I met a family last week, one of whose children is severely autistic. The father is a small businessman who managed to raise funds for treatment for a few years at a specialised facility in Boston. However, the child is now back home with weekend respite care available just once a month. The answer is more frequent respite care because these situations put enormous strain on working families and relationships within them but funding is only available for respite care once a month. Therefore, any source of funding to improve the situation would be welcome. There has been some debate about the freezing of additional amounts for disability services. Although much good work is being done in many facilities, we cannot be satisfied yet – more needs to be done. One of the uses to which this fund should be put is to try to help improve these situations.