CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE & FAMILIES SERVICES



CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE & FAMILIES SERVICES

|DISABLED CHILDREN’S TEAM |

CRITERIA FOR REFERRAL AND ASSESSMENT BY SOCIAL WORKER.

The Disabled Children’s Team will undertake an assessment of need for all children who have a disability and meet the criteria for referral to the Team as detailed below.

The Team offers a Borough wide service and consists of a Team Manager, an Advanced Practitioner, nine Social Workers, two Family Support Worker and two Children’s Community Learning Disability Nurses.

Eligibility for Assessment:

The Children Act 1989 defines a category of Children in Need for whom Children, Young People and Families Services should provide services, if necessary, to safeguard and promote their welfare. A child is defined by the Act as being “in need” if they are disabled. However, the more recent Warwickshire judgement decided that the need for access to an assessment for a disabled child can as appropriate be provided by the completion of an Early Help Assessment.

The Disabled Children’s Team work with children and young people aged 0 to 18, with a permanent and substantial disability.

Examples of permanent and substantial disability

• Severe Learning Disability

Where a child has a substantial/severe learning disability. The child will normally be subject to an EHC Plan and may be attending specialist education provision.

• Physical Disability

Where a child has a long term (over 6 months), or permanent physical disability which seriously limits activities of daily life.

• Significant Sensory Loss or Impairment.

Where a child is deaf or hard of hearing or where a child is blind or has very limited vision. Children may also have considerable communication difficulties.

• Global Developmental Delay.

Where there is evidence that the child’s activities, physical, social, and educational are seriously limited.

• Autism .

Where the Asperger Syndrome or Autism affects the child’s developmental progress, their ability to access education or their condition significantly impacts on their everyday life.

• Multiple Disabilities/Difficulties

Where a child has a combination of disabilities which, on their own may not be regarded as very severe but combined together significantly impact on the child’s life.

The Disabled Children’s Team will not routinely work with a child who has a diagnosis of ADHD unless this is linked to a severe learning disability or other impairment.

Referrals

The Disabled Children’s Team is a specialist service and in most circumstances, a record of contact from a professional (except where the child is at risk of significant harm) should only be made following completion of a common assessment. This should ensure there is consent from parents.

There is also the Early Help Surgery that professionals can use.

The early help or “team around the child” process will identify the need for a specialist assessment and the early help assessment will then act as a platform for this more specialist assessment.

It is now possible for low levels of short break support to be accessed through completion of an early help assessment.

Parents can refer directly to the Disabled Children’s Team. They will be supported to access services via an early help assessment if the child does not meet the criteria for the service.

These criteria are not intended to be exclusive or exhaustive but aim to ensure that the Disabled Children’s Team work with the most severely disabled children.

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