The register of children with disabilities

Does your child have a disability or a special need?

The Children Act 1989 requires all Social Services Departments to keep a register of children with disabilities to help with planning and monitoring of services. In Luton and Bedfordshire health, education and social services are working together to build an effective register and the information gathered will be shared by all agencies.

The Register of Children with Disabilities has nothing to do with Child Protection.

Which children do we need to know about ?

For the purposes of the Register a child/young person is defined as disabled if he/she is aged 0-18 and cannot do the everyday things that his/her peers can do.

We would like to know about your child if he/she has:

• Physical Disability
• Hearing Impairment
• Chronic iII Health
• Learning Disability
• Visual Impairment
• Mental Health
• Communication Disorder
• Developmental Disorders

We would also like to know about your child if he/she has a Blue Badge and/or is in receipt of middle or higher rate Disability Living Allowance Registering your child does not mean automatic entitlement to any services.

What use is it to Register?

In Luton and Bedfordshire we will use the Register to:

Provide useful information via a newsletter which will be sent to families of children who are registered;

To contact you and keep you informed of developments which may affect you;

Record the details of children with disabilities and their families so that their needs can be effectively planned for;

Provide health, education, social services and voluntary organisations with information to enable them to work together to provide quality services to children with disabilities.

How will our family benefit from the Register?

We aim to produce a twice yearly newsletter for parents/carers whose children are registered. This will inform families about events and developments locally and nationally and keep people in touch with each other.

We will use the mailing list that the register provides us with to consult with parents and carers about new developments and proposed changes.

Who will have access to the Register?

The information will be kept confidentially on an individual system. We will send you a copy of the information we are keeping about your child when the record is complete.

The information will be used for research and to assist the planning of resources in health, education and social services. No information on individuals will be available.

The information will tell us all whether or not we are providing the best and most useful services for every child in the County and help us to identify gaps in services and make improvements in the future.

We propose to review the Register every two years to keep it up-to-date.

Do I have to register my child?

No, but unless we have a complete picture of children with special needs across the county it will be very difficult to plan existing services and develop new ones. It will also be difficult to let you know about new developments and services available. We are committed to providing the best possible services for children with disabilities and to do this we need your help to identify the children in need.

Useful contact numbers:

Register Officer Telephone: (01582) 818181

Children with Disabilities Teams Luton Telephone: (01582) 546000

Mid & South Beds Telephone: (01582) 818181

North Beds Telephone: (01234) 223599

Typetalk: (0800) 459598 text