Measuring services for disabled children

How will local authorities and health services be measured?

The government has introduced a new system to measure how well local authorities in England are providing services for local people. There are 198 measurements, called National Indicators (NIs), covering all services; for the first time there is a specific indicator for disabled children’s services, (NI54). Health services have an equivalent set of indicators called NHS Vital Signs.

NI54 will look at parents’ experience of services for disabled children and the extent to which these services are provided against core standards which the government has set out in the Core Offer for disabled children and their families.

Two new leaflets, one for parents and one for stakeholders, have been published by The Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Health to give further information about the indicator and how parents’ views will be sought. You can download these leaflets from the 'Read more' section of this page.

New national report on parents’ views of services for disabled children

The Government has published a new report on the first national survey of parents’ experiences of services for disabled children (see 'Other websites', 'National Survey of Services (DCSF)).

The report applies to 30 Local Authorities and 21 Primary Care Trusts covering the same areas as the Local Authorities. It shows how far parents think services for disabled children are meeting the standards set out in the Core Offer (see 'Other websites'). The report was a pilot to test how to carry out surveys of parents of disabled children on a national basis. From now on there will be an annual survey of parents in all local authorities and PCT areas, starting summer/autumn 2009.

The report shows that the national overall satisfaction score across health, education and social care services in England is 59%. 22,792 questionnaires were distributed and 12,226 replies received, a response rate of 54%, which exceeds the target response rate of 50%.

There is a wide variation in the scores for each of the Core Offer elements for each of the service sectors eg health, social care and education. These are set out in the table below.

Base refers to the total number of replies from which the scores were calculated .
The results are being analysed in more detail and results will be published in a further report.