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Stage 1: In June 2022, we brought together the findings from the review of the research evidence and interviews with families and professionals. In two ‘sprint’ workshops we went through the full lists of changes to medically led care, care led by AHPs, and education and social care that were described in research papers or in our interviews. We looked for factors that helped or hindered high-quality service provision during the pandemic. We created a draft list of problems and potential solutions. We then created a list of recommendations for service organisation and delivery now that the pandemic is over and for times of future emergency.

Stage 2: In September 2022, we ran six online focus groups (3 for professionals, 2 for parents, 1 mixed) to talk about the recommendations we had developed in Stage 1. We sent the draft practice recommendations to participants before the meetings. In the meetings, we asked participants for their views on the problems and solutions we had found in the study, and their fit with participants’ experience of local changes. We also asked participants for feedback on the draft recommendations.

We used the feedback from the workshops to develop a draft set of recommendations for how services for disabled children should be provided in future emergencies.

We consulted with a wider group of children and young people, parent carers, and professionals in a national survey Agreeing the way forward | Resetting Services to Disabled Children | Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk)