West Sussex Children with Disabilities Service Eligibility Criteria

The purpose of this policy document is to set out how support can be accessed via the specialist Children with Disabilities Service in West Sussex. It is designed for disabled children and young people aged 0-18, parents and carers, and professionals working with them, and will outline the criteria used by the Children with Disabilities Service in West Sussex when making decisions about whether to carry out an assessment or to provide services.

The Children with Disabilities Service in West Sussex is a specialist team that supports the most severely disabled children and young people aged 0-18. Many families will not need this level of support and as such this document also aims to clarify how support for disabled children and young people, including short breaks, can be accessed across West Sussex at all levels of need, from universal or targeted support to the more specialist support that is provided by the Children with Disabilities Service, the latter of which will require a social work assessment.

The eligibility criteria have been co-produced with members of the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum during a period of consultation in late Spring and early Summer 2021. Parents and carers fed back that they wanted to see the following elements in any document setting out the West Sussex Children with Disabilities eligibility criteria:

• clear and simple language
• an assumption that the reader has no knowledge of the subject matter
• parent-carer friendly - no ‘jargon’
• sets out the range of support available across West Sussex
• provides clear links to the Local Offer and the Short Breaks Statement
• signposts to other support in the community if criteria is not met for a social work assessment
• a parent-carer should know when to refer again in the future if needs change
• flow-charts to help parents understand the different processes

West Sussex County Council has considered the rights of disabled children and young people in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and other relevant legislation. This includes the:

• Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
• Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations, 2011
• Equality Act 2010
• Equality Act 2010 (Disability) Regulations 2010
• Children Act 1989
• Children Act 2004
• Children & Families Act 2014
• Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 as amended 2015
• SEN and Disability Code of Practice
• United Nations (UN) Convention on Disability Rights
• Human Rights Act 1998

This policy adopts the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability, which defines a person as having a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day to day activities.

• Within this context 'normal day to day activities' should be seen in comparison to other children and young people of the same age.
• 'Substantial' means more than minor or trivial. It may mean that a disabled child requires significant levels of support from another person to carry out basic day to day functions such as washing, dressing, feeding, participating in activities inside and outside of the home, and night- time care. As an adult it is expected that they will continue to require this level of support.
• 'Long term' means that the effect of the impairment has lasted or is likely to last for at least 12 months.
• 'Impairment' might be cognitive, sensory, physical, or mental.

Children and young people with long term health conditions and complex health care needs where these have a substantial effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities are included.

Children and young people with severe disfigurements including skin diseases are automatically included within the definition of disability.

Children and young people that are covered by this definition will have a wide range of varying needs and West Sussex County Council will consider the impact on a disabled child, on their siblings and family when considering any referral for support.

There are a range of other factors that may be considered such as the degree of impairment, the age of the child and the individual family circumstances. No 2 disabled children are the same and no 2 families are the same.

All disabled children are ‘Children in Need’ for the purposes of Section 17 (1) of the Children Act 1989. Currently the local authority has a duty to:

• assess the needs of disabled children and to safeguard and promote the welfare of disabled children by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children's needs - this could include an assessment and support through Early Help Services where it is considered that this would meet the needs of the disabled child and family
• provide services including short breaks under its duties and powers contained within Part 3 of The Children Act 1989 (Local Authority Support for Children and Families)
• provide services under section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 (CSDPA) if, following an assessment, they are judged to be necessary
• ensure that disabled children are not treated less favourably than their non-disabled counterparts, in line with legislative requirements - this will be achieved both by supporting disabled children and young people and their families to have access to local universal provision and specialist or targeted provision where appropriate
• write a Short Breaks Statement which informs families about the range of short breaks service available, any eligibility criteria considered to decide who is entitled to get a short break, and how the range of short breaks is designed to meet the needs of local families with disabled children

Decisions in respect of accessing support at Level 4 are made prior to consideration of the appropriate social care service to meet need, information about which can be found on the West Sussex Local Safeguarding Children’s Partnership West Sussex Continuum of Need / Threshold Guidance web page. 

Not all children with disabilities will have their needs assessed with the specialist Children with Disabilities Services as they may be best supported by other social care teams. The Children with Disabilities service supports children with the most severe and profound needs where the primary needs stems from physical or learning disability.

The Children with Disabilities teams work with children and young people aged 0 to 18 who reside in West Sussex and have one or more of the following:

• a severe or profound learning disability
• a severe or profound physical disability
• complex health needs related to a lifelong or life limiting disability
• Autism
• a combination of disabilities, which individually are not severe, but cumulatively have a similar impact to a severe disability

The child’s or young person’s disability needs should also include one or more of the following for them to be eligible:

• use of specialist equipment for mobility
• support with basic self-care when no longer age appropriate
• need for constant supervision throughout the day and/or periods during the night when no longer age appropriate and where it is having a significant impact on the disabled child or family
• behaviours that challenge, that are a direct result of the disability and that pose a significant risk of harm to the child or young person or others
• severe developmental delay
• severe communication needs
• sensory communication disabilities (hearing, visual or multi-sensory impairments)
• other neurological conditions such as FASD (Foetal Alcohol Syndrome)

These include:

• capacity of parents to meet the disability needs of their children
• carer has physical or mental health problems
• child’s behaviour is a serious risk to self or others
• other person(s) with disabilities or long-term health needs in the household who needs support
• sole carer or parents with a limited support network
• significant pressures in the family such as domestic abuse
• risk to the child because of the physical environment e.g., suitability of housing, need for adaptations
• risk of the disabled child's care breaking down
• without support the child is likely to need a specialist residential or educational placement
• the family has difficulties in meeting financial commitments; e.g., bills, rent and other essentials
• there are stressful family relationships which may be harmful to disabled child
• impact on siblings; for example, the needs of other children in the family are impacted
• support available from other specialist resources such as CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service)

These criteria do not include children:

• with mental health disorders unless the child or young person also has a learning, physical or communication disability
• and young people with a disability or disabilities that are not severe
• and young people with behavioural problems due to social or environmental factors (i.e., not associated with a disability)
• with a diagnosis of ADHD or ADD unless the child also has a learning, physical or communication disability
• with mild learning difficulties such as dyspraxia or dyslexia

The Children with Disabilities Service is a county-wide service with 5 teams of social workers, child and family workers, and a team manager. There are 3 service managers who oversee the work of the social work teams and a dedicated head of service with overall responsibility for the service.

The service is part of the wider Children, Young People & Learning (CYPL) Directorate that includes Special Educational Needs and the rest of the mainstream Children’s Social Work teams and Early Help.

The 2 Children with Disabilities North teams are currently based in Horsham and the 3 Children with Disabilities South teams are based in Bognor and Worthing. This includes the Children with Disabilities Review Team who work with disabled children where there are stable packages of support in place and where only periodic reviews of those care packages are typically needed.

There is a range of support available through the specialist Children with Disabilities Service including:

• support from an allocated social worker or a child and family worker in the Children with Disabilities Review Team
• direct payments that enables parents and carers to employ a personal assistant (PA) to support their disabled child and allow some breaks from caring
• home care support or support to access the community through a specialist care agency
• overnight short breaks
• specialist assessments and behavioural support through organisations such as Aspens
• access to targeted short breaks provisions across the county, including after school clubs, Saturday clubs and holiday play schemes

West Sussex has a duty to provide a range of short breaks for disabled children across the county that all families should be able to access.

These can be accessed directly from each provider and do not require a social work assessment through the specialist Children with Disabilities Service.

Families may be signposted in the first instance to the range of short breaks available in their local area and which are designed to provide breaks from caring and fun activities for their disabled child.

These are set out in the West Sussex short breaks statement and are subsidised by West Sussex as part of our wider offer to disabled children and young people. These may include clubs, activities, family fun days, holiday playschemes and many other fun activities.

The outcome of a Child and Family Assessment may also be to signpost a family to the targeted offer of short breaks if this is the assessed need.

For further information about available short breaks across West Sussex, email SENDCommissioningTeam@westsussex.gov.uk or call 033 022 22562.

You can access further information about short breaks and the statement from the Local Offer website.

The Integrated Front Door (IFD) for West Sussex Children Services receive safeguarding enquiries and referrals for children's social care and early help services, including those with disabilities.

Requests by parents or carers for assessments from the Children with Disabilities Service can be made via the online referral form or by calling the Integrated Front Door on 01403 229900.

Referrals will be screened by a specialist Children with Disabilities social worker based in the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), where all referrals into Children’s Services are reviewed.

A decision whether to offer an assessment through the Children with Disabilities Service will be made within 72 hours.

Children who do not meet the eligibility criteria for the Children with Disabilities Service may still be entitled to services as ‘Children in Need’ and may be referred to other teams within Children’s Services, which may include Early Help.

If accepted for assessment, a qualified social worker in the Children with Disabilities Service will carry out a Child and Family Assessment, which will be based on a holistic approach and will aim to gather relevant information about the disabled child’s needs and those of their family, including any siblings.

The assessment can take up to 45 working days to complete, although it is expected that it should be completed sooner than this in most situations. This will depend on the complexity of the disabled child and their family circumstances.

The assessment will look at a range of factors, which will include the impact of the disability on the disabled child’s day to day functioning, what it is like caring for them, how their siblings may be affected, or how family life is impacted.

The assessment may also focus on any safeguarding issues that formed part of the referral or which may arise during the assessment. For example, if there were worries about neglect, domestic violence, or physical abuse.

The allocated social worker will do this by talking to you and your children and, with your permission, will liaise closely with professionals involved with your disabled child and your other children where this is having an impact. This may include teachers, health visitors, school nurses, paediatricians or any other involved professionals who may know your child/ren well.

They will also want to understand the support available to you in caring for your disabled child, which will include wider family and friends support and speaking to those key people may also be requested during the assessment.

A range of factors will be explored during the assessment which are outlined above in the 'Other factors that will influence eligibility' section, although this is not an exhaustive list.

Where a parent or carer requests a Parent Carer Needs Assessment, then West Sussex Children with Disabilities Service will offer a Child and Family Assessment and include the needs of the parent or carer within that overall holistic assessment.

There is provision for this in Section 17ZE of the Children & Families Act 2014 as follows - Where a local authority:

• (a) are required to carry out a parent carer’s needs assessment, and
• (b) are required or have decided to carry out some other assessment of the parent carer or of the disabled child cared for,

the local authority may combine the assessments.

In order to access an assessment through the Children with Disabilities Service, your disabled child would need to meet the eligibility criteria.

If following an assessment, the social worker is recommending that there is a support package provided, they will present this request to the Disability Access to Resources Panel, which takes place on a fortnightly basis.

It is co-chaired by the Head of Service for Children with Disabilities and the Head of Service for SEND Commissioning. The Panel is also assisted by specialists across the service including colleagues from the SEND commissioning team and the Short Breaks Co-ordinator. This brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the Panel so that the best support can be put in place for families.

The decision of the Panel will be communicated to families through their social worker who presented the request to the Panel.

If you are unhappy with the decision made by the Panel, you should in the first instance speak to your social worker and they will help you to understand the rationale of the decision.

Should you still feel unhappy about the decision, you can appeal the decision in writing within 10 working days of the Panel date by writing to the Chair of the Panel.

Write your appeal to: disabilityaccesstoresourcepanel@westsussex.gov.uk

The Chair of the Panel will consider your appeal and your social worker will communicate the response to you verbally within 10 working days.

Should you remain unhappy with the decision that has been made, you can make a formal Stage 1 complaint via the West Sussex County Council website.

Alternatively, you may call the Complaints Team on 01243 777100.