Houses of Parliament

• READERS of these pages will be familiar with complaints about the goings-on in parliament.

What they might not be aware of are the tens of thousands of voices who have no voice, or place, in the Palace of Westminster.

My two-year-old daughter, Betsy, was born with Down’s Syndrome, one of approximately 600 people to be born with the condition, in the United Kingdom in 2017.

She is a happy and confident child who lives life to the full. She is our absolute world.

As a working family, we need to use child care, yet I’m continually staggered at the lack of provision there is for families in our position.

There is no funding available for my daughter to have one-to-one support to access mainstream pre-school education, which denies her the early intervention that we know is vital in the development of children with Down’s Syndrome.

Perhaps this lack of support at the bottom starts at the top: there is no All-Party Parliamentary Group for Down’s Syndrome, despite there being groups for pottery, cats, golf and beer.

An election is imminent, but a new parliament will allow MPs to form a group for Down’s Syndrome that will give our family, and tens of thousands of others like us to finally have a voice where it matters.

RACHEL MEWES, N1
downssyndrome.appg@yahoo.com