Introduction

Growing up disabled imposes wide-ranging risks on young people and their families. Disabled young people are at greater risk than their peers of poverty, family breakdown and isolation. Further, they are at risk of being unable to make the transition to adulthood and a full and independent life. While the nature of these risks is well known, their source is explained differently by the two main ways of thinking about disability. The first, which has until recently prevailed within policy and practice discourse and public understanding, sees these risks as arising from the impairment itself. Conversely, the social model of disability emphasises the potential risks of societies’ attitudes and behaviour towards those with impairments.

The way in which disability is defined and understood therefore has serious implications for the human rights of individuals with impairments. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989) suggests the ambiguity surrounding disabled children. It makes it clear that disabled children are ‘children first’, and should be accorded the same rights as any other child (Articles 2 and 23). However, inclusion of a specific section on the rights of disabled children (Article 23) testifies to the risk that these rights might otherwise go unrecognised or be considered a low priority for resources.

A sizeable minority of children in Britain are disabled. According to the General Household Survey, approximately 4% of children aged under five and 8% of children aged 5 to 15 in Great Britain have a limiting long-standing illness, disability or infirmity (ONS, 2004). A report from the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit estimated that around 800,000 children under age 16 in the UK have a limiting long-standing illness or disability, of whom at least 320,000 are defined under the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) as disabled and about 110,000 are described as severely disabled (PMSU, 2004, pp 54-5).

The nature and impact of impairment and disability vary across many dimensions, and ‘[p]roblems and solutions for disabled children and their families are complex, multi-faceted and highly interdependent’ (Audit Commission, 2003, p 11). Impairments can affect any aspect of bodily function, and public and professional awareness and understanding of different impairments vary. An increasing proportion of disabled children have multiple impairments and complex needs (PMSU, 2004, p 55). Living with impairment from birth is different from becoming disabled during childhood, while severity and stability over time also vary.