‘Half of disabled kids in unsuitable homes’

By Sunil Peck

More than 50 per cent of disabled children are living in unsuitable accommodation, campaigners have claimed.

A report launched by Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) today says disabled children are worse off than all other groups of disabled people.

Addressing delegates at a conference to launch the report, Srabani Sen, EDCM campaign board member and chief executive of Contact a Family, said the government had made significant progress towards transforming the lives of disabled children and their families with its Aiming High For Disabled Children strategy.

But she said that, although the government was addressing the need to improve health and social care services for disabled children, it was neglecting their housing needs.

She said this was making more disabled children dependent on their parents and having a detrimental effect on their ability to lead independent lives in the future.

"It is very difficult if you are a child with a disability to learn independent living skills if you cannot access your own kitchen or use the bathroom without the aid of your mum or dad."

Bryony Beresford, a senior research fellow at the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York, told delegates that disabled children faced issues concerning accessibility, safety and space.

She said: "Top of the list is the issue of a lack of space. But it is not just about the numbers of rooms, it is also about the size of rooms and a lack of storage space, space to be together as a family or play."

EDCM’s recommendations include calling on the government to ensure that all English regions consider the housing needs of families with disabled children in their housing strategies; building standards to be amended to reflect the need for disabled children to have their own bedrooms; and guidance to be issued to remind children's services departments of their existing legal duty to fund adaptations to homes.
6 June, 2008