About us

Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) is the campaign to get rights and justice for every disabled child

EDCM is a consortium campaign run by four of the leading organisations working with disabled children and their families: Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Mencap and the Special Educational Consortium. Between them, the campaign partners represent over 770,000 disabled children and young people in the UK.

EDCM was established in September 2006 and continues to campaign to raise the political profile of disabled children and their families within central and local government.

Since its launch, EDCM has gained over 30,000 individual supporters and the backing of many MPs. Together, we have been putting pressure on the government to put disabled children at the heart of their policy on families.

Campaign Aims

EDCM wants Westminster and local government to:

• Give disabled children and their families new rights to the services and support they need to lead ordinary lives.
• Invest in new resources to make sure these rights can become a reality. This will be achieved through funding to sustain, embed and build on Aiming High for Disabled Children.
• Give disabled children and their families a new level of priority, and work with them to improve the services they receive.
  

Disabled children and their families

There are around 770,000 disabled children aged 0-16 in the UK. The population of disabled children is growing, particularly for children with complex health needs and those diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders. Families with disabled children are not a homogenous group. Any family can have a disabled child.

Disabled children and their families are one of society’s most vulnerable and marginalised groups. Of the UK’s 770,000 disabled children, only around 6% receive any form of regular support.[1] The vast majority of families therefore receive no specialist support from the state and are caring on their own for children who often have severe and complex needs.

Rates of family breakdown are significantly higher in families with disabled children – 25% of lone families have a disabled child - and disabled children are 9 times more likely to be excluded from school than other children.

Disabled children and their families are more likely to live in poverty, and are therefore more likely to be adversely affected by an economic downturn.

[1] Commission for Social Care Inspection (2005), Social Services Performance Assessment Framework Indicators, CSCI / ONS