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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]
Families tell MPs - end the short breaks lottery!
Media Release - For immediate release
Friday 23 February
Six families came to Parliament this morning with their disabled children to urge on the MPs who were about to debate the Second Reading of the Disabled Children (Family Support) Bill.
Clare McCarthy, mother of three children, including Matthew, 15, who has Williams Syndrome, said: ‘If this Bill gets through Parliament it would give our family and 100,000 other families like ours a right to short breaks from caring for the very first time. I don’t want a medal for having a disabled child, I just want a little bit of support to help keep the family together. Every family needs a break. With our one night off a month I just have a bath, which is such a treat’.
Clare was speaking at a press conference chaired by Dame Jo Williams DBE, Chief Executive of Mencap. Jo Williams commented: ‘We have been working together for many years to make disabled children matter. We are very grateful to Gary Streeter MP for choosing to champion disabled children with this Bill.’
Francine Bates OBE, Chief Executive of Contact a Family, spoke for the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign at the press conference. Francine said: ‘Short breaks are the single biggest priority that families identify time and again as their crucial need. Short breaks help keep families together and maintain healthy relationships. That is why we need this Bill.’
The Bill is being led by Gary Streeter MP (Cons, Devon SW), who told the press conference: ‘When parents ask for just one night a month of respite, you think they’re asking too little, not too much. But even that is not available. This Bill is about putting that right. The core of the Bill is a duty on local authorities and health agencies to provide short breaks. I think eventually we will need this duty. If we don’t get it with this Bill today, we know government is moving, and I will stay involved until we have won this battle.’
Following the press conference, the speakers joined five other families with disabled children for a ‘short breaks lottery’ to symbolise how families currently get short breaks. The lottery was drawn by Lisa Scott Lee, Mencap celebrity ambassador, who said: ‘My experience of having family members with a learning disability has given me a real insight into the lives of families who care for a loved one. It is a full time job and without short breaks a family can soon reach breaking point. It is vital that families get regular, planned breaks to allow them to do the ordinary day-to-day stuff together that the rest of us take for granted.’
Photographs from the press conference and ‘short breaks lottery’ will be available from Jaine Barry: 020 7696 5603, [email protected] from 2pm. A media release announcing the result of the Second Reading of the Disabled Children (Family Support) Bill will be available by 5pm.
-Ends-
For media enquiries and copies of the Disabled Children (Family Support) Bill and accompanying briefing, please contact Jaine Barry in the Mencap Press Office on: 0207 696 5603 or at [email protected]
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 Disabled Children (Family Support) Bill covers England and Wales. If it became law, it would:
- impose 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.
- amend the recent Childcare Act to require local authorities to secure a sufficient supply of short breaks in their area.
- require the breaks offered to families to be of benefit for the child and their carers, to safeguard against low quality breaks
* Mencap’s 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
