s social care services. These are likely to be provided in conjunction with other services, particularly health and education. The use of the term disability in this category embraces any illness that causes the disability. Although the majority of the children included in this category will be permanently disabled, this does not necessarily have to be the case. A child who requires children’s social care services during the course of recovery from a disabling illness or whose prognosis is uncertain should be included here. Most children whose needs fall within this category will have a medically diagnosed condition, such as cerebral palsy, autism, or Down’s syndrome. There are some conditions where it is uncertain or controversial to regard them as intrinsic to the child. This used to be the case with autism, but scientists now acknowledge that there is a significant genetic component to this condition. Currently, the cause of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) is not fully understood. For the purposes of this collection, if the main reason why children’s social are services are involved is because the child is thought to have this disorder, then it should be included here. Children who have been diagnosed as suffering from a psychiatric illness should be included. If there is no medical diagnosis, or if the diagnosis is clearly framed in terms of family functioning, then family dysfunction would be a more appropriate category. Children with emotional and behavioural difficulties will present particular difficulties of classification. If there is a medically diagnosed condition attributed then the child should be included. Otherwise, family dysfunction should be used. A2.3 Possible sub-categories to help define main category • children with physical disabili