Advice on what to think about when you start looking into support for your child.
Your local Social Work department will have a limited budget to support everyone who feels they could benefit from formal, funded support. They will use a set of rules to work out which families can access this support.
To find out if your child can get formal, funded support through your council, an assessment will take place. Find out what happens in an assessment and how to prepare for it.
The advice on this page will take you through steps you can take, to work out what your child needs support with. This will help you prepare for an assessment of their needs.
A Child’s Plan is the plan that sets out what your child needs support with and how this will be provided. Find out more about how Self-directed Support fits into this plan, to give you and your child as much control and flexibility as you want to have over their support.
If it is agreed that your child needs funded support, you will have a budget which you and your child will have choice and flexibility to decide how to use. Find out more about how this works.
Once you have decided what your child needs support with, you can decide how much direct control and responsibility you want to take for arranging the support. This is known as Self Directed Support. Find out more about how it works in this article.
As your child gets older there will come a time when their support moves from children’s services to adult services. Preparing and planning for this change is known as the transition period. Find out more about Transition and what will help you and your child prepare for life after school and the involvement of adult services.
Find out about the role of key professionals and organisations when it comes to organising support for children and young people.