Next year the Government will be surveying a sample of parents of disabled children to ask them for their views on the services they receive. Their answers will be developed into an indicator which will be used to measure and compare performance. This will be used to hold national government, local authorities and NHS primary care trusts to account.
The indicator on services for disabled children is a commitment within Aiming High for Disabled Children, the Government’s programme to transform services for disabled children. The indicator will measure how successfully councils and local agencies are delivering the core offer.
The national core offer is a statement of the standards which families of disabled children can expect across the country from local services. The survey will be designed to test out parents’ experiences in the five key areas of the core offer:
- transparency about the decision making process - for example has it been made clear to you on what basis services have been allocated?
- information - for example do you know what services are available?
- the quality and effectiveness of assessments - for example was an assessment carried out in an appropriate and convenient way?
- being involved in shaping treatment and care (often called parent participation) - for example do you feel your views have been used to help plan services?
- other areas of feedback - for example if you complained was it considered promptly?
How will the survey be carried out?
The survey will be a postal questionnaire, conducted annually and sent to a small but representative sample of parents – around 200 – in each local area. That’s around 32,000 families around all of England.
In the first year the survey will be carried out with a smaller sample of 2000 as the indicator will first be measured at a national level.
Participants will be randomly selected from a variety of sources, including Disability Living Allowance and Child Benefit records.
Families found from records that don’t show if their child is disabled, will get an initial ‘screening’ questionnaire to see if they should be included in the full survey.
The methodology for the survey has been developed by the National Centre for Social Research. A report outlining their recommendations has just been published.
When will the survey be carried out?
The survey is still being developed, with input from parents and professionals. In the next few months the government will be testing the survey with parents to make sure that it works well. Any initial ‘screening’ questionnaires are likely to go out over November and December 2008. After that, the government plans to start the national survey in spring 2009. The first local level survey is likely to be carried out in summer/ autumn 2009.
The wider picture
The performance of national Government is monitored through a series of public service agreements (PSA) which each include a small number of indicators to demonstrate progress. Under a new system in place in England since April 2008, each local authority is measured against 198 National Indicators (NIs) to see how well it is serving its local community. The indicators describe a range of ways government expects services and quality of life to get better for different groups of people, including children and young people. For example, one indicator (NI9) measures how local libraries are used. Primary Care Trusts have their performance monitored within the NHS using the Vital Signs indicator set.
Importantly, this indicator will be part of PSA12 (on children and young people’s health and wellbeing), the National Indicator Set for local government and the NHS Vital Signs indicator set.
Where to find further information
You can also ring Contact a Family’s freephone helpline on Tel: 0808 808 3555.
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