Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Jenkin of Roding (Conservative). It was answered on Tuesday, 10 January 2006.

Family Fund

Question: My Lords, does the Minister recognise that that is not an altogether unhelpful answer? Does she also recognise that it was my late noble friend Lord Joseph who invented the Family Fund when he was Secretary of State for Social Services, to which I as the then Chief Secretary was very pleased to give my assent? Is it not remarkable that in marked distinction to some more recent initiatives the Family Fund has stood the test of time—a third of a century—and perhaps it is time to have a look at its remit again? I hope that the review which the noble Baroness mentioned will do that with sympathy.

Answer: My Lords, I very much agree with the noble Lord, and I congratulate him on his part in setting up this fund in the 1970s after the thalidomide cases. The fund has indeed proved highly successful, and it has been doing a terrific job over the years as regards, for example, the turnaround time between an adviser going to meet a family or talking to a family over the phone and the grant getting to the family for the practical things that it needs, for example, a freezer, because going shopping on a daily basis with a disabled child can be a great trial for some families; or as regards funding a well earned holiday, and so on.

Secondary information