Disabled Children’s Social Care

Current project status

  • Initiation: Could include discussing scope and terms of reference with lead Government Department
  • Pre-consultation: Could include approaching interest groups and specialists, producing scoping and issues papers, finalising terms of project
  • Consultation: Likely to include consultation events and paper, making provisional proposals for comment
  • Policy development: Will include analysis of consultation responses. Could include further issues papers and consultation on draft Bill
  • Reported: Usually recommendations for law reform but can be advice to government, scoping report or other recommendations

The Law Commission is reviewing the legal framework governing social care for disabled children in England to ensure that the law is fair, modern and accessible, allowing children with disabilities to access the support they need.

We have published a consultation paper asking people to tell us about their experiences of the current system and setting out our provisional proposals on how it could be improved. We invite views on these proposals. The consultation is open until 20 January 2025.

The consultation paper is available here. A summary can be accessed here.

These documents are also available in a range of accessible formats. These can be found in the  “Consultation and related documents” section below. If you need any of the documents in an alternative format which is not available below please email us at: dcsc@lawcommission.gov.uk.

We invite responses from anyone with experience of, or interest in, social care for disabled children. We particularly encourage responses from children and young people, parents and carers, and social workers and local authorities. Responses can be provided using the online form that is available here. Please email us if you need the response form in an alternative format.

The problem 

The law on disabled children’s social care in England is currently governed by a patchwork of legislation, some of which dates back more than five decades. This has contributed to variation in the amount and quality of support provided by local authorities, and unnecessarily complicated routes to accessing support for the parents and care givers of disabled children.

The project 

The Law Commission project was recommended in the 2022 Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, which heard from families of disabled children struggling to understand what support they are entitled to and how to access it. The project will play a role in the Government’s ongoing programme for the reform of children’s social care.

The Department for Education asked the Law Commission to undertake a review of the law, with the following objectives.

  • To recommend a solution to the patchwork of legislation that currently governs social care for disabled children.
  • To improve how the law on social care for disabled children fits in with the law relating to social care more broadly.
  • To review the outdated language and definitions underpinning the law on social care for disabled children.

The Commission is looking at the law and policy on social care for disabled children in England, including section 17 of the Children Act 1989 and section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970. The overarching aim of the review is to simplify and strengthen the law, ensuring that the system is fair and works for children, parents and other care givers, and local authorities. The review is focused on the provision of support and services in family-based care.

The consultation paper

We published a consultation paper on 8 October 2024 setting out our initial views on the current legal framework for disabled children’s social care and our provisional proposals on how the framework could be improved. The topics covered by the consultation include:

  • assessments;
  • eligibility;
  • how services are provided;
  • the transition to adult social care;
  • remedies;
  • the definition of disability;
  • advocacy and participation; and
  • whether a new legal framework is needed.

We ask a number of questions within the consultation paper designed to find out more about how the current system is working in practice, as well as inviting views on our provisional proposals. The consultation paper can be found in the “Consultation and related documents” section below.

We have also published a draft impact assessment alongside the consultation paper setting out our initial, provisional estimate of the potential costs and benefits of our proposals. We invite views on the estimates and assumptions in this document to assist us in developing a final impact assessment.

Next steps  

We encourage stakeholders to respond using the online form. The closing date for responses is  20 January 2025. We will use the responses to the consultation to develop our final recommendations for reform, which ultimately will be published in a report. We expect the report will be published in mid-2025.

During the consultation period we are holding in-person events across the country, as well as online events, open to the public. Please click the following links for more information and to register:

Documents

Terms of reference.

Disabled children’s social care consultation paper.

Summary of consultation paper.

Summary of consultation paper (large print version).

Summary of consultation paper (audio version).

Easy Read version of consultation paper.

Draft impact assessment.

Deprivation of liberty research paper.

Online response form.

Response form for the Easy Read version of the consultation paper. This is a separate response form for people who want to use the Easy Read version of the consultation paper to take part in the consultation.

Contact 

By email to: dcsc@lawcommission.gov.uk or by phone on 020 3334 0200.

By post to: Disabled Children’s Social Care team, Law Commission, 1st Floor, Tower, 52 Queen Anne’s Gate, London, SW1H 9AG.

Documents and downloads

Project details

Area of law

Public law

Commissioner

Professor Alison Young