Archived decisions

Appendix 2

National Indicator Set - disabled children's indicator NI 54

It has been agreed that an indicator looking at parental experience of services for disabled children will be included in the National Indicator Set (NIS). This indicator will assess parents' general experience of services for disabled children (aged 0 - 19) and the extent to which services for disabled children are delivered according to the 'core offer' standards:

· good provision of information;

· transparency in how the available levels of support are determined;

· integrated assessment;

· participation of disabled children and their families in local services; and

· accessible feedback and complaints procedures.

Further details of the core offer, and Government's wider plans for improving service provision for disabled children, can be found at http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/socialcare/disabledchildren/

Ultimately, this indicator will be measured based on the results of a centrally run, local authority level survey. A questionnaire and methodology to use for this survey are currently being developed, and it is anticipated that these will be available from autumn 2008.

Due to the clearance processes that any new local authority level data collection needs to go through, it is expected that this survey will run for the first time in early 2009. Therefore, this indicator will not be available nationally during 2008/09 and hence will not be active in the NIS during this year. The implication of this is that local areas will not be able to set this indicator as one of the 35 priority areas in their LAA for the 2008/09 year.

An alternative option for those areas that wish to include services for disabled children in their LAA in 2008/09 is to include it as one of the LAA local priority targets. Local areas that wish to do this are encouraged to use the questionnaire currently being developed by DCSF to self-assess parental experience of services for disabled children towards the end of 2008. Those areas that do use the questionnaire in this way will both be able to set a target, if desired, for the 2009/10 LAA year and will also be able to benchmark their results against the results of the centrally run, local authority level survey once these are available by mid-2009.

Areas may also wish to consider their performance against a number of other indicators, based on existing data collections, such as:

1. The proportion of disabled children receiving short term breaks;

2. The proportion of disabled children in their area receiving a service from social services;

3. The proportion of children in their area claiming disability living allowance;

4. Number of active parents forums or % of parents of disabled children participating;

5. Childcare assessment analysis of how well the needs of parents of disabled children are being met.