At a fringe meeting at the Local Government Association's National Children and Adult Services Conference 2009, Action for Children said that its greatest concern for disabled children's services remained the low numbers of children with the most complex needs that are benefiting from the Aiming High for Disabled Children strategy.
Jane Williams, Aiming High department manager for the charity, said: "We are underestimating the needs of children with multiple and complex disabilities and there is a lack of understanding about how much has to be put in place for those children."
She said in order to provide a wide range of services, commissioners have to open up to a larger group of small and large providers and make the commissioning process simpler.
"Small organisations struggle with the amount of work that the commissioning process requires," she explained. "We need to think about adjusting the demands of the process with the amounts of money that are on the table."
Echoing concerns raised by campaign group Every Disabled Child Matters earlier this week, Williams added that primary care trusts are yet to provide evidence of their services to disabled children and show how the Department for Health's allocation of £340m was being spent in their areas.
