Key workers for families

All parents of children with profound and multiple disabilities
should have a dedicated key worker to help them access relevant
services, a conference was told last week.

Key Working – Opening the Door, organised jointly by the
Children’s Trust and the Community Practitioners and Health
Visitors’ Association, focused on the need for a single named
professional to help parents gain access to the right services for
their disabled children.

Children’s Trust chief executive Andrew Ross said: “For families
faced with exceptional difficulties and for children with
exceptional needs it is high time that this idea [of a key worker]
becomes a universal reality, not something which may or may not be
available depending on the postcode lottery.”

He added: “It must be a separate function, recognised and valued
by all the authorities, not just an empty phrase in the job
description of a social worker or health visitor with a caseload of
several hundred families.”