REDBRIDGE: Funding cuts on the cards for disabled children's services (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

REDBRIDGE: Funding cuts on the cards for disabled children's services

11:54am Wednesday 10th March 2010 in

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MEMBERS of a support group for parents of disabled children fear cuts could be made to services at a crunch health service budget meeting.

NHS Redbridge will meet tomorrow to discuss this year’s budget and members of Interface say funds for disabled children’s services will either remain the same or suffer cutbacks.

Volunteers at the group, set up as part of the Government’s Aiming Higher for Disabled Children scheme, say services are already inadequate and desperately need improvement, meaning reduced funds would be a severe blow.

Mary Busk, a part-time civil servant of Grove Hill, South Woodford, cares for her severely autistic son Alex, nine, and is a volunteer at Interface.

She said: “The history is that parents of disabled children have for the last four or five years been trying to bring to the attention of Redbridge Children’s Trust and the primary care trust that the services available are not meeting the needs of our children.

“Despite the fact we’ve been going on about this for years, we’ve seen no evidence that anything’s been done.”

Mrs Busk’s son suffers from mobility problems, speech and language problems, sensory integration problems and learning difficulties.

He requires specialist care that Mrs Busk says simply is not available through NHS Redbridge.

She added that an audit of services for disabled children backed up her claims and that real investment was needed to keep children’s progress from suffering.

Both she and Claire Downey, 42, of Chaucer Road, Wanstead, whose eight-year-old son is also autistic, say they have been forced to pay for private care to make sure their children’s needs are met.

Mrs Downey, a full-time mum and carer, said: “We’re on a single income so it’s an even bigger burden.

“It’s too hard to fulfil caring duties and hold down a full-time job.”

She said services like physiotherapy and speech and language therapy would suffer under reduced funds and parents are already leaving the borough for diagnoses and treatment.

Conor Burke, borough managing director for NHS Redbridge, said: “We have to be prudent and carefully consider how to deliver a balanced budget in times of austerity along with other public services.

“We are considering every area of work but remain committed to delivering the best possible service to children and, in particular, people with disabilities.”

NHS Redbridge also highlighted plans to move services offered at Kenwood Gardens and Loxford to King George Hospital, but members of Interface say the improvements are “only an aspiration”.