David Cameron: Families need more help with disability

Published on Saturday 18 July 2009 19:47

You spend hours on the phone speaking to all the various agencies concerned – because they don't seem to speak to each other

PARLIAMENT has not had a great press of late. But one of the things I think we can still be proud of is the breadth of experience and expertise among its members. In most debates there will be someone with a unique insight to offer, be that from their own life and career or from their constituency work. That insight might come from the front or back benches, from Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat MPs – regardless, the whole House really does stop and take note.

One of the areas in which I have personal experience is caring for children with disabilities. Of course the experience of my family is a very personal thing, but I feel that as a politician I have a duty to share and act upon the lessons that I learned as a father.

Support for children with disabilities has traditionally been seen as a somewhat peripheral issue, in Scotland as elsewhere in the UK. But if your family is one of those affected, it quickly assumes an almost all-consuming importance. You might need support with care, accessing special needs education, adapting your house or car, or coping financially.

At the moment, that support is not easy to get. You go to see expert after expert who quizzes you with the same questions about your child; assessment forms come at you like an avalanche; and you spend hours on the phone speaking to all the various agencies concerned – because they don't seem to speak to each other.

So one of the most important lessons I learned is that families with disabled children need a radically-simplified system of state support that can be accessed quickly and easily. That's why this week I said that my party is taking notes from the system they use in Austria. There a crack team of medical experts – doctor, nurse, physio – act as a one-stop-shop to assess families and get them the help they need.

That would have been such a help to my family and families like us, so we're looking closely at the evidence and considering how we could do something similar.

And if a single assessment would be workable in England and Wales, then I don't see why parents in Scotland should have to continue dealing with question after question and form after form. This is exactly the type of issue on which the UK and Scottish Governments should be co-operating. I'm hopeful that the Scottish ministers will consider innovative ideas like these. After all, Scotland has already been making much more progress on disability issues now that Labour is out of government at Holyrood.

The Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act, which passed into law just last month, is going to greatly improve the lives of children with disabilities in Scotland. That's partly thanks to amendments secured by Conservative MSPs. The Act is designed to ensure that education, health and other services work together to make sure children with special needs receive support from every area they need.

Conservative MSPs were also right to stand up and voice their opposition when the last devolved administration introduced what is known as the "presumption towards mainstreaming" in schools. It's a fundamental Conservative belief that one size doesn't fit all. If children can benefit from mainstream schooling, that's great – but many need specialised support and care in a different environment. Unfortunately, that "presumption" has made it much more difficult for parents to get a place at a special school.

This caused anguish for so many parents, who rightly point out that they knew their children's needs better than the bureaucrats do. Time and again I meet people who tell me they're desperate for their children to have access to the special expertise and equipment that's concentrated in special schools. Ensuring that children have those things must be paramount.

I'm proud that Scottish Conservative MSPs are listening to parents of children with disabilities and fighting hard to get them a better deal. We must always be thankful for the great unsung service such carers do for our society. If this army of compassionate people just gave up, packed up and decided they couldn't cope anymore, the financial cost of looking after those children would be immense – and the emotional cost doesn't bear thinking about. We owe it to those families to ensure that every agency of government puts ideology aside and co-operates much more closely. I hope we'll see that here in Scotland before too long.