Children with Disabilities

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Good Practice Examples: Children with Disabilities

Projects featured:
  • London Borough of Camden
  • Devon CAB
  • Newcastle Welfare Rights
  • Hertfordshire County Council
  • London Borough of Croydon
 
London Borough of Camden
 
The Camden Disabled Children’s Benefit Partnership
 
Objectives

The Camden Disabled Children’s Benefit Partnership (DCBP) was established in April 2006, set up to achieve specific outcomes for the Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA) agreed between central government and Camden Council. 
 
The aims of the partnership are to maximise benefit take up for families with disabled children in Camden.
 
Target groups

Camden families across the borough with disabled children who have physical and/or mental disabilities.
 
How was it funded?

The additional caseworker for the campaign was funded through Local Public Service Agreement funding.
 
How was it run?

Partnership agencies in Camden agreed to work together to offer information and advice on disability benefits, to help parents to complete disability living allowance (DLA) claim forms on behalf of their children and to claim other related benefits and services.
The Disabled Children’s Benefit Partnership (DCBP) includes the following agencies:
  • Camden Council Welfare Rights Advisers from the Children, School and Families Team as well as the Housing and Adult and Social Care Teams
  • Camden Disabled Children’s Team
  • DISC – Disability in Camden
  • KIDS
  • Camden and Islington Primary Care Trust and the Royal Free Trust (Community Nursing).
 
The DCBP has been led and coordinated by the LB Camden Children, School and Families (CSF) Welfare Rights Team. A senior adviser from the team is responsible for co-ordinating the services of the wider partnership and gathering the information needed for monitoring performance outcomes from all agencies. In addition, the team employs one dedicated full-time caseworker, working solely with families with disabled children.
 
Impact
 
DCBP Partnership Agencies 

For the first two years of the partnership (April 2006 - March 2008) the following outcomes were achieved by partnership agencies
  • 102 new awards or renewal awards of any DLA component for a Camden child. (PI 1)
  • 92 cases of an increase in the amount of an existing DLA component, any award of a related benefit or access to a related service for a Camden child/family. (PI 2)
 
Outcomes - DCBP Welfare Rights Team (Children, Schools and Families)

For the first two years (2006 -2008) Camden Council’s Welfare Rights Team achieved a total of 49 PI 1 and 36 PI 2 outcomes, contributing significantly to the performance indicators for the whole partnership. Over this period the team received 217 referrals for welfare rights advice. A total of 154 clients were seen for help or advice, (mainly in-depth welfare rights casework) with the remaining 63 parents referred or signposted for help and assistance from another service. Total extra annual income raised for these families seen by the Welfare Rights Team over the two year period was £596,136 in additional benefits and tax credits. A significant number of families were also helped to obtain the blue badge for parking and assisted to access other services to support well-being.
 
Other outcomes
  • Increased awareness of DLA and associated benefits amongst staff and advisers across Camden has been achieved through publicity and training sessions. This has lead to timely referrals for families who need help with their benefits. This ensures that the family have financial support as early as possible, so preventing potential child poverty.
  • Increase in family income has enabled parents / carers of disabled children to access / take advantage of respite / leisure facilities.
  • The work has contributed to closing the gap in learning for children with special needs compared to other children. Increased income has enabled families to take advantage of learning opportunities and to buy resources for their learning such as computers, educational toys and books etc.
  • The partnership has promoted inter-agency working by establishing effective joint working arrangements and contributing to multi-agency support. Families have received a holistic service, utilising the different skills and expertise of the different partners. 
  • The partnership has worked closely with Childcare Affordability Programme (CAP) and the Employability Services (EYSSS) to provide advice and support on childcare funding and helping parents / carers with disabled children to make informed decisions about work and training opportunities.
  • Expertise has been gained in the particular benefit issues facing these families. The caseworker and the co-ordinator from Camden Welfare Rights Team (CSF) are viewed as specialists by other agencies. Certain policy issues have also been addressed and problems with procedures raised with HMRC (Tax Credit Office) and the Department for Work and Pensions.
Lessons learned
 
  • A small "central" service (with a dedicated welfare rights caseworker post and a co-ordinator), working alongside a wider partnership, and incorporating integrated working with other professionals, is an effective model for supporting the economic well being of families with disabled children.
  • Through evaluation, parents clearly indicated that they would prefer to return for further benefits advice to the adviser/service that they had initially seen (and trusted) rather than “start again” with a new service. This requires advisers to be available to provide advice to families for a length of time, rather than open and close cases quickly. To provide this sort of holistic, longer-term service to each family is time consuming and this was not fully appreciated in the initial design of the partnership or reflected in the LPSA performance indicators. 
  • A number of clients have been missing out on benefits available to them for a long time and could have claimed months, sometimes years, earlier. This indicates a need for more information generally and an earlier referral system for benefits advice for families already in contact with other professionals.
  • This project is targeted at families with children aged 16 years or less. However, there is clearly an increased need for benefits advice for young disabled people age 16 –19 years. A future partnership/ project could address this.
Contact

Sylvia Gilbert, Team Manager, Welfare Rights Service, Early Years and Sure Start Service, London Borough of Camden, email: sylvia.gilbert@camden.gov.uk
 
 
Devon CAB
 
Quids for Special Kids
 
Objectives

Increasing benefit take-up for families with children with special needs or disabilities registered on the Joint Health and Social Care Agency registers across the county of Devon.

Target groups

All families registered on the Joint Agency register of families with children with special needs or disabilities in Devon. There are approximately 2,500 children on the register. The service was also made available to any family with a child aged up to 21 through partner agencies publicising the service and press releases in local press.

How is it funded?

The first phase of the project 2005 - 2008 was funded through Round 2 of Local Public Service Agreement funds through Devon County Council at a total cost of £170,000.
 
The project has been extended until 2011 through the Strong and Inclusive Communities strand of the Devon Local Area Agreement and Devon Sustainable Community Strategy Priority at a cost of £103,000 per year. The increased funding level allows for locally based project adviser posts to be established in Citizens Advice Bureaux across the county during 2008 – 2011. It is planned that the service will be mainstreamed into Devon Children’s Services as a core activity from April 2011 onwards.

How is it run?

The work was implemented through the Access to Benefits Implementation Group by a Steering Group, comprising key partner agencies, parents and elected councillors.
 
The project was delivered through a partnership agreement between Devon County Council and Citizens Advice (Devon Welfare Rights Unit). Also, there was a multi agency steering group overseeing and monitoring the project, including representation from:
  • Devon County Council
  • Citizens Advice (Devon Welfare Rights Unit)
  • North Devon Carers Forum
  • Citizens Advice Bureaux
  • Sure Start
  • Connexions
  • Jobcentre Plus
  • Primary Care Trust
  • HMRC
  • Devon Energy Efficiency
  • Officer and elected members of City, District, Borough and County councils.
 
Each family has been individually contacted and offered a home visit to carry out a comprehensive household income and benefits maximisation service.
Devon CAB Welfare Rights Unit provided the advice service and was also responsible for overall coordination of the service and for recording and reporting on outcomes
 
Impact

1100 families took up the service from 2005-8 and over 600 of these were assisted to claim additional benefits and tax credits totalling £2.6 million, an average annual increase in income of £4,000 per family.
 
The investment to benefit gain ratio has provided a return of £45 into the local economy for every £1 of original investment (with an assumption that the majority of benefits awarded are likely to remain in payment for at least 3 years).
 
Lessons learned
  • Joined-up services are a pre-requisite for delivering effective services to families with children with special needs.
  • Access to work, a major difficulty for families with children with special needs, can be improved by income maximisation.
  • Rurality is a key factor contributing to the social and financial exclusion of parents and carers of children with disabilities
  • Full details available in “Quids for special kids” Project Report, which can be obtained via the contact details below.
 
Contacts:

Jude Giddings (Project Co-ordinator), Devon Welfare Rights Unit, email: jude.giddings@citizensadvice.org.uk
Ian Hobbs, Community Strategy Officer, Devon County Council, ian.hobbs@devon.gov.uk
 
 
Newcastle Welfare Rights
 
Name of take up Project

Quids for Kids.
 
Objectives

Maximisation of income for children and families across Newcastle.
 
Target groups
  • All families known to the Children with Disabilities social work team.
  • Children known to the Learning Disabilities team.
  • All families of children undergoing transition interviews at Sir Charles Parsons School – a special needs secondary school.
  • All parents receiving a disabled child premium as part of their housing benefit assessment.
  • Leaflets on benefits available to families given to all families registering a birth at Newcastle Registrars.
  • Parents of babies on the Special Care Baby Unit.
  • Children diagnosed with diabetes via the paediatric diabetic nurses.
  • Lone parent employment events run by Newcastle Futures.
  • For the past year one welfare rights officer dealing specifically with foster carers, young people leaving care and unaccompanied minors.
 
How was it funded?

Neighbourhood Renewal Funding (NRF) was achieved for the first 4 years. This started with funding for one welfare rights officer and half an administrative post – about £43,000 per year for the first 3 years.
 
Funding was then received for an extra post from the Carers Grant, another £30,000 for the past 3 years.
 
NRF then funded a specialist post to work with foster carers and the leaving care team.
 
Funding of £78,242 from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund will continue the project for 2008-2011, as well as ongoing funding of the children’s carers post. Total funding will be about £110,000.
 
How was it run?

The Quids for Kids Project is part of Newcastle Welfare Rights Service, which is part of Newcastle City Council. There are 25 Welfare Rights Officers in the whole service.
 
The Quids for Kids project has informal links with a number of voluntary groups including the special needs network, several school/ parent groups.
 
Impact

Over the past 4 years parents have gained over £1,855,000 in annualised benefit gains and £234,708 in arrears.
 
Lessons Learned

This was a successful approach, which has been mainstreamed with continued funding.
 
Contact
 
Rosemary Bell, Senior Welfare Rights Officer, Newcastle City Council Welfare Rights
 
Hertfordshire County Council
 
Name of take up project

Children with Disabilities Benefit Take-Up Project.
 
Objectives 

To improve the lives of disabled children and their families in Hertfordshire by increasing their benefit income, thus reducing poverty and debt.
 
Target groups

Families with children who may be eligible for disability living allowance (DLA) and carer’s allowance (CA).  
 
How was it funded?

Total funding: £63,751 pa (£36,571 from Children, Schools and Families and £27,180 from Carers Grant). Covers costs of two part-time welfare benefits advisers and two part-time interviewers.
 
How was it run? 

Run by Hertfordshire County Council Money Advice Unit as a service level agreement with Children, Schools and Families. It was run in partnership with children’s services, schools, (including special and EBD Schools), health services and the voluntary sector.
 
Referrals come from a wide variety of sources including parents and carers themselves, parent support groups, disability specific support groups, foster carers, schools, social workers, occupational therapists, health visitors, paediatricians, Herts parent partnership, Children’s Centres, the Money Advice Unit advice line, hospices, voluntary organisations, eg - Carers in Herts, CAB etc.
 
Help includes form filling, follow-up advocacy and representation up to social security commissioners (Upper Tribunal) level.  Advice is given on a wide range of other benefits, including income support and tax credits.
 
Talks, training and targeted information was provided to families, carers andprofessionals in Children, Schools and Families, health and voluntary organisations.
 
Impact
 
Extra Benefits

The project assists around 350 families per year to claim DLA, CA and associated benefits. Around £1.25 million a year. is raised in additional income for these families. This figure is also cumulative, as additional benefit gained in earlier years will still generally be paid in subsequent years. So the overall annual gain after 8 years of the project is likely to be more than £10m a year. 
 
Parents’ feedback shows that increased benefits income helps to alleviate a major area of stress in family life and enables them to provide a healthier lifestyle for their children thus promoting positive health outcomes for both carers and those they care for.
 
The project helps to meet targets on reducing child poverty and assisting families to maximise their ‘in work’ and ‘out of work’ benefit income. It also demonstrates the way that DLA is a key tool in tackling poverty in these families. 

Information

The project provides information to families and professionals in its factsheet ‘Benefits for Children with a Disability’ which is distributed widely throughout the county. This information is also available electronically on the unit’s web channel www.hertsdirect.org.uk/benefits, along with other information about benefits and links to other useful sites.
 
The project has provided articles for in-house publications (eg - for those on the Herts Additional Needs Register and Herts Parent Partnership) and  local voluntary organisations’ specialist publications.   Advice has also been given over the telephone to a large number of parents and carers as well as to professional workers. 
 
Talks and Training

Talks and awareness training have been given to a variety of professionals and parents and carers, including parents and carers of pre-school children with special needs, parents of children attending special schools, parents at local Children’s Centres and support groups, parent partnership co-ordinators, teachers, health visitors, GPs.
 
Lessons learned
  • Referral criteria are straightforward and easy for parents, carers and professionals to understand.
  • Working directly with the families of children with disabilities and helping them to complete DLA claim forms has worked particularly well. It is hard for many parents to know how to phrase answers in order to give an accurate picture of their child’s disability and match that to the DLA criteria. Parents with more limited literacy or less confidence find the forms simply unmanageable.
  • However, the complexity of rules re: maximum backdating of the disabled children’s element in CTC can impede families. A letter is now provided to CTC claimants for them to notify the Tax Credit Office when DLA claims are made.
  • There is a need to target mainstream schools as well as special schools.
  • Advice for young people re: take up of non-contributory incapacity benefit/employment and support allowance can be difficult to give due to complex ‘better off’ scenarios.
  • There has been particular success in making claims for children and adolescents with behaviour/mental health problems and those with learning disabilities. However, getting additional supporting evidence for DLA claims from schools can be difficult, especially if a child had not been statemented. Tribunals also seem to place undue emphasis on ‘statementing’, which is not directly relevant to DLA criteria.

Contact 

Bernie O’Gorman. Senior Adviser, Money Advice Unit, Hertfordshire County Council. bernie.o’gorman@hertscc.gov.uk

London Borough of Croydon
 
Objectives

Increase take up of disability living allowance for children, carer’s allowance and child tax credit. Remit to reduce child poverty in the whole of Croydon Borough.
 
Target groups

Children with disabilities and their families and carers.
 
How was it funded?

£38,000 per year consisting of £25,000 from Croydon Council’s Children Services department and £13,000 from DASH (Dept for Adult Services and Housing).
 
How was it run?

One welfare rights adviser was recruited to work with social service staff, health service staff, special schools, health visitors, paediatricians, local nurseries etc
 
Impact   

From January 2008-September 2008 138 families have been helped to claim annual benefit entitlement of £500,000 and this will increase as more claims are decided.
 
Lessons learned

Health service staff have been far more pro active in referring parents to the service than local authority staff. Children’s social workers were initially slow to use the service and are still sporadic in referring. The summer was inevitably quieter with a deluge of work in September. Trying to get feedback on the decisions made is somewhat difficult. As DLA decisions take 13+ weeks parents simply ‘forget’.
 
Contact

Carole Webster, Welfare Rights Adviser, Welfare Rights Team, Department of Adult Services and Housing, London Borough of Croydon, email: carole.webster@croydon.gov.uk