The £35m, three-year pilot projects, which will begin in September, include new centres of excellence for the disabled in children's centres next to special schools; specialist training for childminders and nursery workers on how to care for and educate disabled children; a network of specialist childminders to make it easier for parents to find flexible childcare; and 'peer to peer' support networks for parents to share ideas on care.
The projects will be tested in ten areas - Northumberland, Sefton, Bradford, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Cornwall, Solihull, Luton, Barking & Dagenham and Camden in London. They are part of Aiming High for Disabled Children (News, 24 May 2007), a joint initiative by the DCSF and the Department of Health.
The projects aim to address childcare costs that are not taken into account by the Disability Living Allowance and to increase the number of childcare places and extended services provision available for disabled children.
Ms Hughes said, 'We know from national and international research that good, high quality childcare can have a positive impact on a child's education and, ultimately, future life chances. It is crucial that disabled children get these opportunities too.'
The new funding follows research published last summer (News, 23 August) by the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign, which found that 93 per cent of families with disabled children said that they faced financial difficulty, and the cost of raising a disabled child can be up to three times that of bringing up a non-disabled child.
