Play England advises councils on how to use their share of the £235m of play funding given out by the government. Adrian Voce, the director of Play England, said teaming up with the disabled children's charity would give councils access to important specialist knowledge. "We will be contracting Kids to work with us so that what we're doing is mainstreamed," said Voce.

Kevin Williams, chief executive of Kids, said: "The other thing we bring to the table is that we are very aware of the development of Aiming High for Disabled Children and short breaks so we'll keep reminding the authorities about those."

The Aiming High for Disabled Children programme aims to improve the quality of support and services for disabled children and includes £370m over three years to fund short break placements.

The £235m of play funding includes £60m to help create staffed adventure playgrounds in disadvantaged areas and money to help councils build 3,500 accessible play spaces throughout England.