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c/o Council for Disabled Children
National Children's Bureau
8 Wakley Street
London EC1V 7QE
tel +44 (0)20 7843 6448
fax +44 (0)20 7843 6313
[email protected]
Link between disability and child poverty confirmed
Media Release - For immediate release
Wednesday 23 May 2007
Contact: Pamela Shaw, 020 7843 6318, [email protected]
A report published today by Barnardo’s - 'It Doesn’t Happen Here' - confirms that families with disabled children are at a greater than average risk of persistent poverty.
The report recommends:
- An adequate minimum income that recognises the real extra costs of caring for a disabled child.
- Extra help with childcare costs for families with disabled children by increasing the childcare element of the working tax credit.
- Early intervention through better family support services including short breaks.
Steve Broach, EDCM Campaign Manager, comments: ‘This report from Barnardo’s tallies with the EDCM agenda on disabled children and child poverty. We agree that the challenge is to help families into work but to also address the additional costs of disability. Like Barnardo’s, we think there needs to be specific action targeted at disabled children if government is to meet its 2010 and 2020 child poverty targets.’
Addressing the issue of better family support services, the government’s report of the disabled children’s review - 'Aiming High for Disabled Children: Better Support for Families' - delivers significant new funding to improve short break services.
Barnardos and EDCM are both members of the Campaign to End Child Poverty.
- ENDS -
Notes to Editors:
For media enquiries, and to arrange case studies and interviews with campaign spokespeople, please contact the EDCM campaign team on 020 7843 6318 or at [email protected]
For out of hours enquiries, please contact Steve Broach, EDCM Campaign Manager, on 07879 638 102
Every Disabled Child Matters is a campaign by four organisations working with disabled children and their families: Contact a Family, Council for Disabled Children, Mencap and the Special Educational Consortium. It is a three-year campaign funded by a grant from the True Colours Trust, a Sainsbury’s family trust.
Contact a Family is the leading organisation supporting parents and carers with disabled children in the UK. The Council for Disabled Children is the voice of the disabled children’s sector. It brings together the widest range of individuals and organisations with an interest in disabled children. Mencap is the UK's leading learning disability charity working with people with a learning disability and their families and carers. The Special Education Consortium is a network of the Council for Disabled Children, focussing special educational needs and disability issues in education policy and practice.
Every Disabled Child Matters produced a campaign briefing to highlight how a lack of accessible childcare is a barrier to families with a disabled child being able to lift themselves out of poverty. The campaign briefing makes specific recommendations to central and local government to deliver appropriate childcare and remove the barriers to employment experienced by parents of disabled children. Copies of the report can be downloaded at: www.edcm.org.uk/betweenarock
3.8 million children live in poverty in the UK today, that’s one in three children. The Campaign to End Child Poverty includes children's and other charities, social justice groups, faith-groups, trade unions, businesses and many others concerned about the unacceptably high levels of child poverty in the UK who are working together for change.
Copies of the Barnardo’s report, It Doesn’t Happen Here, are available from www.barnardos.org.uk/poverty.htm
