Disabled children and their families

Disabled children are those with disabilities defined by Section 5/6 of the Disabled Persons Act 1986.
They would generally be children attending special schools and receiving high or middle rates of Disability Living Allowance. Assessments of need are holistic and will assess the impact that the disability is having upon the child and the family. Higher priority is given to disabled children with high dependency needs, where the stresses of caring for the child is placing considerable strain upon the family to a level where there are risks of the disabled child having to be accommodated or being in need of protection.

Services are accessed via assessments of the needs of the disabled child and their families completed by social workers in our Children Access Teams or a specialist Disabled Children Team based at the Coalville office. Children Access teams deal with cases which require low level and comparatively inexpensive levels of support services. The Disabled Children's Team deals with cases which are more complex, changeable and require longer term involvement.

Wherever possible support services to the disabled child and their family aim to keep the child at home by providing home-based support. Where this is impractical other support services we provide aim to give periodic breaks or respite services, limiting situations of children having to live apart from their families on a full time basis to a minimum.

Where home based support is inappropriate or impractical respite tries to be secured through extended day care services and direct payment, or short break schemes. In the more complex cases this is provided through residential services. Foster care, direct payments and residential services are only available to cases within the Disabled Children's Team.

We have improved links with Health and Education services to recognise the interaction of health, education and social care needs of disabled children. Also we are committed to financially supporting parents and disabled children who can make informal care arrangements which meet their support needs, by buying in help from neighbours and friends etc.

Find out more information and whether you and your family are entitled to a Disabled Person's Parking (Blue Badge Scheme).

To find out other information, see our Useful Links pages.

Disabled children and their families

further information