Whole Child

Disabled children are children first. They are people with their own lives to lead and ambitions to achieve.

Taking a whole child approach means arranging services around a child and their family, empowering them to achieve the outcomes that matter to them. Working with professionals across education, health and social care, CDC has been at the forefront of the movement to plan and deliver services which are shaped by the wishes of children and their families themselves.

At the heart of CDC's work is a belief that the goal for young people and their families is to acquire full citizenship. What we mean by this is that they will be accepted as fully valued members of society and be accorded the access and respect that goes with that. We know from the past and from some recent scandals such as the Winterbourne View, that when we allow the wider world to see our children as anything but fully human that abuse and discrimination occurs.

How do we do this? 

For CDC that means seeing the whole child in the context of their families. Seeing their journey through from birth to adulthood, for example, working to ensure the very young have positive attitudes and approaches from health professionals and families are able to access the childcare they need on the same basis as other families and ensuring that young people going into adulthood can celebrate, achieve and belong. We hope you would like to come on this journey with us.