Children with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities Eligibility and Threshold Criteria.

Background

Access to services for children with disabilities

Children with disabilities will have a range of needs, depending on their disability, and the support they can access within their families and communities.

Many families will access services without ever needing to request a service from a Children’s Action Team or Children’s Services. There are a number of services for children with a range of disabilities, in the community, provided by the voluntary, private, and universal sectors.

Information about these services can be obtained from the Specialist Disability/SEN Information Officer, Family Resource Centre, UK, tel: 0800 3289148, or via their website: familyresourcecentreuk.org.

Children’s Action Teams & Children’s Services

Disabled children requiring ‘early intervention and prevention’ (RBC Eligibility Criteria), will be able to request a service from a Children’s Action team. To qualify for a service, the child must have:

‘a level of special needs such that their longer term health and welfare may be impaired without help or support’

and the

‘home environment is likely to result in impairment of the child’s health, welfare and development.’

Disabled children for whom there is a ‘likelihood of impairment or of significant harm’, will be able to request a service from Children’s Services.

To qualify for a service, the child must have:

‘a high level of special needs / or high level of special needs needing care/constant supervision, which results in a high risk of family breakdown,’ and:

‘parents of a child with a disability in need of respite care to alleviate stress.’

Parenting Work

Reading Borough Council offer a range of parenting courses, including those for children with disabilities and special needs. These courses can be accessed by completion of a referral form to the Parenting Coordinator. These are in groups or on an individual basis.

In addition:

-children with disabilities who meet the Children’s Action Team remit can be offered parenting support from a Family Support Worker,

-children with disabilities who meet the remit of the Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities Team can be offered parenting support from a social care worker within that team.

Early Intervention

In September 2010, Reading commenced an Early Years Intervention Panel.

The purpose of this panel is to be a single point of referral for Early Years Services across the borough to signpost/allocate the most appropriate service for families of children with learning difficulties and/or disabilities who are not attending a mainstream nursery/school setting. The referral route to this panel is via a full Common Assessment Framework (CAF) form, for all services.

The CAF is the means of referral for children who are presented to panel who meet the criteria for a service from a Children’s Action Team.

To access a service from the LDD Team, the CAF will be registered with the Access and Assessment Team (who register all new referrals to Children’s Services), who in consultation with the LDD Management Team, will decide whether it is appropriate for them to also undertake an Initial Assessment.

Short Breaks

There was a national review of services for children with disabilities in 2007, which resulted in the report and initiative ‘Aiming High for Disabled Children’ and The Children and Young Person’s Act 2008 (effective from April 2011), which places a duty on local authorities to provide ‘short break’ services to those assessed as requiring those services.

There are ‘short breaks’ available to children who meet the criteria for CAT involvement and Children’s Services involvement.

Professionals can request a ‘short break’ when the request is not for overnight care and/or they meet the CAT criteria above, via a full CAF. This is thentransferred to the LDD Team, where the request is considered by either the LDD Multi-Agency Panel or Short Breaks Panel.

Families can access these services via a request for a professional to complete a full CAF. This will then be registered with and passed directly to the Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities Management Team to be entered on the RAISE IT system with Reason for referral as ‘Short Break’.

Families can also request a ‘short break’ via the Access and Assessment Team, who will complete an Initial Assessment.

There is one panel each fortnight.

The LDD Panel is aimed primarily at children with most complex needs and health conditions. The Short Breaks Panel is aimed primarily at children who have less complex needs, and health conditions, and can more easily access community resources.

Services that can be offered under the CAT remit include:

-an Outreach worker offering activities in the community, and advice

about disability benefits.

-a Family Link day carer for children without complex needs

-Cressingham day care for children without complex needs.

The CAF will be presented to the Short Breaks Panel and not sent to triage, when the request is for a Short Break.If the CAF also requests any other service, then it will be sent to triage. The relevant Children’s Action Team will offer any other services to the child and family as appropriate.

For any child within this remit, where there is need for a child protection investigation, this will be undertaken following discussion and agreement between the LDD Team and the Access and Assessment Team.

Request for a ‘short break’ where the child meets the criteria for the LDD Team (see underneath) and there is a request/need for another service, will require the completion of an Initial Assessment by the Access and Assessment Team.

Learning Disability and/or Difficulties Team

Evidence from a medical consultant will be key in the assessment process.

The following criteria is based on the definition of disability set out in the Children Act 1989, which states that: -

‘A child is disabled if he is blind, deaf or dumb or suffers from mental disorder of any kind or is substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital deformity or such other disability as may be prescribed.’

Substantial means considerable or significant factors that are life changing or limiting, and might include issues to do with risk and dependency.
Permanent means existing indefinitely and not expected to improve. However, there must be sufficient flexibility to take account of intermittent or episodic conditions.

To be offered a service by the specialist Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities Team the child or young person must have a disability that is permanent or long term and meets at least one of the following criteria: (Severe and Complex needs)

A diagnosis of severe or profound learning disability
A diagnosis of severe or profound physical disability
A diagnosis of Significant or profound sensory disability
A diagnosis of complex medical needs or long term condition expected to disable the child for more than one year
A diagnosis of life threatening illness
A diagnosis of severe communication disabilities or behavioural difficulties related to the child’s disability (eg autism)
A diagnosis of severe developmental delay
A diagnosis of a combination of disabilities, which individually are not severe but together cause as much stress as a very severe disability
Evidence from the consultant, including contact details of the professionals involved with the child.
Evidence of whether the child has a Statement of Special Education Needs.
Evidence of whether the child is in receipt of Disability Living allowance, level to be recorded.

The Eligibility Criteria does not include children with;

  • Children with mental health disorders unless in conjunction with a learning, physical or communication disability.
  • A disability or disabilities that are not severe.
  • Behavioural problems due to social/environmental factors (i.e. not associated to a disability).
  • A diagnosis of ADHD or ADD unless in conjunction with an additional learning, physical or communication disability.
  • Registration with the Disabled Children’s Register/or Children’s need index is not sufficient evidence that a child meets the eligibility criteria as the Register includes children with a wide range of special needs often based on self-diagnosis.

Where there is uncertainty, the application of the concepts ‘substantial and permanent’ could help make good judgements. The government’s intention is that local authorities should interpret these concepts flexibly by taking into account the individual’s wider circumstances.

Short Term or Long Term Support from the Team

There are those children and young people with disabilities, who meet the criteria of ‘substantial and permanent’, but who only require a short term piece of work from the team. These would include:

Children where there is a request for occupational therapy support, but no other service is required, once the home adaptations, and/or equipment are provided.
Children where there is a request for temporary respite support.
Children where there is temporary request for support, for example re. benefits, social problems that impact on the child.
Children where there is a short term requirement for a high level of ‘Children In Need’ support, given significant risk and support needs. A relevant example, would be of a child with Asperger’s Syndrome whose behaviour puts the child at considerable risk, and/or the family under significant pressure / risk of family breakdown. Following intervention, the issues have been adequately addressed / managed, and it is agreed that there no need for further action.
Children who have become subject to child protection investigations / child protection plans, but following investigation and assessment, and appropriate intervention, advice and support, the child’s needs would be more appropriately met in another team, or there is no need for further involvement.
Children who are accommodated, but have no further need of accommodation or support from the team, for example, those that have become subject to Residence Orders, Adoption, Special Guardianship Orders and the Support plans do not require the team’s involvement.

Direct payments:

Families who wish to be assessed for direct payments will need to have an Initial Assessment though the Access and Assessment team.

“No recourse to public funds”:

In such families where a child has a disability that is ‘substantial and permanent’, whilst there is no obligation to financial support, there is an obligation under S17, The Children Act, 1989, to meet needs arising from the disability.

With such cases, whether the child has a disability or not, there is no obligation to financial support. This circumstance by itself would not warrant a service. As with all children, where there are safeguarding issues, the safeguarding procedures apply, and the welfare of the child is the primary concern. There should be discussion between the team managers and as appropriate, the relevant service managers, before any action is taken.

Occupational Therapist (OT) intervention:

All requests for OT intervention should be made through an Initial Assessment, via the Access and Assessment Team.

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