Andrew Gwynne, the Labour MP for Denton and Reddish, has added his support to a campaign by national children’s mobility charity Whizz-Kidz to improve the wheelchair services for disabled children and young people in Tameside and Stockport.

Andrew Gwynne MP has written to the Chief Executives of Tameside & Glossop Primary Care Trust and Stockport Primary Care Trust to find out more about the wheelchair services they provide to disabled children and young people. He wants to scrutinise their plans for future improvements as recommended by the Government’s recent review Aiming High for Disabled People.

Andrew Gwynne MP said:

“This campaign comes on the back of a high profile Government review which pointed the way forward for giving children and young people better access to the wheelchair facilities they require.”

“I want to find out what Stockport and Tameside & Glossop PCT’s are doing to ensure the right wheelchairs and services are available to ensure growing disabled children and their parents can enjoy a normal, family life.”

Jamie Green, Chair of the Whizz-Kidz ‘Kidz Board’, said:

“This about a lot more than a piece of equipment for me, it’s about being able to make decisions for myself about where I go, what I want to do and when.”

There are 70,000 children across the UK who need a wheelchair to satisfy their basic right to a full and active childhood, and to develop the skills and confidence they need for the future, such as when they enter employment.

Whizz-Kidz is campaigning to ensure that the forthcoming reform of the NHS wheelchair service will meet the needs of young wheelchair users. It is calling on the Government and PCTs to allocate additional targeted funding to improve the quality of wheelchairs that are provided to children and young people and reduce the lengthy waiting times for essential mobility equipment.