Working with children and young people with disabilities

An introduction from our chief executive

Disabled children, young people and their families deserve the very best services and at CWDC we want to do all we can to help the workforce met their needs. We want the workforce to be able to work alongside families, to support them, to help them access services and to help the children and young people to have the same opportunities as all other children and young people.

Everyone in the children's workforce is increasingly likely at some point to work with children and young people with disabilities. At CWDC, we want to help provide you with the right skills and knowledge to allow you to flexibly and appropriately meet the needs of these children and young people in ways that focus on strengths and abilities rather than disabilities.

This web resource has been developed to help provide you with the information you need to achieve this goal. Please use it and let us know if it is helpful and what else we can do to support you.

Thank you for your hard work and commitment to this very important group of children, young people and families."

Jane Haywood, chief executive, CWDC

At CWDC we believe children and young people with disabilities are entitled to the highest quality workforce care and support services to meet their individual needs. Government policy set out in Every Child Matters, the Children's Workforce Strategy and Aiming High for Disabled Children supports this position as does the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Together they help us recognise how important it is to tailor existing high quality services to improve the outcomes for children and young people with disabilities.

This web resource has been developed to help provide you with the information you need to achieve this goal.

Postcard about CWDC's work with children & young people with disabilities

Are these resources for me?

These resources have been developed for anyone working in the children workforce - whether you are a manager, existing or new entrant to the workforce, foster carer or early years professional.

They aim to make it easier for you to find your way to existing information, qualifications and training provision that will help you meet the needs of children and young people with disabilities.

• The five summary briefings act as signposts to point you in the right direction to get the information or provision you need. Each briefing is tailored to meet the needs of different sections of the workforce and you should download the one closest to your own role in the children's workforce:
  • leaders, managers and supervisors
  • new entrants to the workforce
  • existing members of the workforce wishing to expand their knowledge
  • foster carers
  • early years workers
• The next step section brings together the links from all five of the briefings and contains links to further sources of information.

What these resources do not do...

The aim of these resources is not to duplicate general information and guidance available elsewhere. The advice and guidance simply signposts you to a wider variety of support and information to meet your individual needs. Within this information, CWDC is not endorsing particular organisations or the information, qualifications or training they offer. These resources aim to help you find the information you need as quickly and easily as possible. You then need to check their suitability for your own purpose.

If you think anything is missing from this site, please email us.

List of useful links

We have complied a list of links to a range of organisations and resources that may be useful to you in providing information, support and guidance when working with children and young people with disabilities.