Public, voluntary and private sector organisations are to get more money to help disabled children to take better quality short breaks so they can experience new things while their parents get some time off from caring. Details of a new 45 million pound fund will be unveiled today by the Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families, Ed Balls.

The money will build on the existing long term strategy ‘Aiming High for Disabled Children: Better Support for Families.’ That has made 340 million pounds available over the next three years with the ambition of transforming services for families with disabled children. The new money will go to a range of service providers so they can improve their equipment, transport and facilities for short-breaks and to enable more inclusive breaks to be organised for severely disabled children and young people to take part in activities with non-disabled young people.

Disabled young people themselves are also to benefit from an extra 8.4 million pounds of support through the Children’s Fund and low income families with disabled young people aged 16 and 17 will be able to access grants through the Family Fund. The latter is the country’s largest charitable provider of grants to disabled children. The DCSF already makes 23 million pounds a year available through the Fund and it is expected that today’s announcement will make possible more than 16,000 grants over the next three years.

On the plan for improved breaks for disabled children Ed Balls said it was part of the ethos enshrined in the Children’s Plan and the funding renewed the Government’s commitment to providing breaks for both disabled children and their families. “The public, private and voluntary sectors have a key role to play. They must come together to offer real choice for families with disabled children,” he added.

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This year’s settlement for Local Government will put more pressure on the system by which it is financed at a time when the Government has gone silent on the issue of reform of that system, according to the Local Government Information Unit. In its analysis of the settlement the think-tank says there are some positives but the next three years will be tough going for many councils.

The LGIU said the announcement contained no surprises but there were, it said, positive elements. For example, it said, as the first three-year settlement, covering formula grant and other grants and regeneration funds, it would mean councils could plan ahead more realistically. There had also been the long awaited reduction in ring-fenced grants.

Janet Sillett, a policy analyst at the LGIU, said the headline increases for councils seemed tight enough and she added, “The increases are reduced if support for PFI is taken out to 1 per cent, 0.1 per cent and a cut of 0.1 per cent. Some councils do worse than others. The London boroughs and shire districts have the lowest increases.”

Although the grant figures were known for the next three years there would be a number of reviews on formula and distribution and the system was clearly not yet seen as settled. “Given that central government still provides the vast majority of local government funding, despite years of review of the system, this is hardly surprising,” Janet Sillett said and added, “So much depends on the details of the formula for individual councils.”

There were major challenges ahead for councils but also for the Government. She continued, “There have been significant devolutionary moves from the Government, but they have gone silent on the ongoing need for reform of the finance system itself. This tight settlement will add to pressures on that system.”

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This survey probed the attitudes of local government staff on how they view opportunities to be proactive, to innovate and to contribute to improvement. Respondents were divided into those working in councils with ‘beacon’ status and others. Staff in ‘beacon’ councils gave much higher response levels across all areas.

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