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| Children with disabilities homepage Statistics homepage |
Statistics on children with disabilities collated from government, official and research publications. Children with disabilities are one of the NSPCC's priorities.
There are an estimated 0.7 million disabled children in the UK1. This constitutes about 5% of the total child population.
From: Great Britain. Office for National Statistics. (2007) Family resources survey: United Kingdom 2005 – 06 (PDF). London : Department for Work and Pensions.
Studies into the prevalence of maltreatment among children with disabilities in the US have found that these children are over three times more likely to experience abuse and neglect than non-disabled children. Disabled children in a large scale US study were found to be 3.4 times more likely overall to be abused or neglected than non-disabled children. They were 3.8 times more likely to be neglected; 3.8 times more likely to be physically abused; 3.1 times more likely to be sexually abused, and 3.9 times more likely to be emotionally abused (Sullivan and Knutson (2000) cited in National Working Group on Child Protection and Disability (2003)). Smaller scale UK based studies have indicated similar levels of maltreatment (Kennedy (1989); Westcott (1993) cited in National Working Group on Child Protection and Disability (2003)).
From: National Working Group on Child Protection and Disability (2003) "It doesn't happen to disabled children": child protection and disabled children. London: NSPCC. p.20.
Disabled children or children with learning disabilities are 20% more likely 'than average' to run away.
From: Rees, G. and Lee, J. (2005) Still running II: findings from the second national survey of young runaways (PDF). The Children's Society. p.8-9.
"Just over one-fifth (1%) of young care leavers had disabilities in 2007/08. Of this group of young people 69% had a learning disability, 12% had a physical disability or sensory impairment, 8% had mental health needs and 12% had other types of disabilities (this included Aspergers Syndrome, aggressive behaviour and children with more than one type of disability.) There are no directly comparable figures for the Northern Ireland population. However, less than 6% of all young people of this age in Northern Ireland have a long-term limiting condition according to the 2001 Census figures and DSD figures show that only 3% receive Disability Living Allowance. This suggests that a disproportionate number of care leavers are coping with disabilities."
From: NSPCC (2009) Key child protection statistics in Northern Ireland. London: NSPCC. p.19
1. This estimate covers the number of children with a longstanding illness, disability or infirmity, and who have a significant difficulty with day-to-day activities. Everyone in this group would meet the definition of disability in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA); however, these estimates do not reflect the total number of children covered by the DDA as the FRS does not collect this information. A child for this purpose is defined as all children under the age of 16 and all children between the ages of 16-18 in full-time education (Private correspondence with the DWP).
How to find, understand and use statistics about child abuse
NSPCC, 2011. A brief introduction to child abuse statistics.
Prevalence and incidence of child abuse: international comparisons
Susan J. Creighton, 2004. Explains the issues around comparing UK statistics with other countries.
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