This response was provided in response to a request of 24 October 2014 which was managed according to the Code of Practice on Public Access to Official Information (2004). The original request was in three parts:
Request
A.
The figures for the current number of children aged 0-18 with disabilities in Jersey. I appreciate that there are many different types, please could it include special needs of all kinds including clinical and educational based ones. Please could they be categorised as appropriate, either in condition or level of their special needs.
B.
How many currently have the demand for respite care?
C.
I understand that given previous systems in place it is not possible to say how these figures compare to previous years. However if someone could provide some anecdotal thoughts on this matter that would be appreciated.
Response
A.
The Child Development Centre collates information on pre-school children with complex needs.
We do not rate or categorise according to condition. A child with complex needs will require co-ordinated multi-disciplinary support. There are currently 48 pre-school children with complex needs. 25 (52%) of these have needs related to social communication (possible autism).
The Education, Sport and Culture (ESC) department maintains an inclusion register for school age children, which is also used by the Health and Social Services Department (HSSD). This information is legally held by ESC and the person to contact regarding requests is [staff name redacted from the disclosure log entry].
B.
We estimate that 86 families are eligible for short breaks (this is now the preferred terminology for respite services). Currently 46 families are accessing a short break service and a further nine families have been offered a service and can go ahead and arrange their provision with one of the four community short break providers. With the launch of the community short break service on 13 November, we are expecting the numbers to increase further.
C.
It may be possible to gain some insight into this area through an appropriate member of the management team at HSSD. This is not a Freedom of Information matter, but can be arranged via [staff name redacted from the disclosure log entry].
A further document giving numbers of children with complex needs was provided to the applicant and this is attached below for reference.
