‘Aiming High For Disabled Children’
In May 2007, the UK Government published a report entitled ‘Aiming High for Disabled Children’ which was the culmination of their extensive Disability Review. The AHDC programme is designed to transform the life chances of disabled children and young people by transforming services and is closely linked to Every Child Matters.
In 2008/09 the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) committed £430m to a 3 year programme to transform services for disabled children and their families. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) were awarded a further £340m earlier this year. The Department of Health money is not ring fenced, although £30m is set aside for palliative and end-of-life care.
Bromley, like each other local authority and PCT has been allocated funding to implement its own AHDC programme. The emphasis is on the development of short breaks for children and families, specialist childcare, transition and parent/carer, children and young people’s participation.
Accompanying this financial commitment is a national statement of expectations or ‘Core Offer’. This core offer tells us what we should expect from local services:
- Clear, relevant and timely information about the services and types of support that are available to us
- A single, holistic and co-ordinated multi-agency assessment
- The opportunity to get involved in the planning and delivery of local services
- Transparency
In addition small grants were made available for parent/carers to increase participation locally which means we were able to create Bromley Parent Voice.
We are delighted that the Department for Education have confirmed an ongoing commitment to providing funding for local Parent Carer Forums in the SEN & Disability Green Paper.
The DfE has committed to funding Parent Forums until 2014/15 so that local forums can continue to build on the good practice that has been developed. This includes a £10,000 grant for use by Bromley Parent Voice to improve parent participation in Bromley during 2011/12.