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A new telephone helpline and information centre is being set up to help families of children with special needs.

The Government is giving £7.5m to two voluntary organisations from April to provide information and support to disabled children and their families.

Contact A Family, which helps families who care for children with any disability or special need, will receive £500,000 a year for three years, to set up a national information centre.

Meanwhile existing funding for the the Family Fund Trust will be increased by £6m over three years.

Health Minister John Hutton said: "Providing more practical assistance and information to disabled children and their families is a key priority for the Government.

"These additional resources together with closer working partnerships with the voluntary sector will help meet that objective."

Contact a Family is also putting in £400,000 over three years to support the new information centre and the Home Office is granting £30,000 this year to help set it up in time for the April launch.

The centre will provide a new national free telephone help and advice line open Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm.

Within three years it is expecting to respond to 21,000 enquires from families a year, many from families of newly diagnosed disabled children.

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