To coincide with World Cerebral Palsy Day, a cross-party group of MPs has released a new report calling on the Government and local authorities to do more to improve access to care for children with Cerebral Palsy and their families.
The publication by the All-Parliamentary Group on Cerebral Palsy examines how best practice can be spread in the vital Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) which spell out a child’s needs, as well as teaching and learning for children with cerebral palsy. This represents the next stage in the APPG’s work of examining the impact of Cerebral Palsy as a lifelong condition.
As a complex lifelong neurological condition, Cerebral Palsy can have a severe impact on an individual’s learning, future opportunities, and quality of life with each person’s needs and support requirements differing. Therefore, it is imperative that children with Cerebral Palsy receive the very best early intervention that is tailored to their needs, alongside high-quality ongoing therapeutic, medical, and educational provision from experienced and specialist professionals that is regularly reviewed as they develop.
Drawing on the testimony of experts, parents and those with lived experience of Cerebral Palsy, the APPG’s report finds that there are gaps in the existing process and service provision that are letting children with Cerebral Palsy and their families down.
To remedy this, and to end the postcode lottery of access to support, the APPG makes a series of recommendations that will revitalise the current support system and remove the barriers that children and young people with Cerebral Palsy and their families encounter.
These solutions are rooted in the vision of a pragmatic, joined-up approach where the state sector is adequately funded to facilitate access to provision spans across the state, voluntary and independent sectors.
Specific recommendations include:
- The Government appointing a national Cerebral Palsy Action Champion to join the dots between policies on addressing cerebral palsy as a lifelong condition across different departments.
- The creation of Neurodisability Care Index (NCI) to bring together information about the resources and support available for those with cerebral palsy.
- Every local authority must sign up to a Cerebral Palsy Covenant to ensure a common standard of access to services is maintained across England, ending the postcode lottery.
Commenting on the launch of the APPG’s report, Mary Kelly Foy MP & Paul Maynard MP, Co-Chairs of the APPG on Cerebral Palsy, said:
“We are delighted to commend to you the second report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cerebral Palsy, set up with the help of national campaigning charity, Action Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral palsy is a lifelong condition and the most common motor disability in childhood. The purpose of setting up the APPG was to ensure that those with the condition and their families receive the earliest possible interventions, the best pathways of care throughout their lives, and the brightest futures.
As Membhttps://connectpa.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EHCP-report-APPG-on-Cerebral-Palsy-2021.pdfers of Parliament with lived experience of cerebral palsy, we hope Government will engage with the APPG’s recommendations and work with us to provide quality provision and specialist care for children and young people with cerebral palsy.”
For more information, please contact: Sophie Brownlee from the APPG on Cerebral Palsy secretariat on cerebralpalsyappg@connectpa.co.uk or ring 07825 925994.
