Disabled children's register - register your child

The Children Act 1989 requires all local authorities to keep a register of children with disabilities to help with planning and monitoring services.

Registering your child on the disabled children's register helps us identify and plan for the needs of children and young people with disabilities, their parents and carers. 

This might include:

•  deciding how many school places are needed in future to meet specific needs
• how we should develop our short breaks services. 
• how to ensure that services are located in places which are accessible to families

Local organisations are working together to build an effective register. The information gathered is used by partners in health, education and social care services to plan their provision. 

It will also help us to ensure that families are aware of:

• new developments
• forthcoming events
• specialist provision which might be of interest to them

• Registration is voluntary and you don't have to register your child with us if you don't want to. However, registering helps us to plan services and think ahead about the capacity we might need to provide in schools or short breaks activities for example. It also allows us to build a list of parents who wish to be contacted about new developments or service changes.
• When registering your child we ask for their NHS number. We ask for this and their date of birth so that we can identify them as an individual child or young person on the register to avoid any duplication. A person’s NHS number is a unique number that everyone has from birth onwards and it does not change over time which makes it helpful for checking we do not have duplicate records.
• We will not use your child or young person’s NHS number to access any of your child or young person’s medical records, and the Disabled Children's Register is not linked in any way to NHS patient record systems.
• The benefits of registering are that it will assist the local authority to plan existing services and develop new ones.  You will receive a twice yearly newsletter, and we will let you know about all consultations about children and young people with disabilities and SEN so you can get involved.
• No information on individuals will be shared or made available to other organisations. The register is managed and kept up to date by the Disabled Children’s Team. We will only share statistical information (figures only, no names) with our partners in the NHS and Education so that we can work together in the planning and delivery of local services for families. We will review the register every two years to ensure it is kept up-to-date.
• In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, we are letting you know that by completing the form you are giving your specific consent for North Somerset Council to process the information we collect from you for the purpose of registering your details on a disability register. In accordance with the Children Act 1989, we are required by law to have such a register.
• The information collected from you may be shared not only with other areas within the Council, but also with other relevant professionals and organisations, such as the NHS, however only where appropriate. This sharing will be done only where it is necessary or where we are legally obliged to do so and is strictly in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Your information may be collated or monitored, in an anonymised format, for the purposes of improving services.
• If you want to review, change or remove your information please log in to our online directory to manage or delete your own record, or contact our Disabled Children's Team.