Law Commission consultation on the legal framework for children with disabilities
The following is from the Law Commission
The law is out of date. Under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 a disabled child is a child who is “blind, deaf or dumb or suffers from mental disorder of any kind or is substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital deformity”. This definition is from the 1940s. It came from legislation that was intended to help injured soldiers find jobs after the war. The language used to describe disability at that time is offensive now and doesn’t capture the nuances of neurodiversity.
The law is inaccessible. In fact, it is not one law at all. It is a complicated set of rules, instructions and advice contained in numerous Acts of Parliament, regulations, court decisions, Government guidance and local authority policies. The authors of the leading legal textbook on disabled children describe it as “a system of baffling complexity” the navigation of which amounts to “additional tiring and frustrating work”. We think that’s a fair description.
The law is also – potentially– unfair. It says that local authorities should provide the services that are necessary to meet the needs of disabled children. But whether that happens depends on where in the country the child lives. That wasn’t the intention of the legislation.
The consultation asks a number of questions including;
- whether there should be a new legal framework for disabled children’s social care, taking disabled children out of section 17 of the Children Act 1989;
- whether there should be national eligibility criteria for disabled children’s social care;
- how we should define disability;
- what remedies should be available for children and families when things go wrong?
The consultation is available here and is open until 20 January 2025.
