Contact is among 50 charities writing to the Prime Minister urging him to fix disabled children’s social care
2 mins read
Friday 11 September 2026
Contact and more than 50 charities in the Disabled Children’s Partnership, have written to the Prime Minister outlining the catastrophic failures in the disabled children’s social care system and asking him to fix it.
The letter is featured in tonight’s Channel 4 News with Health & Social Care Editor Victoria MacDonald speaking to Contact changemaker Emma and her son Alf in Derbyshire.
Watch the Channel 4 News report
The Prime Minister Andy Burnham has seen first-hand the impact of the broken adult social care system and in his first week in office pledged to reform it. But he has not addressed the shortcomings in disabled children’s social care.
A ready-made solution
There is a blueprint for how to fix social care for disabled children – the Law Commission has done extensive work on their proposals to create a simpler, fairer system. Contact and 50 other charities are urging the government to adopt the proposals in full.
Anna Bird, Chief Executive of Contact and Chair of DCP, said: “There are hundreds of thousands of disabled children who need help in the home. But their families must reach crisis point before help from social care is even considered. Others are too afraid to ask at all, worried they will be judged and separated from their child, rather than supported.
Devastating consequences
“The consequences can be devastating. Coroners have raised concerns about failures in social care support for disabled children and their families through Prevention of Future Deaths reports.
“There is a ready-made solution for how to fix this. We urge the Prime Minister to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to create a simpler, fairer social care system for disabled children as well as adults.”
Take action
Contact wants to keep up the momentum to get disabled children’s social care on the political agenda. Thank you to the hundreds who have already written to their MP. We need a final push to raise awareness of this issue.
Write to your MP today and ask them to write to the minister urging him to back disabled children’s social care law and create a fairer system for disabled children and their families.
We’ve created a template letter, so it only takes a few minutes.