Advicenow provides accessible, accurate information on rights and the law in England and Wales.
Legal
Disability Rights
Your child’s rights are protected under an enormous array of United Nations rulings, conventions and Central Government acts. These are lengthy and complicated, but we’ve attached links to them in case you fancy trawling through.
Basically your child has a right to…
- be included in their local community and to do the kinds of things that non-disabled children do
- take part in leisure activities and to express themselves in cultural/artistic ways
- live with their parents, unless this is not in their best interests
- have their views taken into account.
If you feel that your child is being treated unfairly compared to other children, or you feel their disability is limiting their life experience, then have a look at our links and chat to an expert.
Legislation for Children
- United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- The Children Act (2004)
- The Equality Act (2010)
- Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act (1970)
Behaviour management
This provides information to parents on their child's rights to access activities, community facilities and other services.
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Cerebra offer help to children and families with neurological conditions. They offer various services such as Sleep councilors, Grants, research, Bespoke design service and many more. All services are free to members.
Children’s Rights Alliance for England
CRAE provides free legal information and advice, raises awareness of children's human rights, and undertakes research about children's access to their rights.
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Come on in
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Part 3: Access to Goods and Services – a practical guide for children's services (published for Council for Disabled Children, 2004).
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Council for Disabled Children
The umbrella body for the disabled children's sector in England.
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Equality Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
The Equality Human Rights Commission promotes and protects human rights. They work towards a modern Britain where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, and we all have an equal chance to succeed.
You can ask for advice and assistance from the EHRC if you think the local education authority is discriminating against your child because of disability.
England Tel: 0845 604 6610 (Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm)Wales Tel: 0845 604 8810 (Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm)Scotland Tel: 0845 604 5510 (Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm)Northern Ireland Tel: 028 90 890 890
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A campaign to get rights and justice for every disabled child.
Keeping kids safe O2
Today, kids and teenagers tend to know more about mobiles, the internet and social media than adults. That's why we've written this guide. It's to help adults understand what kids really do on their mobiles and the internet. And it's also to help you talk to your kids openly about the risks, so they know how to protect themselves.
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The aim of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums (NNPCF) is to ensure that good practice, knowledge and shared expertise about parent participation continues to grow and strengthen, and to develop a cohesive and coherent structure to sustain and develop the effectiveness of parent carer forums across England, individually and as a collective voice.
Sense is a national charity that supports and campaigns for children and adults who are Deafblind. They were established from a family support group in 1955 by parents whose children were born with rubella, and the experience, skills and views of families remain central to their work. You can see how they have developed over almost 60 years on their website.
Sense offers high-quality, flexible services across the UK, using skilled staff and a dedicated network of volunteers. They work with a wide range of Deafblind and multi-sensory impaired people, as well as those who have a single-sensory impairment with additional needs.
They work with children, young people, adults and older people with a progressive sight and hearing loss, offering a range of housing, educational and leisure opportunities. They also offer support to all Deafblind people in both the congenital and acquired Deafblind communities, not just those who receive direct support and services from them.
Sensory Linq UK
Sensory Linq are specialists in the field of sensory impairment. They offer support, guidance and training to local authorities, social and health care agencies in order to help them meet statutory requirements. They can even give you advice on meeting the needs of children who are deafblind (have multisensory impairment) on request.
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Special Educational Consortium
The Special Educational Consortium (SEC) is a group of organisations who protect and promote the right of disabled children and children with special educational needs to a high - quality education which meets their needs.
SEC also has a Parliamentary Group that is particularly active during the passage of legislation. The role of the Parliamentary Group is to represent the views of SEC to members of parliament.
What do they do?
•They provide the SEN and disability sector with a strong and unified voice with which to talk to Government, Parliament and officials.
•They provide a forum for the its members to develop their thinking on education policy and set political strategy across the sector.
For more information visit the website or ring the number.
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The Children's Law Centre offers advice on children's rights to its members, children and young people.

