Nursery World - Childcare access failing minorities

The plight of families with disabled children and ethnic minorities trying to find suitable childcare was highlighted at the Daycare Trust's annual conference in London last week. During the conference, Dr Philippa Russell, director of the Council for Disabled Children and a commissioner with the Disability Rights Commission, called for the early years sector to take a more positive approach to disability issues.

During the conference, Dr Philippa Russell, director of the Council for Disabled Children and a commissioner with the Disability Rights Commission, called for the early years sector to take a more positive approach to disability issues.

She said, 'We need to see parents with disabled children as part of the wider community. There need to be more disabled staff in childcare and positive images of disabled children in childcare settings. Disabled children are part of our community. They are people like everybody else.'

Dr Russell pointed out that it cost three times more to raise a child with a disability than a non-disabled child. More than eight in ten (84 per cent) of parents with disabled children were not working and of those who were, only 3 per cent worked full-time and 13 per cent part-time.

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