Children with a Disability Service (CWD)

The Children with a Disability Service (CWD) is a specialist children’s social care service with a focus on providing advice, support and services to disabled children and their families.

CWD provide support to families living in the Kirklees area who have needs that they are unable to meet as a family or have concerns about a child or young person who has learning, physical or complex health needs.

This support can include respite for families, carer support and help for a young person with disabilities to access sports and leisure facilities locally.

The Children with a Disability Service is made up of an Early Support and Inclusion Team and a Social Work Team. The teams can provide information, guidance and signposting to other services and/or carry out an assessment of need in order to ensure that a family gets the right support or service at the right time.

Who is the service for?

The Children with a Disability Service consider the needs of disabled children and young people from birth up to the age of 18 years old. These may include:

a diagnosed physical or mental impairment which is likely to have a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day to day activities
a sensory impairment, a learning disability, or an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) which impacts on day to day life
complex health needs

For further details please refer to the Children with a Disability Service eligibility criteria which can be found on the Children with a Disability Service page (opens link in new window)

How to contact the Children with a Disability Service

CWD are contacted via Children’s Service’s Duty and Advice Team on 01484 456848 in the first instance.

You will be required to consent to sharing of information.

The Children’s Service Duty and Advice Team ask several questions to ensure that the Children with a Disability Service is the right team to refer you through to.

The CWD team will:

Consider completing a Child & Family or Early Support Assessment. (This will be discussed with you when you call Duty and Advice).
Early support assessment undertaken by a family support worker.
Child and Family assessment undertaken by a social worker.
listen, offer a good conversation and work in partnership with you to help identify solutions
help to co-ordinate multiple services if required.

The CWD Service is made up of 2 teams.

Early Support and Inclusion Team

Early Support is a way of working which aims to identify problems or needs as soon as they emerge and respond as quickly as possible to avoid problems increasing. Early Support can be provided at any stage in a child or young person’s life.

The ES&I Team aim to work with families by:

offering information, advice and signposting to local community and targeted services
undertaking an Early Support Assessment where needed

The family support workers for CWD Early Support work specifically with families who have concerns or identified needs associated with a child’s disability.

Social Work Team

Social work teams work with children subject to Child In Need Plans.

Should a child or young person be subject to a plan and receiving support from the Local Authority then this plan will be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure the package of support is meeting the child/young person’s needs. The frequency of these reviews will depend on the type of plan in place.

The Children with a Disability Service have access to information about a range of short breaks opportunities available in Kirklees, some of which require signposting or an assessment from the Children with a Disability Service to be able to attend them.

Disabled children are legally defined as Child in Need under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989.

It is the general duty of every Local Authority to safeguard and promote the welfare of children who are in need in their area and to provide a range of services appropriate to those children’s needs, to promote the upbringing of children in need by their families.

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Last updated: 11/01/2022