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Disabled children and young people: Thematic review 2023-24

On this page you will find information about our national report Disabled children and young people’s experiences of social work services: a thematic review.

Formats

• This report is available in Easy Read format

• Animation

• Braille is available on request

If you require any other formats please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Review

Our aim in carrying out this review was to learn and understand more about disabled children and young people’s views and experiences of the support they received from social work services. We focused on social work’s contribution to getting it right for every disabled child and considered how well disabled children’s rights were being respected and upheld.

This report presents the key messages of our review of how well social work services contribute to ensuring disabled children have their rights respected and receive early care and support. It includes reflections and actions for social work services and Scottish Government to consider in order to improve outcomes for disabled children and young people.

Key messages

Our review found that:

1. 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.
2. Too many disabled children and young people’s views, feelings and wishes were not being heard.
3. When children and young people received the right support at the right time from social work services, this helped them to grow and develop
4. Increasing complexity of need and high demand for services was outweighing the availability of supports.
5. Children and young people were not always provided with meaningful choices about the support they received.
6. Parents and carers routinely provide a significant level of care and support. Their wellbeing must be promoted and protected.
7. 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.
8. The experience of transitioning into life as a young adult continues to be characterised by unpredictability and uncertainty for too many disabled young people.
9. Compassionate and dedicated social work staff were helping to improve the lives of children and young people. High workloads and recruitment and retention of staff significantly challenged staff teams.
10.   The social work role was not always easily understood by families and/or other professionals.
11.   Reliable data and a shared definition of disability are not available to inform future planning or to support the setting budgets.

Actions required

The responsibility for improvement sits with us all. The actions noted below will require a shared approach across Scottish Government, local authorities, national and local organisations and public bodies, including the Care inspectorate.

The actions required:

1. The views of disabled children and their families must be considered as part of service mapping, understanding unmet need and service planning.
2. A robust approach to gathering and analysing data on disabled children and young people must be implemented, both in social work services and wider. This must be used effectively to inform service planning and improvement.
3. We must take action in response to the views of disabled children and their families to ensure gaps in service provision are addressed.
4. The role of social work services in providing care and support to disabled children must be clearly defined and understood across agencies. Clear and accessible information should be available and communicated to children and their families. This should include eligibility criteria.
5. Opportunities for effective early intervention should be strengthened.
6. Opportunities for play and friendships, along with other areas that are important to children, should be maximised. This will need a collective and holistic response.
7. Adequate resourcing must be made available to enable services to develop and improve.

You can read the full report here.