PAMIS - Keys to Life Time for You
A story by PAMIS Fife
We provided grants directly to carers who care for a child or adult with profound and multiple learning disabilities, and live in Scotland.
What PAMIS - Keys to Life Time for You did
All professionals and carers/families on the PAMIS database were contacted with a Time for You flyer, application form and notes to accompany the form. Information was also available on our website.
There were 3 rounds, the first round attracting the most applications. Completed application forms were received and information checked. The panel consisted of 2 carers, 2 PAMIS Family Support Service Co-ordinators, PAMIS Chief Executive and one health professional. Each panel member scored the applications independently using the decision/criteria marking sheet, and then met together for each round to discuss results and make a final decision on the individual applications.
The applicants were notified and payment of the grant was made into their bank account. Applicants were requested to complete an evaluation sheet following their 'break' and return it to PAMIS. All feedback was positive and almost all found the whole process easy to follow.
What PAMIS Fife has learned
It was a humbling experience administering the Fund. The families we contacted were very appreciative and many did not usually ask for any assistance. It was a good way of involving all PAMIS staff throughout our 5 main geographic areas and enabled our Family Support Service (FSS) to forge stronger links with the families they support.
It did highlight families that PAMIS did not support mainly because they fell out with the 5 office areas. We were able to add their names to our database and keep them informed of PAMIS activities and links with other agencies.
One challenge was the scale of the administration involved. One person dealt with all the enquiries and it was quite a large workload. Another challenge was identifying if the cared for person had a Profound, Multiple learning Disability. It was felt there was a group that perhaps fell out with criteria set out by Enable, DSS and PAMIS, e.g. not strictly a Profound Multiple Learning Disability.
The panel agreed to accept some of these applications after consultation with Enable.