Fight to Save Special Needs Club

12.50.45pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 28th Jan 2008

Vincent Cable MP at the Hampton Youth Project with members of the Saturday Club: from L-R: Rebecca, Emma and Nataska

On Saturday, Vincent Cable MP met members of the Hampton Saturday Club for Children with Special Needs, staff and parents, to discuss the future of the Club, which is threatened with closure because of a drying up of funding. The Club has run successfully for seven years, is oversubscribed and has been backed in the past by local charities (Hampton Fuel Allotment) and national charities (Children in Need; Children's Fund; Help a London Child), the local authority and the NHS. But funding is drying up.

Vincent Cable said that "the Club performs a marvellous service for some very vulnerable local children and their families. The children have learning difficulties, are not able to go out and play on their own and have no social life which is a strain on their families as well as themselves. Everyone agrees that the Club gives excellent value. But the hand-to-mouth dependence on charitable funding leaves it open to a great deal of uncertainty. Unless local funders rally round it could be closed as soon as Easter. I profoundly hope that this doesn't happen."