Political parties urged to protect funding for disabled
children
9 February 2010
Report shows funding for short breaks must be sustained or social
and economic gains will be lost
The
Social and Economic Value of Short Breaks, published
today by nef consulting, shows that substantial
cost savings can be made to the State through sustained funding for
short breaks (formerly known as respite) for disabled children and
their families.
The social value of short breaks is well
established. As one parent of a disabled child put it: 'short
breaks for my daughter provide some social life with her peers
outside of school and give me time to spend with other children and
recharge my mind and body. I need to be a mum, not just a
carer.'
In addition to this, today’s report quantifies the
economic case. It demonstrates that the delivery of short
breaks to all families who need them could result in an annual
saving of approximately £174 million to the state. This
would be brought about by the reduction in carer stress and
prevention of unnecessary long term residential placements due to
avoidable family breakdown.
Services for disabled children are currently funded through
Aiming High for Disabled
Children (AHDC) until 2011. The three main
political parties have said that they are committed to continuing
the work of the AHDC programme, but have not yet confirmed whether
funding for disabled children will be protected in the face of
public sector cuts.
Action for Children and
the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign, who jointly commissioned
the report, are today calling on political parties to make it clear
to local areas, and to disabled children and their families, that
they would protect funding for this crucial area of
work.
Dame Clare Tickell, Chief Executive,
Action for Children said: ‘We have known for a long time
that investment in short break services for disabled children makes
good economic sense. The financial savings demonstrated by today’s
report show that recession driven cuts to this area of funding
would be a false economy. However, these savings will only be
possible if funding for short breaks is protected at its current
level.’
Christine Lenehan, Director, Council
for Disabled Children and EDCM Board member added: ‘We are
very encouraged to see that AHDC is already improving services.
However, the transformation process is at a vulnerable point. The
expectations of disabled children and their families have been
dramatically raised - to let them down now would be disastrous. In
the run up to the election, we are calling upon all political
parties to make it clear that they would protect funding for the
front line services that AHDC has created.’
Download the report
Download 'The Social and Economic Value of
Short Breaks' full
report and policy
briefing from the Action for Children website.
