I dont know if this will help anyone but I have some information regarding legislation regarding education vs social care, which should work together but in my experience donts.
This is the inter-relationship of what historically have been the closely defined and separate identities of first the education authority and secondly the social services department.
The social welfare dimension: responsibilities of local authorities
The 1989 Children Act provides the basic statutory framework from which the power to assess children;s social welfare needs arises. Further, there is a duty under s47 of the National Health Service & Community Care Act 1990 placed on local authorities in respect of the assessment of need of disabled children.
The Education Act 1996 gives rise to the provision of the Statement of Special Educational Needs such as pertains to disabled children at the present time. The Children Act and the Education Act place general and target duties on local authorities and local education authorities respectively to devise inter-agency ?solutions? to the needs of children provided these are compatible with the functions of the individual authorities.
Pursuant to s17, and Schedule 2, Part I of the 1989 Children Act, the authority should assess and report on the circumstances of the child and his family, and, in so doing, have regard for...the Education Act 1996.
As is often the case, the duties arising from s17 and from Schedule 2, paragraph 6 are the most pertinent for a child with severe disability such as xxxxxx. The concept of provision of services is important; the statute provides little if anything which fetters the extent to which children in need can be assisted. For example, families can be provided with direct financial support, and services can be provided to other family members where their impact will directly or otherwise assist the child in need. Funding can be allied to the services provided by other statutory departments in order to devise workable ?packages? of care and resource-allocation.
The Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 provides to carers an entitlement to be assessed, to enable the local authority to ascertain the ability of the carer to provide and continue to provide care for the child for whom they care. In addition, the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 places an obligation on local authorities to inform carers of their individual entitlement to assessment where the needs of a disabled child are themselves the subject of specific assessment.
The Children Act 2004 heralded a significant shift away from individual departmental decision-making in respect of the needs of children generally. At s10 is found: Co- operation to improve well-being -
Each children's services authority in England must make arrangements to promote co-operation between-
(a) the authority;
(b) each of the authority's relevant partners
(2) The arrangements are to be made with a view to improving the well-being of children in the authority's area so far as relating to -
a) physical and mental health and emotional well-being; b) protection from harm and neglect;
c) education, training and recreation;
d) the contribution made by them to society; e) social and economic well-being.
1The general thrust of the Act is found in the Every Child Matters guidance 1. I am of the view that it is almost impossible to summarise in very short form the key components of this major policy initiative, but suffice it to say, that the expectation of HM Government was, (and indeed remains) that of ensuring that bureaucracy has no place in the determination of appropriate educational provision for children. The imperative is to ensure that children with special educational needs are supported across the Childrens Services Department with appropriate provisions in order to improve their well-being as defined at sub-para (2) above.
1Meanwhile, as originally envisaged by the 1989 legislation, guidance2 requires local authorities to undertake assessment of need in an open way, and states that families with a child in need...have the right to receive sympathetic support and sensitive intervention in their family's life
The principles underpinning the Assessment Framework are also clearly expounded upon as follows. Assessments are to:
be child centred
be rooted in child development
be ecological in their approach
ensure equality of opportunity
involve working with children and families
build on strengths as well as identify difficulties
be inter-agency in their approach to assessment and the provision of services
be a continuing process, not a single event
be carried out in parallel with other action and providing services
be grounded in evidence based knowledge
Some key themes to emerge, therefore, from Children Act Guidance include, in no order of priority:
The Every Child Matters guidance is found, in very extensive form, at www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/
Guidance to the Children Act 1989 Vol 2 (Family Support) para 2.7
the critical role of social work staff in being a catalyst for inter-agency assessment of need, not just within individual children but their whole families
the importance of starting at the point where the family is - socially, economically, psychologically - located, irrespective of the circumstances that took them to that position.
the importance of drawing on wide-ranging theory and experience3 in order to address the needs of children in a manner most relevant to their circumstances.
In respect of the local authority's education function, the November 2001 Special Educational Needs Code of Practice brought revised guidance of a statutory nature to the SSD. At its very introduction, in paragraph 1:1, the Code states that its practical guidance is...also for those who assist LEA's in the discharge of their function, including health authorities and social services departments (emphasis added). The Code has much to say about the crucial importance of joint (inter-departmental) planning in relation not only to authority-wide policy affecting children with special educational needs but also in relation to individual children and the actual services required to meet their specific needs. Experience suggests that it is often overlooked that there are over 140 references to social work or social services in the Code, yet frequently social work personnel and well as educational authority staff overlook the key principle of cooperative and holistic assessment of need.
Generic minimum standards for the development of local policies are practices in care and social services are now set out in the range of National Service Framework
Here, the government's vision for disabled children4 is set out thus:
Vision: We want to see:
Children and young people who are disabled or who have complex health needs, supported to participate in family and community activities and facilities.
Health, education and social care services organised around the needs of children and young people and their families, with co-ordinated multi-agency assessments leading to prompt, convenient, responsive and high-quality multi-agency interventions that maximise the child's ability to reach his or her full potential.
Children and young people and their families actively involved in all decisions affecting them and in shaping local services.
In addition to the statutory provisions and the extensive guidance identified above, there has been a systematic and generally helpful series of publications relating to the manner in which the needs of young children with severe disabilities might be
In my experience, one of the practical limitations to this objective is the unavoidable fact that there are insufficient fieldworkers holding the requisite knowledge and experience of working holistically with severely disabled children. The potential for ?misreading? the implications of disability within a family is - in my sincere opinion - extremely high.
Department of Health: National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services - Disabled Children and those with Complex Health Needs London, October 2004
One such is the National Autism Plan. The Plan has a very great deal to say about the methodology that should be employed in order to ensure that pre and primary age children with autism (or a pre-diagnosis presumption of autism) might be properly supported. Under the heading Next Steps, the Plan states...Explicit plans should be made for the 'next steps' in the development of a Family Care Plan (FCP) (Bailey et al, 1990). The co-ordination of interventions and supports for the child and the family ...should be outlined, with time scales and dates agreed. The key worker should be available to support the family during this process. For more complex situations, and family with multiplex ongoing needs it may be more appropriate to appoint a care manager. The professional should have ASD expertise and be able to plan and co-ordinate interventions with the family. Particular consideration may need to be given to the future needs of siblings. This may be addressed through the core assessment carried out by Social Services.
Aiming High for Disabled Children is a May 2007 publication by HM Treasury and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Inter alia, it states...Underpinning better support and improved provision of specific services for disabled children and families is the need for:
clear entitlements that are well understood, with minimum standards as part of a core offer, which allow for local flexibility and innovation, but will ensure disabled children are not disadvantaged by how well local areas are accommodating both national standards and local priorities;
disabled children, young people and their families to feel empowered and supported in the choices they make;
coordinated planning and commissioning to ensure best use of finite resources across traditional health, social services and education boundaries; and
focused, effective support early in life and at key transition points, with early support for disabled children and their families, which promotes emotional and social development for disabled children and their siblings, to help to improve outcomes for all.
Successive pieces of legislation have, since the mid 1990s addressed issues concerning the discriminatory treatment of the users of statutory services. The Equality Act 2010 makes explicit that the unfavourable treatment of a parent whose child has a disability may constitute discrimination by the service concerned. Matters relating to education are found at Part 6 Schedule 13 of the Act.