Research Report DCSF-RR042 Disabled Children: Numbers, Characteristics and Local Service Provision Ann Mooney, Charlie Owen and June Statham Thomas Coram Research Unit Institute of Education, University of London Research Report No DCSF-RR042 Disabled Children: Numbers, Characteristics and Local Service Provision Ann Mooney, Charlie Owen and June Statham Thomas Coram Research Unit Institute of Education, University of London The views expressed in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. © Institute of Education 2008 ISBN 978 1 84775 190 4 Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the local authority staff who took part in the scoping and piloting phase of the study and to everyone who responded to the survey. Without their willingness to help and the efforts they made to provide the information we asked for, this research would not have been possible. We would also like to thank Nigel Gee, project manager at DCSF and all the members of the Steering Group for their invaluable guidance and support - Isabella Craig, Barbara Evans, Christine Lenehan, Shane Murray, Gill Porter and James Vance. We are also grateful to Michelle Cage for the administrative support she provided for the project. The views expressed in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. 1 2 Contents List of tables and figures ......................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ 5 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 12 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................ 12 1.2 Aims........................................................................................................................ 15 1.3 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 16 1.4 Structure of the report............................................................................................. 19 2 Numbers of disabled children........................................................................................ 20 2.1 Numbers of disabled children: survey responses................................................... 20 2.2 Calculating a figure for disabled children................................................................ 20 2.3 Other sources of data on local prevalence ............................................................. 33 2.4 Local authority prevalence estimates ..................................................................... 34 3 Characteristics of children with disabilities.................................................................... 45 3.1 Gender.................................................................................................................... 47 3.2 Age ......................................................................................................................... 48 3.3 Ethnicity .................................................................................................................. 48 3.4 Types of disability ................................................................................................... 49 3.5 Summary ................................................................................................................ 50 4 Local services provided to disabled children................................................................. 52 4.1 Difficulties in providing information ......................................................................... 52 4.2 Numbers receiving social care services ................................................................. 55 4.3 Numbers receiving services provided by the PCT.................................................. 62 4.4 Summary ................................................................................................................ 64 5 Providing information on disabled children ................................................................... 65 5.1 Agreement on definitions........................................................................................ 66 5.2 A single shared database and compatible databases ............................................ 71 5.3 Register for children with disabilities ...................................................................... 74 5.4 Role of central government .................................................................................... 75 5.5 Summary ................................................................................................................ 76 6 Conclusions................................................................................................................... 77 References............................................................................................................................ 80 Appendix A: Survey Questionnaire ...................................................................................... 83 Appendix B: Indicators of children with disabilities, with OPCS and FRS-based estimates . 92 Appendix C: Lower and upper bounds for estimate as number and percentage of age group, and expected numbers from OPCS and FRS prevalences .................................................. 97 3 List of tables and figures Table 1.1: Non-response rates by LA type ........................................................................... 18 Table 1.2: Non- response rates by region............................................................................. 18 Table 2.1: Local authority figure for disabled children .......................................................... 20 Table 2.2: Percentage of authorities with a count or estimated figure .................................. 24 Table 2.3: Sources of data used for figures based on a count ............................................. 24 Table 2.4: Number of sources used for estimated figure based on a count ......................... 25 Table 2.5: Data source combinations used for calculating a figure for disabled children ..... 26 Table 2.6: Confidence in figure for disabled children............................................................ 28 Table 2.7: Confidence in figure based on count or estimate................................................. 29 Table 2.8: Confidence in figure based on count ................................................................... 29 Table 2.9: Categories included in definitions of disability ..................................................... 33 Table 2.10: Average local authority numbers on a variety of indicators ............................... 36 Table 2.11: Average local authority percentages on a variety of indicators.......................... 36 Table 2.12: Correlations between local authority percentages on a variety of indicators ..... 37 Table 2.13: Disabled children in receipt of social care services: TCRU survey and CIN Census.................................................................................................................................. 39 Table 2.14: Lower and upper bound estimates for the number and percentage of disabled children ................................................................................................................................. 41 Table 3.1: Data on the characteristics of children with disabilities........................................ 45 Table 3.2: Sources used for characteristics.......................................................................... 46 Table 3.3: Combinations of sources used for demographic characteristics......................... 46 Table 3.4: Demographic characteristics................................................................................ 47 Table 3.5: Number of children by type of disability, per 1,000 children under 18 ................. 49 Table 4.1: Disabled children receiving social care services: rate per thousand children aged 0-17 in the local population ................................................................................................... 56 Table 4.2: Disabled children receiving social care services as a percentage of children ..... 57 Table 5.1: Factors that would help in calculating a figure for disabled children.................... 66 4 Executive Summary Introduction There is a lack of data at both national and local level on the numbers and characteristics of disabled children and their use of local service provision. Yet, such data is a prerequisite to the planning and delivery of effective services. The Thomas Coram Research Unit was commissioned to undertake a survey of all Directors of Children’s Services in England to collect and analyse data on the numbers and characteristics of disabled children and the services provided to them. Key Findings • The survey achieved a high response rate (77%), and local authority respondents made considerable efforts to collate the data available to them in the time available. Despite this, the survey information did not provide a reliable figure for the number of disabled children for each local authority. This was due to the difficulties local authorities had in identifying and counting disabled children and the different