As a parent of a child who has suffered a head or brain injury, looking after the health and well-being of your child will be your number one priority. When dealing with medical treatments, rehabilitation and schooling you will face difficult decisions and emotional strain.
We see it as our role to guide you through the maze of possible options, advice and solutions. We aim to put your mind at ease with professional support and understanding by offering a range of services aimed at supporting you and your child.
Services for personal injury claims
If your child has suffered a serious injury then, depending upon how that injury was sustained, he or she may be entitled to seek compensation and it is important to seek early legal advice if you have concerns. We tailor our services specifically to the needs of your child - the law can help and by getting the right advice early on we can often make a major contribution to a child’s recovery by obtaining extra rehabilitation, support and input funded by compensation and interim payments. See our page on child brain injury claims for further details.
When assessing your child's needs, we will use specialists in paediatric care and treatment, and take into account the fact that it can take a long while for a child to adjust to the aftermath of a head injury in terms of development and education. We recognise that in some cases, early intervention with case management support, therapy and extra tuition could go a long way to help the long term outlook.
Special Education Needs
Education plays a vital role in any child’s life, and is often disrupted or delayed in some way after a serious head injury. We can refer to specialists for support in helping your child to secure appropriate support. This can be achieved by:
- Arranging for independent expert assessments.
- Liaising with the local authority to seek a Statement of Special Education Needs (or if not appropriate, other additional support in the classroom or at home).
- Considering legal action if the response of the local education authority is not sufficient for your child’s needs.
Community care and welfare benefits
If it is possible to establish that your child has a clear right to compensation at an early stage then it should be possible to seek interim payments to fund the cost of reasonable extra support for your child.
If however there is some reason why this is not possible (perhaps the claim is disputed, or there is simply no chance of pursing a successful claim) we also have specialists who can advise on the obligations of your local authority and health trust to assess your child’s needs and provide services to meet those needs. This might involve us negotiating with the relevant bodies or in some cases, seeking to legally challenge the decisions made if they do not meet those needs.
We can also help with looking at the entitlement of your child and his or her carers to welfare benefits payments.
Safeguarding Compensation
Through many years of helping the families of children to recover compensation for their child, we understand how important it is to protect a child’s long term financial interests. Where appropriate we can help set up a private trust, unless a Court orders that they should look after and invest the award for your child. We can also refer our clients for specialist independent investment advice.
Links
We support Trust-Ed, a charity devoted to providing educational services for young people with acquired brain injuries. One of our partners recently visited a new Trust-Ed school in Derbyshire to donate a Nintendo Wii - read more about the visit and the school
Contact us today
If you would like to receive free advice or information about how we can help with our services for children, contact us today by completing our contact form - it's simple and straightforward.