The most family-friendly government ever? Not if you’re a family with a disabled child.
In 2010, David Cameron made a pledge that he would lead ‘the most family-friendly government we’ve ever had in this country,’ adding, ‘it’s about supporting every sort of family.’ Fast-forward two years, however, and the government’s new draft children and families bill shows how far away they are from achieving Cameron’s goal.
Touted as a flagship reform to reduce the constant battles families with disabled children face in getting support, the bill offers the biggest shake-up of the special educational needs system in 30 years. Unfortunately, the coalition’s plans don’t solve the basic problem: the lack of local services for disabled children.
I recently met a family from Manchester whose eight-year-old son has Down’s syndrome. The mum had been forced to give up work to drive him miles every day to playgroup, therapy, and medical appointments. As the household’s income had dropped with her loss of earnings, the dad had taken a higher-paid job in Scotland to make ends meet. Now the family is together only for the occasional weekend.
Sixty-two per cent of families with disabled children told Scope they can’t get the services their children need locally. As a result of making do without help, or travelling long distances to find it elsewhere, 80 per cent of families report anxiety and stress. Half say they struggle to hold down full-time jobs – with mums in particular having to give up work or go part-time.
The coalition’s plans mean only families with severely disabled children are likely to qualify for the new ‘Education Health and Care’ plans which will replace the statements of SEN, the currently sought-after guarantee of local authority provision. As a result, even more families will be left without proper support.
It doesn’t have to be like this. What families with disabled children want are the services that councils provide for other families: a playground, a swimming pool, a nursery place, a youth group, or a school where their child can reach its potential. But too many of these services aren’t adapted for the needs of disabled children, and so families are left to travel for hours or manage without. One mum was recently told her disabled child would have to stay strapped in its buggy all day at the local nursery because of health and safety concerns. Unsurprisingly, she decided to take her child instead to a specialist nursery over an hour’s drive away.
Being ‘family-friendly’ also means enabling families to do things together – like taking non-disabled and disabled siblings swimming at the same time in a local pool that is accessible. But at present services for disabled children tend to be commissioned separately from other community services. This means that local councils fail to create joined-up support, instead setting disabled children apart. They may also end up paying more for expensive specialist provision, unnecessarily.
The new bill could have required local authorities to work with families of disabled children to plan and commission inclusive universal services that meet their needs. But the government refused, and so families’ struggles will continue.
Labour must hold the coalition to account for its failure to deliver on Cameron’s pledge. The last Labour government had a strong track record of supporting the principle of inclusion. The shadow frontbench team should now spearhead a return to those principles, offering a solution for the 500,000 families who will fall through the gaps in the coalition’s reforms. In doing so, Labour can remind them and the rest of the country that it is the only party that can credibly claim to be family-friendly.
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Kathy Peach has nearly a decade’s experience of leading campaigns on social justice issues. She is currently head of campaigns and social change at the disability charity Scope and women’s officer for Hampstead & Kilburn CLP
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