CHILD IN
NEED
Local authorities in England have a legal duty under the Children Act 1989 to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in need, including disabled children, and to provide services that support their health, development and family life. Disabled children are explicitly recognised in law as ‘children in need’, which strengthens their entitlement to assessment and support.
The Children’s Social Care National Framework sets out principles for good practice, including working in partnership with families, providing early, accessible support, ensuring disabled children’s needs are understood holistically and using evidence based approaches.
In practice, however, parents often find that they are assessed under a safeguarding framework and that they are unable to access support from disability social workers. We can support the process, led by Justine, an experienced social worker, guiding the family through what can be experienced as a worrying and confusing process, and enabling social workers to gain a better understanding of the support needs of the child and the family. We can also support good social care input into EHCP reviews.
Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 sets out the overarching duty toward all children in need. The local authority must safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in the local area, promote their upbringing within the family, where this is consistent with the child’s welfare, provide a range and level of services appropriate to the child’s needs (e.g. practical support, financial help, respite, family support), assess the child’s needs and consider the child’s wishes and feelings as far as practicable, support the whole family, not just the child, where this promotes the child’s welfare (e.g. support for parents, siblings) and facilitate provision by others, including voluntary organisations.
A child is in need if:
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they are unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development without services;
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their health or development is likely to be significantly impaired without services; or
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they are disabled.
This means disabled children are automatically classified as children in need and qualify for assessment and potential support. Disabled children have additional entitlements because disability itself meets the legal threshold for ‘child in need’.
Each local authority publishes its Child in Need procedures on its website. Manchester’s is available at https://manchestercs.trixonline.co.uk/contents/contents.
Coram have more information on the duties to children in need on their Child Law Advice website, https://childlawadvice.org.uk/information-pages/child-in-need-services
The children and young people we work with, whether care experienced or neurodivergent, are likely to be functioning with a level of difficulty that qualifies them as disabled under the Equality Act 2010. However, they or their parents, or the system surrounding them, may not consider them disabled. This can mean difficulty in accessing appropriate assessment and support.
Local authorities must assess the needs of disabled children and also the needs of parents, carers and siblings where relevant. These assessments must consider the child’s disability and its impact, family capacity, the services required (short breaks, equipment and home adaptations, personal care, behavioural or therapeutic support, transport assistance, and support for parents and siblings), as well as the child’s views and their ability to participate in decisions. Disabled children must be supported to participate in decisions about their care. Advocacy should be available where needed.
Local authorities must ensure access to a range of services suitable for disabled children and disabled children’s services must be coordinated across education, health and social care, aligning with duties in the Children and Families Act 2014 (e.g. joint commissioning, local offer). Local authorities must maintain a local offer of available SEN and disability services.
Local authorities have both a general duty, under the Children Act 1989, to identify and assess disabled children and a legally enforceable duty to provide services to individual children once needs are identified. Under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, once a local authority assesses that a service is ‘necessary’ to meet a specific disabled child’s needs, they have a legal duty to provide it. This duty is mandatory, meaning the services must be provided regardless of resources, and should be provided without delay. Under the Equality Act 2010, local authorities also have a specific duty to make reasonable adjustments to prevent disabled children from being at a disadvantage.