Care and support

The Hertfordshire Additional Needs Database (HAND) - have you joined yet?

The Hertfordshire Additional Needs Database (HAND) records children and young people in Hertfordshire who have a disability or additional need.

Which children do we need to know about?

The Hertfordshire Additional Needs Database has been developed to record the additional needs of children and young people aged 0-19, inclusively. We need to know about children and young people who have:

• long term and substantial conditions which have a marked impact on daily life
• who require significantly more care and supervision.

Joining HAND allows parents to inform Children, Schools and Families about the effect of the additional needs of their child/young person, and the services they receive. A question has been added to help assess housing needs. This information is then used to help plan services for the future. It provides a better understanding of what families most need, and what support and services are required. The information about each child is confidential. The information which is shared with Health, with Adult Care Services, or with other local partners is statistical, and will not identify individual children.

How to join

You can complete a HAND membership form on-line or contact the Customer Services Centre on 01438 737500, or 01923 471500 for a paper HAND membership form, which should be filled out for each child/young person. You can do this by filling out a paper form, and returning it to the address on the form, or you can complete the form on line. Go to the HAND link on this page for more details.

The benefits of joining HAND

• A membership card is issued for each child to verify their name is on the HAND. Parents told us that this is of value, and of great help in getting assistance and understanding for their child in many different situations. Some leisure providers and organisations have agreed to accept the HAND membership card and offer concessions.
• Each family will receive a copy of HAND News 3 times a year containing information on specialist play schemes, mainstream play schemes, arts activities, money advice, HAND updates, accessible leisure activities, information on new parent carer forums running across the county and other timely and relevant information.
• The database has already been used as a mailing list to inform and consult children and young people and parents/carers about new services, changes in services, play-schemes, holiday schemes, provide transition information.
• HAND provides a picture of the needs of this young population, so that these needs can be effectively planned for.
• HAND is already providing information to other agencies who plan services, eg. future housing needs of adults, and child health services.

Currently there are over 1400 children and young people registered. From the database we know how many of these children have particular needs and where they live in Hertfordshire. The information indicates that many children have combinations of additional needs.

Joining HAND is a choice for parents who have a child with additional needs and will not affect eligibility for services which follow an assessment. However, if there is a complete picture of the additional needs of children and young people, this will improve service delivery and the planning of new services for the future.