Too many disabled children and their families in Scotland are not receiving the help they needed at the right time, inspectors have found.
A report published today considers how well social work services contribute to ensuring disabled children have their rights respected and receive early care and support.
Inspectors from the Care Inspectorate found:
Respectful relationships were key to building a culture of listening to and respecting children and young people’s views.
This ensured they were engaged in decisions about their care and support
Too many disabled children and young people’s views, feelings and wishes were not being heard
When children and young people received the right support at the right time from social work services, this helped them to grow and develop
Increasing complexity of need and high demand for services was outweighing the availability of supports
Children and young people were not always provided with meaningful choices about the support they received.
Parents and carers routinely provide a significant level of care and support. Their wellbeing must be promoted and protected.
The quality of social work assessments, plans and reviews were variable and were not always properly addressing all the child or young person’s needs.
The experience of transitioning into life as a young adult continues to be characterised by unpredictability and uncertainty for too many disabled young people.
Jackie Irvine, chief executive of the Care Inspectorate said: “The responsibility for improvement sits with us all and cannot be made through local action alone.
“Scottish Government, public authorities, national and local organisations must work alongside disabled children and their families to take the action collectively to respect and uphold the rights of disabled children and young people.
“The examples we found of nurturing, compassionate care and support must become the norm and be experienced equally by all children and young people.
“In light of current financial and resource pressures, a national conversation is required about the reality of resourcing and the impact on disabled children’s lives.
“Only when all these elements come together will Scotland realise its ambitions to become the best place in the world for a child to grow up, with opportunities for all in Scotland to flourish.”
The report is available here.