There are 800,000 disabled children and young people aged 0-18 in the UK, 6% of all children . Children with disability are amongst the most frequent users of the NHS, and depend on the NHS to improve their health and wellbeing. Children deserve to be healthy and enabled to participate in their communities as fully as possible.
For this blog post I decided I would read the recently published ‘Next Steps’ document and put together a helpful summary for professionals working with disabled children. Well have I read the 72 pages of NHS England’s Next Steps Five Year Forward View and I can find no mention of disabled children. I am surprised and disappointed. Perhaps I shouldn’t be. This plan, after all, is in the context of a required NHS saving of 22 billion pounds.
I would be really interested in your thoughts. Please comment below or head over to my facebook page to join a discussion.