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PAPER F

Purpose: For Decision




Committee EXECUTIVE

Date TUESDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER 2014

Title DISABLED CHILDRENS SERVICE, THRESHOLD AND
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Report to EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR CHILDRENS SERVICES AND
EDUCATION



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. This Threshold and Eligibility Criteria has been developed for the Isle of Wight
Disabled Childrens Service to sit alongside the full social care threshold chart that
is now in place for the Isle of Wight Childrens Services. The aim of the document
is to provide a clear, accountable and transparent threshold and eligibility
document for disabled children and their families on the Isle of Wight.
BACKGROUND

2. The previous Threshold and Eligibility criteria for this service was based on the
service working with young people up to the age of 25. The document now
outlines the responsibility around children in need, the early help offer and the role
of the short break service.

3 Currently the Isle of Wight Disabled Childrens Service does not have its own clear
threshold and eligibility criteria as it is simply using the basics of the Hampshire
process along with the full children and families threshold chart. Therefore it is
clearly very important that this document is finalised and launched so that the
service has a published threshold process to which it is accountable and visible to
parents/carers and all relevant professionals.

STRATEGIC CONTEXT

4 This document relates to the Corporate Plan priority of keeping children safe.

CONSULTATION

5. The proposed document has been subject to a wide-ranging consultation process
with all relevant parties including parent partnerships, Friends of Beaulieu, health
and education colleagues. It has also been discussed with Hampshire colleagues.

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6. A full consultation has been undertaken prior to this equality impact assessment,
to recognise and consider the way in which the threshold and eligibility criteria is
written and to make sure it is user friendly and easy to understand while also
working with stakeholders to consider all of the possible implications of introducing
such a document.

7. The consultation involved initially sharing the document with key professionals
from the Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group, the Isle of Wight Special
Educational Needs Department and the two special schools on the island being
Medina House School and St Georges School. All parties except St Georges
School responded to the document. The main comment made came from the
Head Teacher at Medina House School, who felt there was a need for additional
information in the chart to consider the needs of children with a learning disability
and the issues of managing the challenging behaviour attached, which has now
been incorporated into the document as requested.

8. The second part of the consultation process involved arranging a workshop
supported by the Isle of Wight Parents Voice forum and the Beaulieu House
respite charity as these are two of the main groups supporting disabled children on
the Island thus involving both parents and the voluntary sector. This formal
consultation meeting took place on the 23 J uly 2014 at the Riverside Centre.
Parents Voice were identified as the key group to involve in this process as they
are identified and funded by the Department of Education to be the voice for
families and carers of disabled children on the Isle of Wight. The group is
supported by People Matter, who has the co-ordinator role of liaising with the local
authority around arranging meetings. The person with this role was invited to the
meeting three weeks prior to the meeting taking place and also had a brief
discussion with an officer during this time. The meeting was arranged as an
interactive discussion around the document, thus the threshold and eligibility
criteria shown as a PowerPoint presentation. Each participant was also given a
hard copy of the presentation and the opportunity to comment on each slide,
following a discussion from the group. Invitations were sent out to all
parents/carers on the Parents Voice database. At the end of the presentation the
comment sheets were collected for consideration and comments made.
Attendees at the meeting included two parents and the chair of the Beaulieu
Respite charity. The main comments that were made were as follows:

Good Principal easy to read
Good transparency
Good that the right of assessment has been clarified
Clear and open message
Its good to see the parenting aspect being taken seriously and in a category
of its own, so often the family gets forgotten
Need to have learning disability mentioned (as physical one is) as it goes
across all categories (this has now been addressed)

9. The threshold and eligibility criteria was displayed for consultation at the short
break fun day held at the end of J uly 2014, where over 750 people either children
with a disability or with an interest in disabilities attended with other third sector
providers also present. A stand was set up and advertised on the day to offer
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consultation around the threshold and eligibility criteria for the disabled children
service and the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) reforms. This
stand was staffed throughout the day by Isle of Wight Council staff. Larger copies
of the documents were available for people to read along with comment sheets for
interested parties to complete in the same way that had been undertaken during
the formal consultation session. During the day no consultation forms were
completed but the stand had a steady stream of interested people mainly parents
and carers asking questions around the threshold and eligibility criteria document.
No particular comments or concerns were raised that needed to be addressed as
part of the consultation. All feedback from the day was positive regarding this new
document. Parents and carers main questions related to whether this document
could change their childs enablement to service. When parents/carers were
informed that this threshold criteria was already being used and therefore would
be no change, they left with no concerns.

10. Consultation feedback has been added to the final and completed threshold and
eligibility criteria document. Comments regarding the document were positive,
clear and concise. Parents/carers stated that they liked the colour table and the
fact that the caring responsibilities of parents/carers were being considered. The
consultation did not raise any areas of significant concern about the content of the
document, rather than asking for some additional tasks to be added or changes to
the layout to be made which has been done.

FINANCIAL / BUDGET IMPLICATIONS

11. There will be no financial impact as the service already works to this threshold.

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

12. The Children Act 1989 places a duty on Childrens services to provide or co-
ordinate the provision of services to all disabled children. The overall provision of
these services is a responsibility across Childrens Services, and associated
health and voluntary sector services.

13. Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 imposes a general duty on Local Authorities to
provide services for children in need, their families and others. This includes both
powers and duties to provide those services set out in Schedule 2 of the Act,
together with those added to the Schedule by subsequent Regulations.

14. The provisions of the Act are supplemented by the requirements of the Breaks for
Carers of Disabled Children Regulations 2011.

15. In addition to the above, and a separate consideration for the purposes of
determining eligibility for supported services, the Council has a duty under s 2 of
the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 to provide certain specified
welfare services to meet the needs of chronically sick or disabled persons
normally resident in their area.

16. In a 2009 judicial review, the London Borough of Islington was judged to have
operated unlawfully in 2007, because their eligibility criteria did not distinguish
between services which they had a power to provide under s17 Children Act 1989
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and those which they had a duty to provide under s2 of the Chronically Sick and
Disabled Persons Act 1970. The regulations cited above clarify this matter, and
make it clear that local authorities must also have a duty to, provide short breaks
in the circumstances set out in the Regulations.

17. The Children and Families Act 2014, which will in force from September 2014
contains provisions to reform the current system of support for children with
special educational needs and disabilities and includes a new duty on Local
Authorities to work with young people and parents/carers to develop a Local Offer
of services that are available to meet the needs of disabled children and their
families.

EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

18. The Equalities Act 2010 created a unified and extended public sector duty. In the
exercise of its public functions and provisions of services to the public, a public
authority, including a local authority, must have due regard to the need to
eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and to advance equality of
opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and
persons that do not. The local authority has to consider the impact that any
potential change in policy, rules, guidance or services may have on individuals
who may be affected and who enjoy rights as a person with a protected
characteristic under the Act. The duty covers all the following protected
characteristics: age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, pregnancy and
maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. It also covers marriage or
civil partnerships, but not for all aims of the duty. A full equality impact
assessment has been completed and is attached as Appendix B.

PROPERTY IMPLICATIONS

19. There are no property implications

OPTIONS

20. Option 1 is to accept and adopt the Disabled Childrens Service threshold and
eligibility criteria.

21. Option 2 is to reject the threshold and eligibility criteria, however if the Isle of Wight
Council does not have a threshold and eligibility criteria document place, there is a
risk of challenge for judicial review.

RISK MANAGEMENT

22. This carries low risk and it is a legal requirement for authorities to have this
document in place.

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RECOMMENDATION

23. Option 1 to agree and accept the Disabled Childrens Service Threshold and
Eligibility Criteria

APPENDICES ATTACHED

24. Appendix A - The Disabled Childrens Service Eligibility Criteria

25. Appendix B - The Equality Impact Assessment








Contact Point: Rob Winfield, Service Manager Operations and Disabled Childrens
Service, 821000 e-mail robert.winfield@iow.gov.uk

J OHN COUGHLAN
Director of Childrens Services
COUNCILLOR RICHARD PRIEST
Executive Member for
Childrens Services and Education