Short breaks organised for disabled children may soon have to be funded using the £2bn intervention grant announced by the government in their comprehensive spending review.

Revealed at the Community Care Live Children and Families event, delegates were told by Christine Lenehan OBE, director of the Council for Disabled Children, that her organisation expects the early intervention grant to cover both the funding of short breaks and the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme.

"Aiming High continues to be ring-fenced until the end of March next year, but we know this won't continue into the next financial year," says Lenehan. "In the comprehensive spending review settlement the government talked about the development of a £2bn early intervention fund or grant, which in effect picked up elements of Sure Start."

"Aiming High was delivered through the Sure Start mechanism so if there is any specific money for its continuation it will be delivered as part of the early intervention grant," she says.

"When the government announced the end of the child trust fund it also announced an additional £20m to fund short breaks but there was no mention of the mechanism of delivery. What we are now expecting is that the money will appear as a feature in the early intervention grant," she added.

In a recent report, Every Disabled Child Matters discovered that many local authorities are failing to meet their legal obligations of determining which families some of whom have no help from those in family support jobs, are eligible for breaks. The report warned that some local authorities will face judicial review unless action is taken to clarify the law around the eligibility criteria.