Every Disabled Child Matters
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Disabled children win out in Private Member's Bill Ballot

Media Release - For immediate release

Contact: Georgie Webb, 020 7696 5524, [email protected]

Gary Streeter MP takes up Disabled Children's Short Breaks Bill to give families with disabled children new rights to a break from caring

700,000 families with disabled children can hope for new rights to a break from caring this morning, as the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign (www.edcm.org.uk) announces that Gary Streeter MP has pledged his support for the campaign's Disabled Children's Short Breaks Bill. Gary Streeter MP (Cons, Devon SW) was drawn fourth in yesterday’s parliamentary ballot for Private Member’s Bills, meaning that the Disabled Children's Short Breaks Bill is guaranteed parliamentary time and will be debated in Parliament in January. Cross-party support is expected for the Bill, which will be co-sponsored by Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs.

Gary Streeter MP pledged his support for the Bill after attending the Every Disabled Child Matters parliamentary launch (Tuesday 21 Nov). He comments:
‘All MPs receive visits from parents and carers of disabled children in our surgeries seeking help to get a short break from their 24/7 caring for their loved one. Yet all too often there is no respite care available. I believe we can and must do better than that and this Bill will try and fill the gap. I strongly support the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign.’

Steve Broach, Campaign Manager for Every Disabled Child Matters, comments:
‘We are thrilled that Gary Streeter has chosen to back our Bill, rather than support one of the hundreds of other Bills on offer. Disabled children and their families deserve a better deal than they are getting at the moment - and their number one priority is more and better short breaks. If the Bill becomes law, it would transform the lives of some of the most disadvantaged children and families in our society.’

The Disabled Children’s Short Breaks Bill follows on from an earlier Bill introduced by Ed Balls MP, now Economic Secretary at HM Treasury and a key supporter of the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign. The new Bill will amend the Children’s Act 1989, the Carers Act 1995 and the Childcare Act 2006 to make certain that the rights of disabled children to short break care are set out in law.

The need for the Bill was highlighted by a recent Breaking Point survey by Mencap*, which found that 8 out of 10 carers of disabled children have felt close to, or reached, breaking point because of a lack of support. The same survey found that a third of families had experienced a reduction in the level of short break care they receive during the past year. Through an ongoing government review of services for disabled children, the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign is lobbying for a minimum spend of £150 million per year for the next three years, as a starting point to help transform short break services and provide value-for-money preventative support, rather than existing crisis management services.

-Ends-
For media enquiries and copies of the Bill and accompanying briefing, please contact Georgie Webb in the Mencap Press Office on 020 7696 5524

NB This Bill has now been renamed the Disabled Children (Family Support Bill)

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.

The Disabled Children’s Short Breaks Bill covers England and Wales. It:

imposes specific duties on local authorities and health agencies to provide short breaks for families who provide a substantial level of care on a regular basis.
amends the recent Childcare Act to require local authorities to secure a sufficient supply of short breaks in their area.
requires the breaks offered to families to be of positive benefit for the child and their carers, to safeguard against low quality breaks

* The Breaking Point - families still need a break survey was carried out between May and July 2006. 353 families from six areas of England and in Northern Ireland took part. The 2006 survey followed up on themes and issues identified in a 2003 survey. The 2006 survey focused on the impact of lack of services and the quality of short break services. The report is available in its entirety at www.mencap.org.uk/breakingpoint

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