Mind the Gap

Recently we've been managing with an event in someone else's life. A local girl, known to us, came late in the night upset and frightened and needing, as she saw it, to leave home.

J discovered the next day that Social Services aren't any longer directly responsible for 16 year olds as they're entitled to Housing in their own right and so she played ping pong with Housing and Social Services. She did manage to get her into a refuge temporarily and we hope that she now will have the time and space to decide what it is she wants to do next. Though in all likelyhood all choices will come down to one hard acceptance that she will have to fend for herself.

Yesterday, I met with another parent at S's school, and it so happened that his wife is a Social Worker in the area (and for all I know was one of the ones that J dealt with last Friday), he said there is coverage for between 16 and 18 but it did seem to concentrate on those who had already fallen into abusive drug use rather than those that might be in danger of falling into the crevasse. In any event, it being the time of year, just before the end of the financial year a lot of what they want to do is prevented by lack of budget.