Contact’s social care asks

We believe the disabled children’s social care needs urgent reform in terms of the law, workforce and funding.

A child wearing glasses and a black shirt plays with a water activity structure outdoors. They are pouring water from a yellow cup into a clear vertical tube. The background features tall pine trees and a blue sky with clouds. Another person is in the background.

The current social care system

Good quality social care allows disabled children to thrive and families to sustain their parenting and caring roles. Timely, high-quality support can prevent a child’s needs from escalating and families reaching crisis point.

But social care in England is failing disabled children and young people.

Many families report negative experiences after seeking help from children’s social care services. Disabled children’s social care has been too focussed on safeguarding rather than on the support their child neds. That means families are denied support when social workers find no evidence of neglect or abuse or their parenting is called into question.. Parents describe a culture of parent blame when they seek help

Other families see hard won social care direct payments clawed by local authorities back because they are unable to find suitably trained personal assistants to work with their child. Or direct payments are inadequate leaving parents to pay for care out of their own pockets.

Law commission reform of disabled children’ social care

Contact welcomes the Law Commission’s Final Report: Disabled Children’s Social Care which makes 40 recommendations for reforming disabled children’s social care law which are line with our Social Asks. Key recommendations from the Law Commission include:

We are calling on the government to implement the Law Commission’s report in full, without delay. We support the Education Committee’s call for the government to respond to the report and produce a timeline for implementing the report within two months of publication.

Ask your MP to act on disabled children’s social care 

The Law Commission has recommended vital reforms to fix an outdated disabled children’s social care system. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a fairer and kinder system.

Write to your MP today and urge them to press the Government to act quickly.

It will take several years to reform the law, and families seeking help under the current system need help now. That is why we are also calling for changes that could happen immediately, including greater investment in the disabled children’s workforce and disabled children’s social care.

Our social care asks

Below, we share what we want to see improve.

Reform of social care law

We are pleased to see the Law Commission’s proposals for reform include our key asks, which are:

  1. Law reform to create a separate assessment pathway for disabled children with explicit legal duties to assess and meet the social care needs of disabled children to end the culture of parent blame.
  2. National eligibility criteria for disabled children’s social care support.

Other measures to improve social care for disabled children

  1. Address the £573m shortfall in funding for disabled children’s services and double the funding for the Short Breaks Innovation Fund.
  2. More flexibility for direct payments, allowing parent carers to use them to pay a family member to care for their child or pay for an activity and for funding to be sufficient to cover care costs.
  3. Expand and improve training for the disabled children’s social care workforce.
  4. Increase access to advice on rights and entitlements help families navigate the social care system and secure support.
  5. A strengthened system of accountability to ensure local authorities comply with their social care legal obligations to disabled children.
  6. Improved joint commissioning of support through better co-production with families.

Download a detailed explanation of our social care asks.

Our social care advice

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Social care

As a parent of a disabled child you are entitled to certain services to help.

Find out more
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Needs assessments

An overview of the process social services used to decide how much support you and your child need and how to get one.

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Carer’s assessments: your needs as a carer

Advice on asking for a carer’s assessment, what the assessment looks like and what happens after the assessment.

Find out more