The law relating to disabled children’s social care can be complex. New open access resources, developed by Research in Practice and Council for Disabled Children, explain the law so that children, young people and their families can receive the support they are entitled to.
Children’s social care in England is governed by a patchwork of legislation and policy, some of it dating back more than five decades. This has caused widespread confusion for both practitioners and families, and resulted in complicated routes to accessing support for children and young people.
The briefings have been developed to support practice leaders and service managers promote greater understanding across the children’s workforce of the legal and policy landscape around disabled children’s social care.
Divided into seven short briefings, the resources explore the following topics:
- The Law Commission’s review.
- Families’ experiences of social care.
- Hierarchy of the law.
- Understanding powers, duties and entitlements.
- Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 and Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.
- Eligibility criteria and disabled children’s social care.
- How does the law define ‘disabled’ in relation to children?
It’s important to promote greater understanding of the current legal and policy landscape around disabled children’s social care across the children’s workforce.
Disabled children's social care
Co-published by Research in Practice and Council for Disabled Children, a series of open access briefings has been developed to promote greater understanding of the complex and often confusing legal and policy landscape around disabled children’s social care.
Using a needs-led eligibility framework to provide services to disabled children and their families
The new briefings accompany a Strategic Briefing, co-published by Research in Practice and Council for Disabled Children. The briefing explores the challenges faced by disabled children and families when requesting support.
It looks at the benefits of adopting a strengths-based and needs-led approach to assessment and key features of a needs-led eligibility framework and how this can inform a lawful and transparent approach to providing services for disabled children and their families.
Disabled children's social care: Brief Guides (2025)
Written by the Council for Disabled Children and Research in Practice this series of briefings has been developed to help practice leaders and service managers promote greater understanding of the complex and often confusing legal and policy landscape around disabled children’s social care.
Using a needs-led eligibility framework to provide services to disabled children and their families: Strategic Briefing (2024)
This briefing reports on work undertaken by the Council for Disabled Children exploring how a needs-led eligibility framework can guide assessment and decision-making within children’s social care so that children with disabilities and their families can access the right support at the right time.