Children with a Disability and those Children who May Need Special Medical Help

Children with disabilities and health needs are children first. Their achievement should be celebrated as with any other child. All children need individualised care and support. You will be helped to understand and meet their day to day needs. Care provided should be sensitive and responsive.

This chapter talks about children who have disabilities and those who have complex health needs. Whilst the needs of children with disabilities can vary significantly, which may feel daunting to begin with, there will be a number of professionals who have a clear understanding about what the disability means to the young person and how it may impact on their day-to-day world.

Many of these children need a coordinated approach from other services such as health, education and social care to meet their needs.

Disabled people often find that their disabilities are the first and only thing that people notice about them and it is important to remember that the child should be thought of first before the special need that they have.

Like all children, children with disabilities or medical needs require help and support. Some disabled children might have additional needs which may include:

• Help with their positioning (known as ‘moving and handling’);
• Help with understanding social situations and relationships;
• Help with communicating their thoughts, wishes and feelings;
• Sensory impairments (e.g. partial sight);
• Help with personal care;
• Help with their medication or support to use their specialist equipment.

Some children may need help in more than one of these categories. Some children have entitlements to benefits that are not affected by being in a foster home. See Money Matters and Insurance.

Where a child has additional needs, you will be supported to meet these needs. This could be via:

• Additional training from a suitably qualified medical professional. This could include guidance on giving medication or treatment and understanding the child’s needs;
• The use of specific equipment such as a hoist or a special car seat or wheelchair;
• Where there are risks around manual handling, risk assessments should be completed.

It should also be clarified as to what equipment the child may bring with them and what else they may need.

As with all children in need of Foster Carers, you will be made aware of their individual needs and strengths via an initial discussion with your Supervising Social Worker and/or the child’s Social Worker, who may be from the Children with Disabilities Team. This will enable you to have all the information required to be able to meet the child’s needs. The support available to you and the child will be formalised as part of the Placement Planning Meeting where you will also be informed about what decisions you can make about the child i.e. medical decisions. Where a child requires additional educational support beyond what the typical educational provider for their age group can deliver, a child with additional needs may have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The EHCP is a legal document that sets out the child’s educational, social care, and health needs.  

If the child you are caring for has an EHCP, it is important that you have a copy of this, so you are aware of what support the child is receiving to fulfil their potential at pre-school/school/College. Many children with disabilities need continuing services throughout their lives.

Assessment should take a long-term perspective. This will help you, the birth family, and professionals to make decisions about the kind of help needed, at different points in time, for example with education, respite or other services.

Your Supervising Social Worker or the child’s social worker should help you to identify appropriate support and advice from relevant agencies including following their interests and taking part in activities they are interested in.

You should make sure they have all they need to reach their potential and lead as full a life as possible.

Local authorities in England have a duty to develop and publish a Local Offer setting out the support they expect to be available for local children and young people aged 0-25 with Special Educational Needs (SEN) or disabilities, whether or not they have an Education, Health and Care Plan (see School and Education).

The Local Offer should be available via the local authority website.

The Local Offer must include information about:

• Special educational, health and social care provision for children and young people with SEN or disabilities – this should include online and blended learning;
• Arrangements for identifying and assessing children and young people’s SEN – this should include arrangements for Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments;
• Education provision and post-16 education and training provision;
• Information about provision to assist in preparing young people for adulthood;
• Arrangements for travel to and from education institutions;
• Childcare, including suitable provision for disabled children and those with SEN;
• Support available to young people in higher education, particularly the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) and the process and timescales for making an application for DSA;
• Arrangements for resolving disagreements and for mediation, and details about making complaints.

The Local Offer must include provision in the local authority’s area, and also provision outside the local area that the local authority expects is likely to be used by children and young people with SEN for whom they are responsible and disabled children and young people. This could be provision in a school or further education college in a neighbouring area or support services for children and young people with particular types of SEN that are provided jointly by local authorities.