Updating the law to support disabled children
The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care was published in May 2022.
This made a series of recommendations to improve the children’s social care system, including considering how the system worked for disabled children.
After hearing that many disabled children and their families struggled to access the right support, the review identified an “outdated legal framework” with a “patchwork of duties” that was making it hard for both families and professionals to understand what support should be provided.
The Government later accepted the review’s recommendation that the Law Commission should review disabled children’s social care law and consider whether it meets the needs of disabled children and their families.
The Law Commission started its review in September 2023, meeting individuals and groups with lived or professional experience of disabled children’s social care – from disabled children and young people and their parents, to social workers, local authority managers, lawyers and judges.
That review has led to a series of provisional proposals that the commission is now consulting on ahead of submitting its final recommendations for reform to the Government in 2025.
‘Disabled children’s social care law’ refers to the legal rules covering whether a disabled child can get help from social services, what help they can get, and how they get it.
This includes everything from personal care in the home and short breaks, to home adaptations and direct payments.
The Law Commission has found that the current law is out of date – from offensive language to a failure to capture the nuances of neurodiversity – while the complicated set of relevant laws, regulations, policies and more is described as “a system of baffling complexity” that is difficult for families and professionals to navigate.
Engagement with parents and carers has further found that the current system tends to view disabled children as being in need of protection rather than help; that the eligibility criteria for accessing services are often too high; and the needs of parents, carers and siblings are often forgotten.
The Law Commission is keen to hear from as many people as possible as part of its consultation on improvements. The consultation covers areas including assessments, eligibility, service provision, means testing and advocacy.
It also considers the intersection between disabled children’s social care and health care, adult social care, and special educational needs and disability (SEND) provision.
Law reform involves simplifying and modernising the law and weeding out anomalies, but the Law Commission is clear in its work that the financial context cannot be ignored.
Its consultation includes an estimate of the costs of implementing its provisional proposals and seeks views on this too to ensure it is as accurate as possible.
Disabled children deserve to be able to access the services they need easily, and part of delivering this is ensuring we are operating in the right legal context.
This consultation is an outstanding opportunity to make sure we get this right, so I encourage all councils to consider making representations before the deadline of 20 January 2025.
- Take part in the consultation. The Law Commission is hosting a webinar for council officers or members who would like to learn more, ask questions and offer views, on Monday 25 November.
