Introduction

Despite many calls for improvement, it is notoriously difficult to obtain accurate statistics on the prevalence and patterns of childhood disability in the UK. Current estimates depend on a variety of sources, often depending on the extent to which families obtain services of various kinds. Furthermore, any statistics on disability are undermined by varied definitions of disability. For health services, the term ‘disabled children’ refers to those ‘children and young people who are disabled and/or those with complex health needs’. Anti-discrimination law more specifically defines a ‘disabled person’ as someone who ‘has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. The fact that many professionals working with children even lack a common language may also affect collection of data. Hopefully these differences will modify as professionals work alongside each other in children's trusts, under the changes introduced by the Every Child Matters reform programme and the Children Act (CA) 2004. Similarly, data collection and information sharing about the numbers and needs of disabled should also improve with the introduction of electronic health and social care records. Meanwhile, official figures may always be incomplete since there is probably a high incidence of undetected childhood disabilities of various kinds. Whatever their true level, the range is considerable and there is increasing prevalence of impairment. But the extent to which they hamper children from being able to benefit from educational provision varies.