Support groups have welcomed Government's announcement it is to address challenges encountered by parents with special needs children.

The announcement was made in Friday's Throne Speech delivered by Governor Sir Richard Gozney, where he revealed the Ministry of Culture and Social Rehabilitation's plan to lead a "broad consultative effort" to identify and address these challenges.

Unlike young families who are provided with Government subsidised day care families of special needs children often find it hard to maintain suitable placements for their young children, the Throne Speech said.

Anthony Peets, of Bermuda Autism Support and Education (BASE), said of the announcement: "Glad to hear it, but the bottom line is it needs to go much further.

"Much further would mean being able to have trained professionals to interact with the children and teach and train the parents the techniques they are using to manage their children's success."

Mr. Peets, the father of an autistic child, has been a counsellor with BASE for five years. He said that due to a lack of support, some parents were unable to find adequate facilities to look after their child and were forced to stop working.

Mona Wierzbicki, a verbal behaviour therapist with Tomorrow's Voices, also believes additional support by Government would help parents.

She said: "There is definitely a need for more services on the Island. For us we are limited by the number of staff we have. If we had more staff we could serve more children."

Special needs children serviced by the Tomorrow's Voices require intensive therapy, which translates to 25 to 30 hours of therapy a week, Government currently does not help parents pay for these services.

According to Ms Wierzbicki, a United States citizen, the US provides support to any child under the age of three identified as needing services. She explained: "The Department of Health funds those services; they are funded and parents are reimbursed for any costs."

Ms Wierzbicki said: "I'm not sure what the ministry in Bermuda provides, but I know (Tomorrow's Voices) offer full time services, where families pay a portion, and the rest is subsidised by the funding we have, which is comparatively less than what the therapy would actually cost."