AQW 30777/22-27


Ms Kate Nicholl
Alliance Party
South Belfast


Tabled Date: 10/09/2025
Answered On Date: 23/10/2025
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the (i) legal; and (ii) policy, basis on which Health and Social Care Trusts may request information from families about how Disability Living Allowance is spent when assessing or allocating children’s social care services.


Answer:
Disability Living Allowance for children may help with the extra costs of looking after a child who:
is under 16
has difficulty walking or needs more looking after than a child of the same age who does not have a disability.
My department has not currently issued guidance to Health and Social Care Trusts instructing Trusts on the use of Disability Living Allowance information in service allocation.
Within Children’s Services, the Children (NI) Order underpins the assessment of need and service provision.
Across all HSC Trusts in Northern Ireland – the Understanding The Needs of Children In Northern Ireland (UNOCINI) assessment framework is the standardised assessment model that is used within children’s services to measure assessed need for children and families – this includes assessed need in terms of support required, and also for assessment of service allocation based on need. The UNOCINI is an inter-agency assessment model that was developed in Northern Ireland to:
improve the quality of assessment within stakeholder agencies.
assist in communicating the needs of children across agencies.
avoid the escalation of children’s needs through early identification of need and effective intervention.
UNOCINI has three assessment areas which are divided into four domains:
The needs of the child or young person.
The capacity of their parents’ or carers’ to meet these needs.
Wider family and environmental factors that impact on parental capacity and children’s needs.
With regard to the completion of a holistic assessment of need – understanding the level of Disability Living Allowance paid, and also how this financial benefit is being used would assist HSC Trusts with ensuring a comprehensive assessment of the child and family’s needs. Therefore, a family’s finances may be considered during the assessment process (inclusive of requests regarding how certain financial benefits are being used), as it is important that Trusts understand all factors that may have an impact on a child’s circumstances – inclusive of if there may also be potential financial pressures to consider / financial implications that could potentially impact parental capacity to meet a child’s holistic need.