UK. Disabled children's services

Citation

(2004), "UK. Disabled children's services", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 17 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2004.06217aab.005

UK. Disabled children's services

UK

Disabled children's servicesKeywords: Children, Disability, Audit Commission

A national study, Services for Disabled Children and their Families, reported by the Audit Commission says that disabled children in England and Wales are missing out on leading ordinary lives because public services are failing to meet their real needs. The report says that services for disabled children are a lottery, dependent largely on where they live and how hard their parents are able to push for change.

The Audit Commission found examples of good and innovative practice and service champions in all areas but it did not find secure and comprehensive provision of services for disabled children. There is a jigsaw puzzle of services, characterized by families having to struggle through a maze of providers to track down essential information and support. The study also found that services are rarely based on the priorities and needs of individual families, and what is provided is too little, too late to make the best possible improvements to their everyday lives.

Audit Commission chairman, James Strachan, said: "Disabled children continue to receive Cinderella services, which reduce not only their life chances but also their families' quality of life. Improving disabled children's services does not mean new targets, new structures or wholly new approaches. What is needed is better management of services so that good practice is mainstreamed, the leadership that makes this possible, and a new attitude which sees the social exclusion of disabled children as unacceptable. This report is a clarion call to all public services to work more closely together to offer more effective and co-ordinated services developed in partnership with disabled children and their families".

The study identifies four critical components that together make up truly effective services for disabled children:

1. 1.

   Service providers understand what families want and need, and use this to commission and deliver the right services.

2. 2.

   Both specialist and mainstream services focus attention on helping families participate in everyday life.

3. 3.

   Services are designed and delivered around clear understanding of the impact on a child's development of supportive, timely and appropriate services.

4. 4.

   Services recognise, recruit and develop the right people. Front-line staff are trained and supported to understand the individual needs of service users, and work with users in respectful partnership.

The Audit Commission recommends that:

• •

  all relevant public sector bodies should identify what matters most locally and agree a joint plan of action to improve services with their strategic partners, including those from the independent sector;

• •

  the Government should ensure that the National Service Framework for Children is implemented as a matter of priority; and

• •

  the Minister for Children should review the intended impact of policy initiatives for this group to challenge ambitions and ensure consistency between departments.

Alongside the national report, the Commission has produced a range of practical tools aimed at different groups, to help drive improvement. These have been produced with advice and help from a group of disabled young people from Triangle services, a Brighton-based consultancy, which also advised the Commission team throughout the study, and include an improvement pack for service providers, a series of fact sheets for families and carers written by parents' group aMAZE, and a child-friendly summary giving disabled children advice on getting their views across.

Further information: the report, Services for Disabled Children and their Families, improvement pack, fact sheets and summary are all available at www.audit-commission.gov.uk