The Accessing Public Services Toolkit supports children with brain conditions and their carers in accessing the health, social care and education support services they are entitled to.

Many people who work for public bodies and many parents of disabled children misunderstand the law. This factsheet identifies and busts a number of the common myths around accessing services.

This factsheet has been prepared as a starting point for parents of children that have just been diagnosed with a brain condition. It aims to provide an overview of the resources and information they need to get advice, help and support for their family.

This guide describes common signs of anxiety and informs you on how to spots signs of anxiety in children with intellectual disability. It also details specific anxiety disorders.

This factsheet identifies and busts five myths around continence services support and assessments.

This factsheet aims to provide information and useful resources to parents in England who suspect that their child may have autism. It explains how to obtain an autism assessment, highlights the importance of a timely diagnosis and what support you and your child may be entitled to if a diagnosis is made.

This factsheet aims to provide information and useful resources to parents in Wales who suspect their child may have autism. It explains how to obtain an autism assessment, highlights the importance of a timely diagnosis and what support you and your child may be entitled to if a diagnosis is made.

The Be-Well Checklist can help parents, carers and professionals to reduce challenging behaviour and improve the wellbeing of people with severe learning disability and complex needs. The Be-Well Checklist can be used by parents, carers and professionals when they are trying to work out why someone is showing a behaviour or might be distressed, angry, upset or appear to have very low mood.

This factsheet provides an overview of carers’ assessments for parents and carers of disabled children living in England.

This factsheet provides an overview of carers’ assessments for parents and carers of disabled children living in Wales.

Our guide takes you through the CDP claim form page by page, explaining what information is required and giving you tips on how to complete each section. This guide is for Scotland only.

This guide provides an overview of cognitive difference, particularly how cognitive inflexibility and impulsivity might present themselves in children with intellectual disabilities. It also offers potential support strategies for parents for difficult behaviours that may arise from cognitive difference.

This guide has been developed to help family carers of children with severe to profound intellectual disabilities to understand more about communication challenges and to suggest helpful strategies to improve communication.

This factsheet provides information on current government guidance relevant to disabled children living in England.

This guide provides an overview of the law regarding decision making, confidentiality and the sharing of information for parents of disabled children and young people.

Our guide takes you through each question on the DLA form, giving you explanations of what they mean and tips on how to answer them. This guide is for England and Wales only.

This factsheet identifies and busts eight myths around claiming Disability Living Allowance.

This factsheet identifies and busts five myths around disability services support in England.

This factsheet identifies and busts five myths around disability services support in Wales.

This factsheet gives a short overview of Disabled Facilities Grants for disabled children in England and Wales.

This guide to education is for parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabled children living in England.

This guide to education is for parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabled children living in Wales.

This guide provides an overview of emotional outbursts and potential support strategies for parents of children with intellectual disability.

This guide suggests how to search the Internet efficiently and how to appraise the huge amount of information which is freely available.

Finding and instructing a solicitor for legal help can be one of the more daunting prospects for families and carers of children with a disability. This guide helps make that process as straightforward as possible.

This infographic explains how to use the FLACC Pain Scale. This is a system that can help parents and professionals assess pain levels in children who have limited or no expressive communication.

This factsheet explains what to do if you need help to care for a disabled child so that you can work or have a break form your caring responsibilities.

This factsheet explains what to do if you need help to care for a disabled child so that you can work or have a break from your caring responsibilities.

We know from our work on the LEaP Project that parents sometimes face problems in getting the right social care support for their disabled children. So what can you do if you’re not happy? Make a complaint. Use this guide to find out more.

Understanding your child’s diagnosis can help you better identify their individual needs and get support. We’ve put together some suggestions about where you can access information and support in the community.

This guide outlines some suggestions to help parents limit the risk of their child having negative experiences online and understand what action can be taken if they do.

Looking after your own wellbeing is one of the most important things you can do for the wellbeing of the whole family. You are the most important person in your child’s life, championing their wellbeing needs every day. For this to be sustainable, it’s really important that you find ways look after your own wellbeing needs too.

This factsheet is for parents, carers, teachers and professionals offering help on how to understand and manage different types of challenging behaviour.

This toolkit is for parents and carers of children with a rare genetic condition, particularly those known to be associated with neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions (for example, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disability, anxiety and/or depression). The aim of this toolkit is to inform parents about mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions in children with rare […]

This guide is for parents of disabled children who want to know what financial help may be available to them. It also outlines arrangements that may need to be put in place to manage their children’s finances as they get older.

This personal wellbeing plan can be completed while reading our wellbeing guide. It will help you document and action some changes that you think are likely to benefit you.

This guide outlines the importance of managing pain and will help the parents of children with severe intellectual and/or communication difficulties understand when their child is in pain.

This factsheet looks at some of the key points regarding parental responsibility and disabled children in England and Wales.

It is unfortunately the case that many families struggle to access the education, social and health services for their children that they are legally entitled to. Here are some ways that may be helpful for parents in effectively achieving their goals.

This guide is an overview of current research into childhood brain conditions and the research process. It also helps you evaluate the quality of research and information available. 

This guide explains the legal duties on local authorities to provide free school transport for disabled children in England.

This factsheet identifies and busts four myths around school transport in England.

This guide explains the legal duties on local authorities to provide free school transport for disabled children in Wales.

This factsheet busts four myths around accessing school transport in Wales.

This five-part guide has been written to help parents and carers of children with intellectual disability to understand what self-injury is, what can cause self-injury and which interventions may help to reduce self-injury.

Sensory processing refers to how people experience, interpret and use their senses to guide their day-to-day behaviour. This guide will outline the most common sensory processing difficulties people can experience, as well as providing an overview of sensory assessments and interventions and strategies for sensory processing difficulties.

This factsheet identifies some general strategies to consider for reducing sensory overload for your child.

If your child has hyper-reactivity they will experience too much stimulation from incoming sensory information. This factsheet suggests some strategies that may be helpful.

If your child has hypo-reactivity they may not respond to stimulation around them. This factsheet suggests some strategies that may be helpful.

This factsheet suggests some strategies that may be helpful if your child is sensory seeking. This is when people seek out certain sensory experiences.

This guide has been developed to help parents understand sleep problems in children with intellectual disability and offers advice on how to improve sleep in all children.

Our Sleep Cards offer different approaches to help you tackle some of the most common sleep problems experienced.

This factsheet busts six myths around sleep and sleep problems in children with a brain condition.

Our illustrated booklet introduces and explains different techniques for tackling common sleep problems.

This guide has been prepared for parents of disabled children in England who want to know how to get help for their child’s social care needs.

This guide has been prepared for parents of disabled children in Wales who want to know how to get help for their child’s social care needs.

All children are different and toileting problems can have a number of different issues. This guide covers a range of potential causes and suggests a range of approaches that may help.

This factsheet highlights the importance of transition to adulthood in the lives of children with learning difficulties in England.

This factsheet highlights the importance of transition to adulthood in the lives of children with learning difficulties in Wales.

Many young people with a disability or special educational needs (SEN) aren’t independent travellers and understanding what their rights are with regard to transport if they move on to education and training after compulsory schooling can be very confusing. The purpose of this factsheet is to look at what the law and government guidance say about transporting young people to their place of education or training.

The aim of this factsheet is to briefly summarise current scientific research about whether weighted blankets improve sleep in children with neurodevelopmental conditions. This factsheet is not intended to replace the advice of expert clinicians, but we hope that this summary of evidence will help parents and carers who are considering whether a weighted blanket […]

This factsheet explains what you can do if you’ve been assessed by social services, but still aren’t getting the support you need.

This factsheet explains what can you do if you are unhappy with the way a local authority has changed or reduced your child’s care package.

It is important to establish what the cause of self-injury is for a child with intellectual disability before moving on to intervention. A useful starting point for establishing cause is the PEACE acronym. To find out more about any of these points, please scan the QR code to access the Cerebra Guide on Self-injury in […]