DRC: New money will help tackle deep exclusion for families of disabled children

Monday, 21, May 2007 12:00

Responding to the Treasury's Disabled Children's Review announcement of a funding package of £340 million to provide short respite breaks for disabled children, accessible childcare and a support programme to help young disabled adults, Agnes Fletcher, Director of Policy and Communications at the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), said:

"This review clearly signals that disabled children and their families are a priority for support. Many of these families are at breaking point because they lack support; many cannot work because they plug the gaps in social care provision, or cannot find, or afford, proper childcare. The result is family poverty with very little chance of escape. As disabled children grow up, many are forced to give up any aspiration of going to college because of the lack of support, so propelling another generation into low paid, low skilled work. This greatly welcomed investment will help tackle the cycle of low expectations and scare opportunities for a generation of disabled children and their families and help reduce the gap of widening inequalities."

Economic Secretary Ed Balls and Education Minister Lord Adonis will announce a £340 million funding package, to be spent in the next Comprehensive Spending Review (2008-09 to 2010-11) on Monday 21st May. The funding includes:

* £290 million over the next three years to provide short breaks for severely disabled children and their families.

* £35m pilot project to provide accessible childcare, training and to tackle barriers to accessible childcare.

* £19m for a Transition Support Programme to promote wrap around support and consolidate person-centred planning for young disabled people moving into adulthood.

Disability facts

Over half of all families with disabled children live in or at the margins of poverty. Of all children living in poverty, one in three has a disabled parent.

Disabled people are twice as likely as other citizens to have no recognised qualifications. Over a third of those without any formal qualifications are disabled.

Forty-nine per cent of disabled people of working age do not work, and disabled people are at considerable risk of living in poverty, with severe consequences for their families and children.