Disability services risk neglect as local authorities still await targets

27 January 2009 1 min read Janaki Mahadevan Health

Delays in setting councils targets for disabled children's services are likely to prevent local authorities specifying them as a priority, the disabled children's campaign group has warned.

The Aiming High For Disabled Children report, published by the then Department for Education and Skills in May 2007, made a commitment to introduce an indicator on the provision of services for disabled children as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

But nearly two years later, although the indicator is available to local authorities, the information on which councils judge their progress is unavailable.

Despite the void, last spring 23 local authorities chose disabled children's services as an area of priority.

Every Disabled Child Matters board member Brian Lamb said: "We are concerned that the indicator development process remains delayed. Local authorities are still waiting to find out how baseline and survey data will be collected to inform measurement of the indicator."

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