn promise” that staff would purchase all necessary food items to prepare his tea, supper, and packed lunch for school. When we arrived at the centre, just a few hours before Marifa was due to arrive for his first sleepover, what did we discover?
(a) The food items were there as promised;
(b) They had been unable to purchase all the required items, but asked us if we could supply them on this occasion;
(c) They had failed to purchase all the required items – and we only found that out because we insisted on looking in their fridge and cupboards.
8. Is the kind of organisational incompetence detailed in the above question something we frequently encounter in respect of Apple Court residential respite centre?
(a) No, not at all - it's fantastic, and as that carer said on the phone through clenched teeth, Marifa is lucky to have a place there and how dare we complain;
(b) Okay, perhaps, but it's only now and again.
(c) Almost every fucking week.
9. The unqualified carers at Apple Court make it clear they disapprove of Marifa's special interest in videos. This is thanks to advice from a Trotters care manager, Jackie Leninars, who believes strict and uncompromising limits should be placed on all children with autism's 'obsessions'. What is the basis for the aforementioned manager taking this blanket view?
(a) Jackie Leninars is a qualified psychologist
(b) Jackie Leninars is a qualified TEACCH practitioner;
(c) Jackie Leninars once worked as a classroom assistant in an autism unit.
10. Marcus Prickface, Deputy Manager of Apple Court and Marifa's 'key worker', once described Marifa as "a normal child trapped inside autism", adding that this was his own "theory of autism". How would the overwhelming majority of autism professionals view such a statement?
(a) As a brilliant insight into the nature of autism;
(b) As a unusual but nevertheless helpful perspective on the autistic condition;
(c) As a conceited and dangerous misreading of the uneven profile of abilities in autism, and one more typical of overwrought and inexperienced parents.
11. When Marifa's mother met with Nathalie Feckless to arrange for additional respite during school holidays, what happened next?
(a) Nathalie agreed to grant the additional respite as requested and made all the necessary arrangements;
(b) Nathalie agreed to grant the respite as requested and then arranged for the additional respite to terminate after two weeks.
Send your answers on a postcard to:
OFSTED
Royal Exchange Buildings
St Ann's Square
Manchester
M2 7LA
This Quiz is subject to regular updates.
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Pushing Back
I'm sad, I'm annoyed, I'm irritated. Why? Because I use blogging as a means of working through and figuring out how to cope with my very challenging life -- but writing the kind of confessional posts I sometimes do on my other blog just became that much more difficult, thanks to recent comments made by my local social services to my beloved spouse. Their comments questioned my fitness to parent my profoundly autistic son.
I am a qualified special needs teacher because of my son, and even on bad days, I do a bloody good job of parenting him. I garnered a great deal of respect from my colleagues when I was studying for my autism teaching qualification at B. Uni, not because they thought I was some kind of hero, but because I was an exemplary A-grade student who demonstrated an in-depth practical understanding of the needs of my son and of autistic children in general. I don't take kindly to people calling into question my ability to parent my own son, especially people who have no training or - in my view - demonstrable expertise comparable to my own.
So when a social worker lifted comments made on this blog to suggest I was in some way unfit to parent my autistic child (and that my partner is perhaps too busy to support me), you can appreciate I got pretty fucking angry. Moreover, given the sole intent of these vile innuendos was to pressure me into removing what I considered to be fair comment about my local social services from this blog, you can appreciate the extent to which my anger was informed by utter contempt for an agency which has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of professionalism in its dealings with my family, and now -- it would seem -- utter contempt for principles of free speech and accountability.
In my son's interest, and for the comfort of the majority of staff at my son's social services respite centre who do a fine job despite the constraints of working within a collegial and largely deprofessionalized service, I have removed the offending posts from my other blog. For my son's and their sakes, I will refrain from blogging about their service on that blog, henceforth.
If "experience" was sufficient to learn how to manage children with autism, we'd all be home and dry by now. And the experience one gains with a keen mind and on the back of a rigorous education is not the same as that gained by people who couldn't even jump the exam hurdle at 16. Sorry to be ideological, but your service needs a double dose of managerialism.
I am a qualified special needs teacher because of my son, and even on bad days, I do a bloody good job of parenting him. I garnered a great deal of respect from my colleagues when I was studying for my autism teaching qualification at B. Uni, not because they thought I was some kind of hero, but because I was an exemplary A-grade student who demonstrated an in-depth practical understanding of the needs of my son and of autistic children in general. I don't take kindly to people calling into question my ability to parent my own son, especially people who have no training or - in my view - demonstrable expertise comparable to my own.
So when a social worker lifted comments made on this blog to suggest I was in some way unfit to parent my autistic child (and that my partner is perhaps too busy to support me), you can appreciate I got pretty fucking angry. Moreover, given the sole intent of these vile innuendos was to pressure me into removing what I considered to be fair comment about my local social services from this blog, you can appreciate the extent to which my anger was informed by utter contempt for an agency which has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of professionalism in its dealings with my family, and now -- it would seem -- utter contempt for principles of free speech and accountability.
In my son's interest, and for the comfort of the majority of staff at my son's social services respite centre who do a fine job despite the constraints of working within a collegial and largely deprofessionalized service, I have removed the offending posts from my other blog. For my son's and their sakes, I will refrain from blogging about their service on that blog, henceforth.
If "experience" was sufficient to learn how to manage children with autism, we'd all be home and dry by now. And the experience one gains with a keen mind and on the back of a rigorous education is not the same as that gained by people who couldn't even jump the exam hurdle at 16. Sorry to be ideological, but your service needs a double dose of managerialism.
Friday, 25 September 2009
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