Research

We conduct research and surveys to understand the scale of some of the issues faced by families.

On this page, you can find key statistics about families with disabled children in the UK, our ongoing research projects and links to our downloadable research publications – and how to get involved in future research.

Facts about families of disabled children and young people

• In the UK, there are a million disabled children under the age of 16 – that equates to one child in 20.
• 99.1 per cent of disabled children live at home and are supported by their families.
• 52 per cent of families with a disabled child are at risk of experiencing poverty.
• The income of families with disabled children averages £15,270, 23.5 per cent below the UK average income of £19,968, and 21.8 per cent have incomes that are less than half the UK mean.
• Only 16 per cent of mothers with disabled children work, compared to 61 per cent of other mothers.
• It costs up to three times as much to raise a disabled child, as it does to raise a child without disabilities.
• 56 per cent of parents with disabled children and children with special educational needs reported there was a lack of sufficient childcare in their area.
• Caring for a disabled child can cause relationship problems. According to one study, 31 per cent of couples report some problems, 13 per cent cite major problems and 9 per cent actually separate. Stress, depression and lack of sleep are other commonly experienced problems.
• Only one in 13 disabled children receive a regular support service of any sort from their local authority.
• Pupils with special educational needs (with and without statements) account for 7 in 10 of all permanent exclusions from school. This is the highest rate of permanent exclusions.

Ongoing research projects

• The ‘Access to Healthcare North West’ research project

Our project to find out what deters disabled and neurodiverse children and young people from under-represented communities in the North West from accessing healthcare.

Research publications

You can find all our published research in our resource hub.

Resource hub

Browse our research publications and evaluation reports in our resource hub. You can filter by subject, nation and language.

Browse publications

Get involved in our research

We couldn’t conduct our research without thousands of parent carers sharing their experiences with us. If you’d like to find out about getting involved in our research, contact our campaigns manager Una Summerson at [email protected].

Join one of our campaigns

We use our research to inform our campaign work, and in some cases our findings have led to changes in policy.

For example, our Stop the DLA Takeaway in Hospital report was used as evidence in the Mathieson case, in which taking away a young boy’s DLA while he was in hospital for a long time was found to be a breach of his human rights.

Find out more about getting involved in our campaign work.

Support our research work

We couldn’t carry out our research work without your vital support. If you’re able to, please consider making a one-off or monthly donation to help us identify the areas in which families with disabled children most need us.