One in five parents of disabled children wait more than a year to be seen by social services

Parents of disabled children are at “breaking point” as one in three have been unable to access the support they need from social care services, a new report has revealed.

National disability charity Sense has found that parents are waiting more than 200 days on average for their child to be seen by a social worker – with nearly one in five (17%) waiting more than a year.

Families are unable to get any support from their local authority without a social care assessment. Almost half (48%) of families said they are struggling to cope without this support.

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James Watson-O’Neill, chief executive of Sense, said: “Access to high quality support can be life changing – it is the difference between a child feeling lonely and left behind, and a child having the support they need to grow, learn and thrive. But the social care system is failing disabled children and leaving families at breaking point.

“Parents shouldn’t have to fight for the care their children deserve. We need urgent reform to ensure all children get the support they need without facing unacceptable delays.”

The process to getting support from the social care system is also having an emotional impact on families. Nearly two thirds (63%) of parents told the charity they are “terrified” further cuts will be made to their child’s care.

Carla Alderman, a mother to 12-year-old Cameron who is deafblind, said: “Nothing has been easy when it comes to social care. Other parents assume that if you have a disabled child, you get a social worker and all of this free support around you, but it didn’t happen like that at all.”

It was only when Alderman made a fourth application for a social care assessment that a social worker came out to see the family, with her son having been deemed too young on the first three attempts.

“It’s really stressful and it just consumed all of my spare time. I felt that if I wasn’t pursuing things and chasing people and contacting social care, Cameron would just be forgotten about,” Alderman added.

According to Freedom of Information (FOI) data Sense has obtained from the government, many families also face delays in receiving their assessment outcome. The government has a 45-day limit for social care assessments to be finalised, but 18 local authorities are not meeting that limit.

Sense is calling for the law on children’s social care to be strengthened to support disabled children, with a new legal duty introduced to assess all disabled children and long-term, ring-fenced funding for the services disabled children need.

O’Neill added: “Disabled children should not be bearing the brunt of a broken system. We’re calling on the government to make disabled children a priority, by establishing a clear and consistent pathway to support and a national threshold to assess all disabled children. These must be backed by adequate funding and investment in local services.”

A government spokesperson told Big Issue: “This government inherited a children’s social care system failing to meet the needs of this country’s most vulnerable children and in dire need of reform. 

“As part of our Plan for Change, we’re ensuring thousands more families will have the support of a specialist worker to help them overcome challenges, including managing a child’s disabilities, by doubling council funding for early intervention from this year. 

“We’re also thinking differently about what the SEND system should look like, starting by investing £1bn into SEND and £740m to encourage councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools, paving the way for significant, long-term reform.”

Sense wants to hear from more families on their experience of the social care system. To learn more, visit its website.

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