Parents satisfied with ‘better’ disabled children’s services

Parents are quite satisfied with services for disabled children in areas which have made a priority of improving provision for the client group.
Department for Children, Schools and Families statistics, published today, showed parents in 30 English areas rated services as 59 out of 100 on average, with scores ranging from 55 to 65.
The scores, based on a survey of over 12,000 families, measured performance against 15 indicators covering issues including the quality of assessments and levels of information provided by health, education and social care services.
The measures constitute the government’s ‘core offer’ for disabled children, which councils and primary care trusts are expected to provide under the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme.
The government is investing £770m from 2008-11 in councils and PCTs to improve short breaks, childcare, transitions and parental engagement in disabled children’s services.

Performance indicator

It has established a performance indicator for disabled children’s services, measuring parental satisfaction, and the scores will provide a baseline for future performance.
The 30 authorities surveyed had selected the indicator as part of their local area agreements, which set out local priorities for public services, as negotiated by councils, their partners and government.
Responding on the results for the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign, Mencap’s head of policy and campaigns, David Congdon (pictured), said: “We are encouraged that this information on parental satisfaction with services for disabled children and the core offer has been collected, creating a baseline for England.
“However, the information we have at this stage lacks the detail we need to really understand how well local services for disabled children are performing. We look forward to June when a more detailed national and local breakdown will be available.”

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