Pushy parents win better services for disabled children

The quality of services for disabled children depends on where they
live and how hard parents push for change, says a report this week.

The Audit Commission report, ‘Services for
disabled children’ , states that services are rarely based on the
priorities and needs of individual families, and when services are
provided it is often too little too late. It found a “jigsaw
puzzle of services” leaving families struggling to find out
essential information and support.

Audit Commission chairperson James Strachan
said: “Improving disabled children’s services does not mean
new targets, new structures or wholly new approaches. What is
needed is better management of services so that good practice is
mainstreamed, the leadership that makes this possible, and a new
attitude which sees the social exclusion of disabled children as
unacceptable.”

The commission recommends that all relevant
public sector bodies should identify local needs and agree a joint
plan of action to improve services with their strategic partners,
including the independent sector. And it calls on the government to
prioritise the implementation of the National Service Framework for
Children.

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