Aiming High for Disabled Children (AHDC) aims to ensure that parents are involved at a local level in strategic decision-making about the provision of services that their disabled children need.
Involving parents and carers in planning and developing services is the best way of creating cost-effective, responsive services that work for families.
Funding and grants
As part of the AHDC programme, the Department committed £5 million between 2008-11 to support the development of parent and carer participation in service development.
Progress
There has been significant progress in parent participation:
- 97 per cent of local authority areas have parents sitting on decision-making boards
- 100 per cent of areas report a significant increase in numbers of parents involved
- 95 per cent report improved joint working between parents and professionals.
For more information on parent participation, including parent forums, case studies and other resources, please visit the 'Parent participation' section of the Together for Disabled Children website.
Further resources and information
AHDC stakeholder event: Presentations (8 December 2009)
Organised by the Department and DH, the event focused on the disabled children’s services national indicator and the participation of parents, children and young people.
- Aiming High for Disabled Children overview
- How can the disabled children's services national indicator be used?
- The AHDC parent participation programme and using the indicator
- Hull: How parent participation is shaping services
- Oxfordshire: Parents leading the transition process
- London Borough of Redbridge: Involving parents and young people in commissioning short breaks
- Exploring disabled children's participation - what are the barriers, how to make it work and why it's important that it does.
Parent participation: 'How to' guide
Together for Disabled Children has published a new 'how to' guide to help parents and professionals work together and develop effective mechanisms for parent participation.
