House of Commons- Disabled Children (Family Support) Bill (Private Member's Bill)

Brooke highlights how the bill would help disabled children and their families.

Annette Brooke, Lib Dem spokesperson on Children and the Family

Ms Brooke said: "The Bill comes at an interesting time when the Government are making great headway on discussing, debating and consulting on these issues. The process started earlier last year with the Government's review for services for children and we now have a policy review on children and young people. I was pleased to attend a meeting at which Lord Adonis specifically referred to the issue of providing services for families with children with disabilities. We can therefore see today's debate as one piece of the jigsaw?part of a very important overall picture, in which we as a nation have to make a greater commitment to families and children with disabilities. As one crucial piece of that jigsaw, I hope that our debate will keep taking us further forward in achieving our objectives

"I was very pleased to serve on the cross-party panel of MPs that was established to conduct hearings on services for disabled children. The hearings were, of course, supported by Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Mencap, the Special Educational Consortium and Children Now. I also congratulate those organisations on the production and launch of the Every Disabled Child Matters manifesto and campaign. The fact that it was necessary to produce a separate manifesto was very telling, because, in so many respects, the needs of disabled children are not sufficiently well covered by the Every Child Matters agenda.

"In the submissions to the panel, one feature relevant to most of the much-needed services was the inequality in provision throughout the country. That was certainly the case with respect to respite care. The lack of short breaks was the biggest single cause of unhappiness with service provision in the submissions. Respite care can, of course, take many forms. We have discussed some of them?whether it be day care, an overnight stay, a sitting service or whatever?but what is so important is that we are looking at the needs of the individual child and the needs of the family. We have already spoken about the great number of severely disabled children these days, but sometimes we have to focus beyond that and think about the very individual and distinct needs of every single child."

She continued: "Disabled children are generally thought to experience more difficulty in making and maintaining friendships for a number of reasons. Many disabled children often have difficulties in communicating and making themselves understood. They might lack the confidence and self-esteem to enable them to enter into new friendships. But, as well as that, many disabled children lack the opportunities to engage in the activities or situations in which many of us would expect to make friends and enjoy the company of others. In other words, something that we take for granted is not available to all disabled children.

She went on to say: "The Bill addresses the support needs of the most severely disabled children. Their families tell of their wishes for their children?to be happy, healthy and to have friends?but many of their children face real barriers to that most natural of childhood activities. Families talk of their wish for their children to have short breaks that will allow them to have experiences appropriate to their abilities. Obviously, short breaks not only support the family carers, but provide an opportunity for disabled children to have a break from being cared for by the same person all the time. They can experience new opportunities, such of leisure activities, some of which we have heard about today."

She concluded: "A survey by Mencap in 2006 showed that six out of 10 families did not get short-break services or, if they did, that the service did not meet their needs. Frequently, the reason cited was that the facilities and activities were not appropriate for the disabled child. Families talked of the need for the type service to match their child's needs and for activities appropriate to the child's age and ability.

"It so hard for parents when they realise that, in theory, they are entitled to short breaks, but because of the specific requirements, they might still be unable to gain access to them, or the parent might not have the confidence to let the child take the opportunity. That is a tragedy because we can achieve a lot more within the existing resources by pulling and working together, as well as doing a lot more if we are successful in our aims in the comprehensive spending review, and I hope that such bids will be made."