Disabled children are children first and need the opportunity to experience valued family life. To help achieve this, they and their families may need extra information, help and support. This may be for a short time or over a longer period, possibly throughout their childhood years.
The East Riding children's trust disability team, which is part of the East Riding local authority, work with children and young people aged 0-19 years who have the
most severe and complex disabilities, or life limiting conditions, that effect learning and/or physical development and have a major impact on the quality of life.
This includes:
- multiple disabilities;
- physical impairments;
- learning disabilities;
- sensory impairments;
- complex health needs;
- life limiting conditions.
The multi-agency team consists of social workers, family support practitioners, assessment officer (transitions), learning disability nurses and a learning disability/CAMHS nurse and they work across the East Riding.
The team works in partnership with other service providers, including health, schools, education and the voluntary sector to ensure a holistic package of support is agreed to meet the assessed needs.
Children's Disability Team Leaflet (pdf 177kb opens in a new window)
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If your child has severe and complex disabilities and requires access to specialist services please speak to anyone involved with your child and ask for them to undertake a common assessment.
Alternatively you can ring the customer services golden number on (01482) 395500 where a referral form can be completed and forwarded to the relevant social care
team.
The team will then assess your eligibility for services provided by the local authority.
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A child is eligible for an assessment, if they are aged 0-18 years of age, reside within the East Riding and have needs arising from a permanent and substantial disability and/or severe and complex medical needs. The needs will have a major impact on quality of life and cannot be met by services available to children in general.
If you are eligible for any services an assessment is undertaken and then, based on individual needs, a support plan will be compiled to determine how the services are to be implemented/provided.
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All disabled children are unique and assessments are based on the individual needs of the child and family. The team believes that not all disabled children need specialist support and encourage disabled children and their families to access universal and local community services whenever appropriate.
Following referral to the team an initial assessment will be undertaken.
It may be at this stage that we can give you information and signpost you to other services and support to meet your needs. If this isn’t the case, a social worker from the team will undertake a core assessment, in accordance with the children in need assessment framework, which focuses on the needs of the family as a whole and
incorporates both an assessment of the child's needs and those of the parent/carer.
Following the assessment, the support plan may highlight the need for specialist provision. This could include:
- direct payments
- short breaks
- sibling support
- transition planning
- person centred planning
- health needs assessment and intervention.
The team works in partnership with other service providers, including health, schools, education and the voluntary sector to ensure an holistic package of support is agreed to meet the assessed needs.
All the support provided is subject to review. This means that as the needs of the child and the family change, then the services provided may change. This could be an increase or decrease of an existing service, or a change, or new service that will meet the needs more effectively.
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There are locality information officers covering your area who can provide you with up-to-date information about services available to you. They can also signpost
to various benefits and funding that you might not know you’re entitled to.
If your child has a disability, we welcome you to place your child’s information on the East Riding Data base for children with additional needs known as 'Look
Ahead'. The FISH locality officers will then send out flyers along with the quarterly magazine informing of any new events, workshops, activities or groups that
appear in your locality.
Our families information service hub (FISH) provides information about what activities are available. Top of page
What other related services might I need to know about?
The following are related services and it may benefit you to visit their sections on the website for further information.
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Further information can be found on the contact a family and making contact websites.
Contact a family (external website)
Making contact - guide to medical conditions (external website)
For all initial contacts and new referrals into children's social care contact the customer services network golden number on (01482) 395500 between 8 am to 6 pm.
Alternatively you can contact them below:
Secure email: childrens.socialcare@eastriding.gcsx.gov.uk
Fax: (01482) 395530
Details of the contact will be passed on to the relevant children’s social care team to respond; referrals will be acknowledged by the receiving team.
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The parent partnership service provides impartial information, advice and support for parents and carers of children with special educational needs to enable them to play an active informed role in their child's education.
The parent partnership service officer and a team of independent parental supporters can provide help and information about:
- early years action and early years action plus
- school action and school action plus
- individual education plans (IEPs)
- statutory assessment and statements of SEN
- support offered by schools, the local authority and other agencies
- choosing a school
- exclusion from school
- local and national support groups and voluntary organisations
- resolving disagreements, mediation and appeals
- local training opportunities.
The parent partnership service also offers support by:
- allocating and putting parents in touch with an independent parental supporter (IPS)
- helping parents to understand the support available for children with SEN
- listening and helping parents put forward their views as part of the statutory assessment process
- accompanying parents on visits to schools and early years settings suggested as suitable for your child
- accompanying parents to meetings in schools/preschools
- assisting to resolve disagreements including tribunal appeals
You can contact the service using the national parent partnership service website.
National parent partnership service (external website)
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