Published: 23 May 2007
Aiming High for Disabled
A package of policies to support disabled children and their families has been announced by Economic Secretary Ed Balls and Education Minister Lord Adonis, as they published the report Aiming High for Disabled Children: Better Support for Families. Part of the wider Policy Review of Children and Young People.
Recognising the critical role that public services can play in promoting the chances of disabled children, the Review commits the Government to boosting the provision of vital services and giving parents of disabled children a real choice in how they are delivered, underpinned by over £340 million of investment.
The government claims that the Review ‘sets out clear action across health, social services and education, to provide a better co-ordinated approach to service provision and enhance equality & opportunity for disabled children and their families’.
It focuses on three priority areas:
· access & empowerment
· response services & timely support, and
· improving quality & capacity of services
There are around 570,000 disabled children in England and around 100,000 disabled children are severely disabled.
The Review will announce:
· £280m over the next three years to fund short breaks for disabled children, enabling them to experience new things and for their parents to have a break. This works out as an extra 40,000 fortnightly short breaks for severely disabled children and their families.
· £35m to fund a pilot project to provide accessible childcare, promote training, and tackle other barriers to accessing childcare. Accessible childcare is vital to help parents and to improve disabled children's social, behavioural and educational development.
· £19m for a Transition Support Programme to promote intensive, wrap around support and consolidate person-centred planning at the critical transition to adulthood, a key point in the lives of disabled young people
· £5m to allow parents of disabled children to get involved in shaping services at a local level, including through parents forums to ensure that disabled children and their families are supported and empowered
· Reform in the co-ordination & provision of community equipment and wheelchairs to maximise disabled children's mobility, allowing them to access schools, leisure facilities and other services more easily (e.g. making access to equipment faster and providing more choice).
· To make disabled children a priority at a local and national level, the Government will develop a national indicator as part of the PSA set, underpinned by a "core offer" to help disabled young people and their parents understand what support they can get and how to access it across local services
· To prevent interventions coming too late at important stages of a disabled child's life or development, the Government will provide specific resource for evaluation & benchmarking good practice on early intervention for disabled children and their families as part of the work of the new Centre for Excellence for Children and Family Services
Ed Balls said:
"Today we announce a set of actions that will make a real difference to all disabled children and their families, with £340m over the next three years to improve vital services that will enhance their lives, underpinned by reform to make disabled children a national priority.
This Government's long-term goal is to transform the chances of disabled children and their families.
This can't be done overnight - there is no magic wand to wave. But today's report makes a very significant step forward to meeting that goal, and will make a real difference over the coming years."
Lord Adonis, said:
"The recommendations in this Review are going to transform the way that services are delivered to disabled children and their families.
Increased numbers of short breaks for disabled children will give them the opportunity to have the sort of experience that other children have, and will make an enormous difference to thousands of families.
I thank all the young people, their families and the stakeholders whose hard work and participation has helped bring about this review."
The £340 million of investment in services for disabled children forms part of the 2.5% a year rise in education spending in England announced in the 2006 Budget. (So this is a re-announcement of spending rather than more additional money).
The policy is a worthy one and one many would claim is long overdue, but one notes that the funding only covers 3 years and that there is no mention of what will happen if it proves inadequate.
One fears that local councils will be expected to not only pick up any shortfall in funding during those 3 years, but also to have to shoulder the burden of funding everything in the long-term without an adequate increase in their central funding.
Further information
Aiming High for Disabled Children: Better Support for Families
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