Case Study - Disabled Children Matter Wales
Disabled Children Matter Wales is an umbrella campaign led by four leading
organisations working with disabled children and their families – Learning
Disability Wales; Children In Wales; Mencap Cymru; and Contact a Family
Wales. The DCMW campaign is all about disabled children and young people
coming together, with their families and friends to make sure that the
Welsh Assembly Government acts on its promises and makes disabled children
and young people a priority. It was founded in Wales in the summer of 2007
and one of its first campaigns was to highlight that more needed to be
done to support disabled children and their families.
This was particularly clear after the report on the Children and Young People's National Service Framework (NSF) report, which showed that services for disabled children were nowhere near the standard desired. The NSF 06/07 Self Assessment Audit Tool Report shows that Disabled Children and Young People are consistently the weakest area of service delivery across Wales.
In light of this report and other failures of policy delivery, the DCMW campaign has seven key objectives:
- The right information at the right time
- A real choice of quality education
- The health services they need to lead an ordinary life
- Full access to play and leisure activities
- A real say in planning the services they receive
- Full access to community facilities
- Enough money to live on
Positif Politics began working with DCMW in Autumn 2007 in order to develop a strategy where these seven goals might be prioritised for government response. A key aspect of the campaign was ensuring that services for disabled children were properly funded. In England, the UK Government strategy "Aiming High for Disabled Children: Better Support for Families" resulted in an additional £21m being made available to the National Assembly. However, the initial spending plans of the Welsh Assembly Government indicated that this money would not be spent on disabled children. Positif Politics and the Pollen Shop worked with DCMW to change the spending priorities of the government. Our joint work included a mass lobby of Assembly Members and Ministers; maximising the value of the message at strategic points during the Assembly's budget round; and, most particularly, working to ensure that a Statement of Opinion tabled in the Assembly obtained the signatures of every single eligible Member in the Assembly. Working together we helped ensure that Lynne Neagle AM's Statement of Opinion, which calling for significant resources to be allocated to disabled children in the Assembly budget, became one of the first Statements of Opinion ever to achieve full support from ALL backbench Assembly Members. Coverage of the campaign was strong in both the written and broadcast media.
As a consequence of the Campaign, the Welsh Assembly Government came together with the National Assembly and agreed to prioritise services for disabled children in coming years. Jane Hutt. the Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills issued a Written Statement on 6th December 2007in response to the DCMW campaign and pledged:
- An extra £1million for inclusive play in 08-09;
- £1 million for early years materials;
- £225,000 for 2 mobile changing places for use at large events and adaptation of 5 major venues across Wales;
- A clear Ministerial lead for services for disabled children in Wales and their families, including a review of Government structures in this aspect;
- A commitment to a clear strategy over the life of this Assembly Government to improve the delivery and co-ordination of services for disabled children and their families;
- An announcement of substantial additional funds for services for disabled children;
- A guarantee of membership for Disabled Children Matters Wales campaign on a planning and implementation Task Group which began working immediately to prioritise areas for action and additional spending.