Disabled Children Who Need Permanence: Barriers to Placement

Disabled children wait longer than other children for permanent new families and some never achieve a family for life. Jennifer Cousins explores the barriers that make disabled children's pathway to a family so problematic. It is argued that only with this knowledge can the necessary changes be made on behalf of this vulnerable group of young people.

Over several months during 2003 and 2004, BAAF's Opening Doors Disability Project ran a series of workshops across England to explore this complex subject with practitioners and carers. This paper includes the many ideas that emanated from these workshops, plus research material and the author's own views. Problems and barriers emerged in the recruitment, assessment and support of families; in the profiling and placing of children; at management level in the training and development of staff; in departmental structures and in diminished resources. All pervasive is the negativity and discrimination which affects people with impairments. It is argued that everyone engaged in children's services and family placement has a responsibility to promote the interests of disabled children by tackling the barriers identified here. In so doing, the placement chances for all children will be enhanced.