State of the World's Children 2013 - Unicef

Support families
The CRC states that children should grow up in
a family environment. It follows that the families
of children and adolescents with disabilities must
be adequately supported to provide the best
possible environment and quality of life for their
children. Support for families and caregivers –
subsidized day care, for example, or by grants to
offset the increased costs and reduced income
that come with caring for a child with a disability
– can prove critical in reducing the pressure to
admit children with disabilities to institutions in
the first place. Such support can also improve the
prospects for children who return to the community
after living in an institution.
Disability in the family is often associated with
higher costs of living and lost opportunities to
earn income, and thus may increase the risk of
becoming or remaining poor. Children with disabilities
who live in poverty can find it especially
difficult to obtain such services as rehabilitation
and assistive technology. To leave them and their
families to fend for themselves would be to dangle
the promise of inclusion just beyond their reach.
Social policies should take into account the monetary
and time costs associated with disability.
These costs can be offset with social grants,
subsidies for transportation or funding for personal
assistants or respite care. Cash benefits are
easier to administer and more flexible at meeting
the particular needs of children with disabilities
and their families. They also respect the decisionmaking
rights of parents and children. Where
cash transfer programmes for families living in
difficult circumstances already exist, they can be
adapted so that the families of children with disabilities
are not unintentionally left out or offered
inadequate support. These recommendations
would be urgent under any circumstances but
are especially so in these straitened times: Aid
and social budgets are being cut, unemployment
remains high, goods and services grow increasingly
expensive. Families around the world face
an increased risk of poverty.
Move beyond minimum standards
Existing supports and services should be continuously
assessed with a view to achieving the
best possible quality. The aim must be to move
beyond minimum standards. Attention needs to
be focused on serving the individual child with
a disability as well as on transforming entire
systems or societies. The ongoing involvement
of children with disabilities and their families
in evaluating services will help to guarantee
adequate and appropriate provision as children
grow and their needs change. The importance of
this participation cannot be overstated. Children
and young people with disabilities are among
the most authoritative sources of information
on what they need and whether their needs are
being met.
Coordinate services to support
the child
Because the effects of disability cut across sectors,
services can be coordinated to take into
account the full range of challenges confronting
children with disabilities and their families.
A coordinated programme of early intervention
across the health, education and welfare sectors
would help to promote the early identification
and management of childhood disabilities.
Across all sectors, early childhood interventions
should be strengthened. Studies have shown that
gains in functional capacity can be largest when
interventions occur early in a child’s development.
When barriers are removed earlier in life,
the compounding effect of the multiple barriers
faced by children with disabilities is lessened.
As children advance through their early years,
their ability to function can be enhanced through
rehabilitation. Improvements in ability will have
greater impact if school systems are willing and
able to accept them and meet their educational
needs. Moreover, acquiring an education would
be more meaningful if there were also inclusive
school-to-work transition programmes and
economy-wide efforts to promote the employment
of people with disabilities.
(continued on p. 84)
AN AGENDA FOR ACTION
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