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Children and Families

Disabled Children's Service
 

 

The Disabled Children's Service is a specialist team that is responsible for the assessment of disabled children up to the age of 18 and the provision of information through to packages of support to meet their assessed needs. The Team provides both a social work and care management service. Our aim is to work in partnership with families to provide support at the right time.

The Team work in partnership with Education and Health, other social work teams, disabled children and their carers, to ensure the co-ordination of assessment of needs and the formulation of individual care plans and support packages.

The Team gives priority to referrals where a disabled child has particularly complex or severe difficulties, a terminal illness, or where families need essential support to manage the care of a child with a disability.


Who can use this service?

We provide a service to children and young people, up to the age 18, who are disabled and need support as a result of:

  • significant learning disability
  • physical disability
  • visual and/or hearing impairment
  • chronic ill health


What we do?

Subject to assessment, the following services may be provided:

  • Portage - an early learning programme for pre-school children with developmental delays.

  • Childminder/playgroup - assistance can be offered in sponsoring placements to provide support to families to enable a child to access a service.

  • Shared care - children can be cared for outside of the family home for pre-arranged periods on a regular basis.

  • Residential Shared Care - children can be cared for on short breaks in a residential unit

  • Domiciliary care - assistance can be offered within the family home for carers either to work alongside parents or care for children for short periods to allow parents to go out.

  • Leisure - advice offered on inclusive and special leisure opportunities for disabled children.

The Team have recently appointed a Shared Care Co-ordinator, a Transitional Social Worker and two new Social Work Assistants to increase practical support and give advice to families.

Shared Care Scheme

The Shared Care Coordinator manages the short break carers scheme, which provides family based short breaks for disabled children and young people. The Scheme links disabled children with families or individuals who can provide them with short breaks on a regular basis. This can be for a few hours a week or a few days each month. It usually includes an overnight stay. Sometimes it is possible for someone who is already known to or related to the child to be assessed as a carer for a specific child. Carers are paid an allowance by the Council.

Bexley's Shared Care Scheme is a member of Shared Care Network, the umbrella organisation representing shared care services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scheme is available to disabled children who meet the eligibility criteria for the Disabled Children's Service following an assessment of their needs.


Transition Planning

The Transitional Social Worker will attend all 14+ and 16+ education review meetings of young people who have an Educational Statement of Special needs and that meet the Disabled Children's services criteria.

What is a Transition Plan and who has them?

A young person with a Statement of Education Special Needs will have an Annual review after their 14th birthday, usually during year 9. This review is called a Transition Planning meeting.

The transitional planning process enables everyone who is or may need to be involved with the young person to work together to plan the best way to meet their individual needs as they enter adulthood whatever their level of need and personal goals may be. The transition plan will be reviewed yearly, together with the Statement of Education Needs.

The Plan will be amended and updated if necessary each time.

The Transitional Social Worker will send a copy of the plan to the appropriate team for adults, this will ensure a smooth transition into the Adult Services.

Transition Planning is an ongoing process, which starts at the 14+ Transition Planning meeting and continues until the young person becomes an adult and is linked to the relevant adult services.


Children with Disabilities Register

The Children Act 1989 required all Social Services departments to establish a register of all children who are disabled and in their area.

Registering a child on the Children with Disabilities Register database is helpful to the Council to understand how many children have a disability in the Borough and what their individual difficulties are. This then helps the Council to make future plans and provide services to disabled children.

There are 10 categories on the registration form and 5 codes to choose from ranging from None (no difficulties in that area) to Profound (totally dependent on others in that particular area). This information is then added to the register database and reassessed in 2 years to check the information is still correct.


Hospital Social Work Team

This is based at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup (which has an established antenatal clinic for drug abusing pregnant mothers and close links with the Drug Action Team); the social work posts there are incorporated in with the Disabled Children's Service. Social workers liaise with hospital staff to ensure that any concerns about safety and welfare of children are addressed quickly. Social Workers also provide advice and assistance to families at the hospital who may have just been informed that their child has a disability. These families can then be linked to services in the community. Training is also undertaken with medical staff on social care models of working with families.

Further links:

  • Brierly Chalet - holiday accommodation purpose built for children and families living with a disability
  • Starting Point (1.83Mb, pdf file) - Bexley's directory of services for children and young people who are disabled or who have special educational/additional needs.

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Your opinion counts..!

The government wants to create an Office for Disability Issues - a new body to co-ordinate disabled people's interests. The government also wants to set up a National Forum for Organisations of Disabled People. Use the link below to find out more and for a chance to give your feedback. Thank you.

direct.gov.uk logo

External Linkwww.direct.gov.uk/disability-youropinion

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