Disabled Children Team
Haringey Council’s Disabled Children Team provides support for children and young people who have a permanent and substantial disability, and their families. Our social workers will work with families to support them in ensuring that the children are happy, safe and making progress. You can call them on 020 8489 3671.
The Disabled Children’s team provides advice and assistance to families with children who have severe and complex disabilities.
The team aims to ensure that these children and young people are:
- safe and protected from neglect and abuse
- secure within their families or in alternative family settings if they are children who are looked after
- supported to achieve their full potential
- supported in the move to adulthood and to transfer to Adult Services if appropriate
Contacting the team
The Disabled Children's team duty service is open from 9am-5pm Mondays to Fridays by telephone only. The telephone number is 020 8489 3671 or 3672.
In emergencies outside these hours the emergency duty team can be contacted on 020 8489 0000.
How the team works
The Disabled Children’s team is part of the Children’s Social Care Services within the Children and Young People’s Directorate.
The team works closely with colleagues in health and education services to ensure that the best outcomes are achieved for these children and young people.
The team works with children and their families with the highest level of need. An assessment takes place before a social work service is offered. If the team are unable to offer a service they will advise as to where else a family may go. Families, or other professionals on their behalf, can make referrals to the team.
The team aims to promote the care of children within their own families and communities by providing short breaks if appropriate. Again an assessment will be undertaken to determine the level and type of short break best able to meet the child or young person’s needs. More information can be found on the short breaks page.
The team is based at Alexandra House in Wood Green. There are no reception facilities at the office so visits to the office are by appointment only.
- Alexandra House - 2nd Floor
10 Station Road
Wood Green
N22 7TR
Vikki Monk-Meyer is the Head of Services for Integrated Service for Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. The Deputy Head of Service is Jeannette Brand. The Team Administrator are Mezan Ahmed and Maria Haros.
The Threshold Criteria for Disabled Children's Social Work Team
Disability is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. The Disabled Children’s Social Work team is a specialist service which is part of the Children and Young People’s service. The Disabled Children’s Team is therefore one part of a range of services for children with a variety of levels of additional needs and disabilities that are provided through the teams identified above.
The Disabled Children’s Social Work services are specifically arranged to offer a specialised service to those children who have an undisputed disability that can be defined as permanent and severe as outlined in the Equality Act 2010 in that;
a). They have a physical impairment
- b). The impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities
Children who have a physical or learning disability that is substantial / severe and will have a lifelong effect on their ability to carry out day to day activities, will usually have the level of need that meets the criteria for a service from the DCT.
Within this context, this will mean that more than one of the following will apply:
- (i) The child uses specialist equipment for mobility;
- (ii) The child requires support for all self-care functions when this is no longer age appropriate;
- (iii) The child’s needs mean that they require constant supervision throughout the day and for prolonged periods at night, when this is no longer age appropriate due to their learning or physical disability;
- (iv) The child has highly challenging behaviour resulting from a severe disability that causes a serious risk to themselves or others (including but not exclusively, self-harm);
- (v) The child has communication needs which, without support, severely affects their personal safety (i.e. is deaf, blind or without speech);
- (vi) The child has complex feeding issues (for example, the child may need to be fed non-orally, i.e. through a gastrostomy tube); as part of the pattern of needs as described above
- (vii) The child has been diagnosed as having a profound and multiple learning disability.
- (viii) The child has a long term health condition which is life limiting or life threatening which mean that a) and b) conditions above are met.
A child or young person with an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan may be eligible for a range of support services to minimise the impact of their special educational needs on their access to activities of daily living. Being eligible for an EHC plan, however, does not mean that a child will be eligible for the Disabled Children’s Teams services, in the absence of conditions described above. For children with special educational needs, services will be offered to them that are proportionate to the impact of their disability. More information about the Children and Young People's Service Offer can be found in The Children and Families Service Offer for Children with SEND (PDF, 403KB)
