Introduced by Gary Streeter (Con, South West Devon) the Bill relates to both England and Wales and makes provisions to amend the law relating to disabled children and their carers to place duties on local authorities and the National Health Service in respect of disabled children and their carers.

The Bill aims to give disabled children and their families the legal right to short break respite care and if it becomes law, all local authorities and the NHS would have to provide appropriate short break care for 100,000 families who care for a disabled child.

During second reading in the Commons, Streeter described his Bill as an opportunity to “create a new right to support for one of the most marginalised and disadvantaged groups in our society: families with severely disabled children.” By imposing a tightly defined specific duty to provide short breaks to children with a certain level of need, Streeter argued, the Bill would put in place a system to improve the allocation of short breaks to disabled children, based on need.  The Bill will also amend the Childcare Act 2006 to require local authorities to ensure that there is a sufficient supply of short-break services in their area to meet the needs of their population of disabled children. 

Streeter estimated the cost of short-breaks would fall between £150 and £190 million a year; he urged the government to include this in its comprehensive spending review. 

Annette Brooke (Lib Dem, Mid-Dorset and North Poole) expressed support for the Bill; she spoke on behalf of families whom she believed wished their children to “have short breaks that will allow them to have experiences appropriate to their abilities.” She cited a survey by Mencap in 2006 that showed that six out of 10 families did not get short-break services or, if they did, that the service did not meet their needs. 

Junior education minister Parmjit Dhanda responded on behalf of the government; he announced the disabled children review will report “in parallel” with the comprehensive spending review. Dhanda argued the government has already increased spending on children’s social services, “a 32 per cent. increase in real terms since 1997 and a total spend of £4.2 billion in 2005-06.” He concluded by stating the government will work with the Council for Disabled Children and invest £60,000 to provide national guidance on commissioning short break care services.