A group of parents are going to the House of Lords to campaign for help with their disabled children.

The newly-formed pressure group, Friends of Oxfordshire Respite Centres, wants a change in the law to make local authorities legally obliged to give them a break.

The Lords are debating the issue on Monday at a meeting chaired by Margaret Coombes, head of the Health and Social Care Committee at the Oxford Diocese.

Claire McCarthy, whose son suffers from cerebral palsy, said: "The kids keep getting pushed to the bottom of the pile.

'So wrong'

"We are a lower priority for the council than refuse collection and recycling and it is so wrong."

Ms Coombes said: "I think it is very important for the government to be aware of the scale of the need across the country and then to look at how much more funding they can put in."

Two of Oxfordshire's five respite care centres for children with severe physical and learning disabilities were recently threatened with closure.

The Lords debate was prompted by a recent Barnardo's report "Still missing out?", which highlighted the needs of families with disabled children.

Barnardo's found a disproportionate number of disabled children lived in poverty and suffered problems with housing and transport.