Early help, care and support and transition for disabled children: Torfaen County Borough Council

We undertook an inspection with assistance from Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) (External link) and explored how Torfaen County Borough Council is providing early help, care and support and seamless transition for disabled children and their families.

Transition in this context can mean moving from children’s to adult's services in social care, from children’s to adult's health services, or from one phase of education to the next.

The inspection identified that current practice results in good outcomes for children as well as areas for improvement and barriers to progress.

Key Findings

Strengths

Well-being – we found arrangements for direct payments are efficient and parents were positive about their use.

People: voice and choice – we found practitioners and management within the disabled children’s team are supportive and dedicated.

Partnerships, integration and co-production – Torfaen County Borough Council often demonstrated effective multi-agency working resulting in good outcomes for young people.

Prevention and early intervention – we established that there is a range of recreational and support services in the community, valued by disabled children and their families.

Areas for improvement

Well-being – we recommend that the local authority ensures disabled children and families receive the right care and support at the right time.

People: voice and choice – we identified that there needs to be a rights-based approach ensuring disabled children and their families have a voice, informed choice and control over their lives.

Prevention and early intervention – we identified a need for a planned strategic approach to timely and proportionate early help and prevention.

Partnerships, integration and co-production – we recommend the local authority ensures effective partnerships and integrated arrangements to commission and deliver high quality and sustainable services that meet the needs of disabled children and their families.

Next steps

We expect the local authority and local health board to give attention to areas for improvement in the report. We will monitor progress through our on-going performance evaluation activity with Torfaen County Borough Council.

To see all our findings and recommendations, read the full report below.