THE CAMPHILL REFERRAL & INFORMATION SERVICE can offer help with finding the most suitable community for an applicant and advice about any issues in the application process or with enquiries about any matter concerning Camphill and learning disabilities or other special needs.
Before contacting the Referral & Information Service, please browse the pages of this website and follow links to the separate sites of Camphill schools, colleges and adult communities as they may contain the information you require.
The Referral & Information Service can also assist with enquiries about life transitions - moving to a Camphill school for children with special educational needs; moving from school to a Camphill specialist college; moving from college to an adult Camphill community; moving from one Camphill community to another as support needs and wishes change.
We provide a friendly, personal and confidential service with the aim of helping in whatever way we can. We welcome enquiries from people with special needs, their parents, brothers and sisters and other relatives, neighbours, social workers and anyone concerned about the welfare of someone with learning disabilities. When someone is clear that they want a place with a Camphill community, the Referral & Information Service can discuss the different Camphill centres, which ones might be suited to the individual's needs, what vacancies are available and the bodies that need to be contacted to arrange funding.
We can also direct enquirers to the other options available in addition to Camphill communities and give advice on how to access local Social Services support.
We recommend that anyone assisting someone with special needs to plan for the future should think well ahead. This is especially important at transition stages and it is preferable to begin making an application for a school or college place at least 18 months before it will be required. Adult communities can rarely provide a place for an applicant in less than 3 months and it is advisable to make an application up to a year ahead. Even with a successful application, the right type of place may not be available at the preferred time, and applicants should be prepared to go onto a waiting list.
We can provide advice to parents, grandparents and others who wish to leave a bequest to someone with special needs who is a member of a Camphill community by setting up a discretionary trust. We can advise on the Camphill Village Trust's settlement trust scheme which is available for someone wishing to make a bequest for a relative who lives at a CVT community
The Referral & Information Service welcomes enquiries of any sort, but we wish to point out that Camphill communities do not normally offer respite care service. Our communities do not normally take new applicants over the age of 55 as our communities have not been developed as residential care providers but as working communities including people with special needs. However, we will do all we can to assist by providing advice about who to contact to access whatever services are required.