Newbie

[DSCC]

Hi everyone I'm new here, anyone have information on 2 kids sharing a room? My eldest is almost 5 and has asthma quite bad, my youngest is 6 months and we only live in a 2 bedroom flat, my son is wakening my daughter up during the night coughing or has taken an asthma attack recently too, I'm not sure how his asthma will effect them both sharing a room but we're not getting much sleep. Any information would be much appreciated.

[Minushabens]

Hi & welcome.

Is your flat rented or owned? If it's rented you might be able to start discussing rehousing epecially if it's a social landlord. Because of the bedroom tax they often have a surplus of 3-bed properties these day so might have something suitable. Although that will be dependent on multiple factors including where you live.

If you own it, obviously that's more complicated.

There is however no inherent risk from two kids sharing a room. Asthma isn't infectious & the odd whiffy nappy would be unlikely to be much of a trigger (albeit some strong smells can be). Clearly there's a risk of each keeping the other awake though & from your point of view that's not great!

[DSCC in reply to Minushabens]

Hi. Thank you for your reply. We live in Fife Scotland and it's a council house we rent but they are telling us that we are adequately housed, we got a doctor's letter for my son to get moved to a bigger property as it's effecting all of our health due to lack of sleep and the house being damp is effecting my son badly. I'm just wondering if there is any other revenues I can go down to get us a move, my health visitor is going to write a letter for us but as they've ignored a doctor's letter I don't have much hope with the health visitors one.

[Minushabens in reply to DSCC]

Although I work in this field at the moment (supported housing) it's in England so I can only really advise on the system I know, which is likely to be quite different. If I was advising you here I'd feel pretty confident that there would be a route to better housing, especially with mould, a notorious asthma trigger.

However you could do worse than speaking to Shelter who will know your rights inside out (scotland.shelter.org.uk/get... & they have a helpline number on that page.

Good luck anyway. By the way, as an aside, East Fife have been my second favourite team since the early 1970s. My last trip there was a 1-1 against Stenhousemuir a couple of years back

[DSCC in reply to Minushabens]

Thank you for your advice and I'll definitely give shelter a call and see if they can advise me to do anything else 😊 the system up here is diabolical, both me and my husband work and have the 2 kids but we've seen neighbours move to bigger homes they don't need. I think fife council don't want to move us because we're in what people see as a hard to let area but it's lovely once you live where I am it's just the odd few houses/gardens that aren't looked after. But I'll keep fighting our case, hopefully get somewhere soon, my son's had overnight stays at the hospital and endless prescriptions for steroid tablets ect it's horrible to see him so ill all the time. Oh really 😃 my husband supports them! Small world, they're doing not too bad now a days.

[Minushabens]

If your husband ever looks at the East Fife forum, I very occasionally post stuff on there with the username 'Yorkshireman'...they are top of the league anyway so fingers crossed for promotion!

On the more serious matter though, it may be that you need to start a bit of sabre rattling with the council, which Shelter will advise on. Sometimes a few "asthmatic child forced to live in damp flat" type press stories or threats of civil action can shake them a bit.

In England most Local Authorities operate banding systems, & health issues, especially for children, put you higher up the chain. But as I say I don't have any sort of detailed knowledge on Scottish law in this area.

Good luck anyway.

[DSCC in reply to Minushabens]

Thank you, I'm not sure if he does but I'll ask when he gets in from work 😀 honestly we've tried that but I think we've annoyed them that much that they just don't want to help, but we'll not simmer down to them and I'll definitely be giving shelter a call, thanks again.

[Minushabens]

The Fife council website clearly identifies (fife.gov.uk/topics/index.cf... ) medical needs, health, illness several times in their prioritisation process. This might also be useful:

gov.scot/Resource/Doc/1125/...

If all else fails a complaint to the Ombudsman (spso.org.uk/) might be in order but you need to be clear of your case & have exhausted all other avenues before you go there. See what Shelter say first & good luck.

[DSCC in reply to Minushabens]

Thank you so much for your help and advice, I'll give all that you sent a thorough read through, we have our local MP involved as well but I honestly think they just don't like us now, they have fixed our loft insulation as there was cold spots and they have fitted a radiator at the bottom of our stairs as the house doesn't keep its heat, they said by doing this that it should keep the dampness away but it hasn't, a trip to the doctors again for another letter as well as the health visitors letter and advice from shelter hopefully get somewhere 😃 I can't thank you enough for taking the time out to give me advice.

[Minushabens]

You're welcome & good luck; I hope you make some progress.