Cash Counts
makingcontact.org
Subscribe to Connected magazine
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.
A 2012 Contact a Family report into parent carer forums' experience of working with health services, especially Local Involvement Networks (LINks, during the reform of the NHS. We received responses from over half of the parent carer forums in England, with many reporting that they come up against a number of barriers to raising and prioritising disabled children’s issues through LINks.
A 2011 report into how parent view the extent of their GPs involvement in their child's care. We surveyed over 1,000 families with disabled children in England and found that for those that do visit the GP with their child, the quality of care is inconsistent.
This paper is part of a suite of briefings for school leaders, teachers and policy makers emerging from the current work of the Anti-Bullying Alliance in conjunction with Contact a Family' research.
Download the briefing paper for parents
Download the briefing paper for schools
In 2010 Contact a Family followed up the groundbreaking 2008 Counting the costs study. We asked over 1,100 UK parents caring for a disabled child about their current financial situation.
Key findings were:
Contact a Family surveyed 615 families with disabled children about their experiences of living in the UK, asking what makes you stronger practically, socially and emotionally.
Key findings of the 'What makes my family stronger' report are:
Published May 2009.
Despite a range of government initiatives aiming to reduce child poverty and improving support for disabled children, families affected by disability continue to experience high levels of poverty and social exclusion.
Contact a Family and Child Poverty Action Group have published research looking at the problems faced by families with disabled children accessing welfare entitlements.
This study tracked parent carers of sick or disabled children over a four-year period, and gives a voice to their experiences, attitudes and aspirations in relation to combining paid employment and unpaid caring.
Many needed (and wanted) to work to support their families and to have an additional focus away from their caring role. The challenges of combining work and care are particularly significant for parents of sick or disabled children, whose children require more and different parental support, often over a longer period.
Commissioned by Carers UK and Contact a Family, as part of the ACE National (Action for Carers and Employment) partnership.
Families with disabled children are likely to be poor. These families have higher expenses and lower incomes. Around half of disabled children grow up in, or on the margins of poverty.
In May, June and July 2005, UK parents with a child with a disability were surveyed on their experiences of NHS dentistry.
In 2004, Contact a Family conducted a survey into debt in conjunction with the Family Fund.
Survey of families experiences of accessing play and leisure services in the UK.
Contact a Family conducts regular surveys through online questionnaires on our website.
Contact a Family conducted research into how rising living costs have impacted on families with disabled children.
Contact a Family conducted research into parents knowledge and use of flexible employment rights.
Childcare can be a problem for families with disabled children due to the dual difficulty of cost and access to suitable childcare.
Contact a Family asked disabled young people and people who care for a disabled child for their views on the National service framework (NSF).
Contact a Family asked parents of disabled children what effect they thought having a disabled child had had on their relationship.