The Law Commission is running a public consultation on the laws relating to social care for disabled children in England. The Disabled Mothers’ Rights Campaign and SNS are working on a joint response and we are keen to include the views of mums in our network whose children are disabled. The consultation document is very lengthy, so we have chosen some key areas which we would particularly like to hear from you about (see below). 

If you want to submit your own response to the consultation, the deadline is 20 January 2025. Or you are welcome to email us your views which we will reflect in our evidence. We will of course share our response publicly once it is finished. 

Tell us about your experiences, positive and negative of any of these areas which apply to your situation:

1. Assessments of disabled children – this is when you’ve asked the Council for help and they do a single assessment.
2. Parent/Carers’ Needs assessments – if you’ve been assessed under the Care Act, what is your experience?
3. How are siblings’ needs considered during assessment of a disabled child?
4. Young Carers Needs Assessments – has your child ever been assessed under this provision of Section 17 of The Children Act
5. Short Breaks – what’s your experience of applying/receiving respite care?
6. Charging practices/means testing – have you been told that you need to contribute to the care needs of your child under the Children Act or yourself under the Care Act?
7. Transition to Adult Social Care – how did this work when your child turned 18?
8. How social care and other services (health/education) work together or not – do you have experience of school and social services communicating with each other but not communicating with you or misunderstanding medical needs despite showing evidence?
9. Statutory Complaints Procedure – have you ever used it to complain about the treatment you/your child received and if so what was the response?
10. Local Government Ombudsman – have you ever complained to the Ombudsman and if so what was the response?
11. Independent Advocacy for disabled children