Beyond child development centres: care coordination for children with disabilities

A specific model of care coordination for children with disabilities is described, comprising parental empowerment, a defined client population, individual tailoring of service based on assessment of need, inter-agency collaboration beyond existing team boundaries, continuity of named professional contact across transitions important to families, and a named care coordinator. The first stages of local implementation of the model are described for children with a disability making the transition into nursery school provision. Qualitative findings from interviews with families and care coordinators are presented, and the possibility of care coordinators providing a Named Person function is examined.