Children's Disability Team

The Children with Disability team works with those children and young people aged between 0-18 years of age who have a disability and may require specialist services as a result of their additional needs.

There are 2 key areas to the function of the team. Firstly, it is to assess the needs of the children, young people and their family and secondly it is to ensure that where needs have been identified, the appropriate services are in place and meeting the needs which have been identified.

This could involve specific pieces of work being carried out with the child/young person or family by the social worker or a family support worker or a more specialist or bespoke service being put in place.

The Social Worker has up to 45 days to complete the CIN assessment which looks carefully at the child’s development needs, the parents’/carers’ specific needs, any parenting issues and the wider family circumstances and environment. They will also gather relevant information from professionals involved with your child.

A support plan is devised following the assessment which includes the services and short breaks that may be appropriate to be provided and how this will meet the child’s/families’ needs. The plan is considered by a panel before the short break is approved.

All plans are reviewed at least 6 monthly to make sure they respond to the needs of a child and family. Examples of a specialist short breaks package may include: day placements/ overnight stays within a residential or foster placement, the provision of a Direct Payment in order to fund specific activities to meet the identified needs of your child such as accessing a specialist group or club or to fund 1:1 support to enable attendance and participation at a specific activity.