For our disabled daughter, a way out of the labyrinth

March 10, 2011 autism, disability, family

Gove promises some relief for the parents of severely disabled children. But others may have reason to worry

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 March 2011 20.00 GMT

Michael Gove at the Scottish Conservatives’ Conference in Perth last year. His green paper on disability services reform was launched a few months later.

Nothing prepares you for the birth of a child with profound and multiple disabilities. There is the shock, the depression, the grieving for the child you thought you had given birth to alongside the crushing realisation that all the old certainties in your life are no more.

Gradually you adjust, driven forward by love for your offspring. Then comes the awful discovery that the most traumatic part of your new life is not caring for your child but the battle to find a way through the maze of services supposedly set up to help them. Ask any parent of a disabled child – this is what makes daily life such a despairing trial.

Encourage people, autistic people as well as others, to bring a carer

March 10, 2011 autism, family

The government will ensure that the Personal Independence Payment, being introduced to replace Disability Living Allowance, will protect the most vulnerable, peers have been told.

During question time on 10 March 2011, Work and Pensions Minister Lord Freud said one of the things the government wanted to get “absolutely right” when designing the new scheme was “how we look after the most vulnerable”.

His comments came during an exchange with Conservative peer Baroness Browning, who asked the minister what impact the changes would have on people with autism.