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Every Disabled Child Matters
c/o Council for Disabled Children
National Children's Bureau
8 Wakley Street
London EC1V 7QE
tel +44 (0)20 7843 6318
fax +44 (0)20 7843 6313
[email protected]

What we want government to do

To achieve EDCM's campaign objectives, we want Government to act…

• Every family who wants one to be entitled to a key worker on diagnosis
• Every extended school and children’s centre to deliver a full range of services to disabled children
• A specific, enforceable duty on local authorities to assess and provide for the needs of disabled children and their families, with a minimum entitlement to family support and short break services
• All schools to have effective disability equality schemes which ensure full access to every aspect of the life of the school for all disabled pupils
• All education and childcare professionals to receive training to ensure that they have the skills and competencies to meet the needs of disabled children
• All Primary Care Trusts, working with local Children’s Services Departments, to be required to produce a comprehensive strategy to meet the health needs of disabled children and their families
• A multi-agency adolescent service in every local area for disabled young people aged 14-25, to ensure transition to adult services is planned and delivered
• Regulations and guidance to ensure that no disabled child is excluded from school because their education or health needs are not met
• Parents and carers to be entitled to informed and appropriate support for their parenting or caring roles
• Disabled children to be prioritised and targeted to ensure that sufficient resources are distributed fairly and transparently

To make sure this happens, we need…

• A pan-governmental delivery strategy for disabled children, building on existing policy and owned by a lead Minister
• National Public Service Agreements and Local Area Agreements which prioritise disabled children with meaningful performance indicators and national minimum standards
• Effective inspection frameworks for both universal and specialist services which prioritise disabled children and create improvement cycles that lead to a step-change in services
• All domestic government policy to be subject to an impact assessment for disabled children and their families
• All public agencies to deliver on their disability equality duties towards disabled children
• The Government’s Carers Strategy to prioritise families with disabled children
• Disabled children to be targeted in the planning and priority guidance to Primary Care Trusts, with health equity audits addressing the needs of disabled children and their families
• Specific measurement of the reduction of poverty amongst disabled children and their families within the Government’s child poverty strategy
• All local agencies to hold comprehensive multi-agency data on disabled children in their area to inform planning
• All local agencies to monitor the delivery of services for disabled children and families, in order to prove that services are being delivered equitably
• All agencies to fully involve disabled children and their families in the planning, commissioning and delivery of services

If you want government to make this happen, sign up to support the campaign by sending the form at the top right of this page. Remember to tick the box if you want to recieve campaign updates.