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EMAIL RECEIVED FROM THE DEPT OF EDUCATION

Date added: Friday 13th August 2010

Dear Mr Godfrey

Thank you for your email dated 13 July 2010, addressed to Sarah Teather MP, about the respite unit at Honeylands Children's Centre in Exeter. I hope you will appreciate the Minister receives a vast amount of correspondence and is unable to reply to each one personally. It is for this reason I have been asked to reply.

May I begin by offering my condolences on the loss of your two grandsons, Jack and Daniel.

I was sorry to read of the proposed changes at Honeylands Children's Centre and recognise that proposals to change local provision can be upsetting and often unsettling for those involved. Your comments have been noted regarding the potential effect of the proposed changes, particularly in relation to the children who currently receive respite care at the Honeylands Children's Centre.

The new Coalition Government is firmly committed to supporting disabled children, young people and their families, and has made the needs of the most vulnerable disabled children a real priority. It is committed to improving choice and experience of families with disabled children, and will look to use direct payments to carers and better community-based provision to improve access to short break and respite care.

This Department has already provided specific funding to all local authorities in England for 2010-11 to enable them to continue to support short breaks and respite care for families with disabled children. It is, however, for each individual local authority to determine precisely how they wish to use that funding in light of their own local circumstances and priorities.

It must also be a matter for individual local authorities, in collaboration with their NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) partners, to determine how best to configure local services, including any short break or respite provision or facility, in light of their assessment of local needs and the most effective use of the resources available. These are matters that need to be resolved locally and not something which central Government would normally expect to be involved with, or to intervene in.

In reaching any decision, your local authority and PCT will, I am sure, want to hear from, and listen to, local parents, disabled children and young people who are likely to be directly affected by any such changes. Devon Local Authority and PCT will need to give careful and measured consideration as to how the proposed changes in services will impact not only in terms of their overall short break or respite care services, but also in terms of the individual care packages offered to their disabled children and their families It is important, whatever local decision is finally reached, that the local authority and PCT continue to assess the individual needs of their disabled children and their families, and that appropriate care packages continue to be put in place.

I suggest that you approach your local authority and the PCT to let them know of your concerns and opposition to what is being proposed. You can contact Devon County Council on the following number: 0845 155 1015, or email: customer@devon.gov.uk. Contact information for Devon PCT is available at the following weblink: www.devonpct.nhs.uk/default.asp?pg=1.

You might also want to approach the organisation, Contact a Family, which provides support, advice and information for families with disabled children, and who will be able to advise and help you engage with the local-decision making processes, or possibly help put you in contact with other parents and parent groups in your local area. Contact a Family can be contacted via a free telephone helpline: 0808 808 3555 or via its email helpline at: helpline@cafamily.org.uk.

Unfortunately, our Minister is unable to accept your kind invitation to meet a party from Honeylands, however, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you, your family and your party from Honeylands well for the future.

Yours sincerely
Anita Dixon
Public Communications Unit
www.education.gov.uk


Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number: 2010/0054752. To contact the Department for

Education, please visit: www.education.gov.uk/contactus