LOCAL MP Rachel Gilmour has called on the Government to fund educational psychologist support for children affected by last week’s Minehead school coach tragedy.

Mrs Gilmour has written to Children and Families Minister Janet Daby asking that financial support is cascaded down quickly to ensure a ‘beneficial support mechanism’ for the children and their families to mitigate the trauma.

A 10-year-old Minehead Middle School pupil was killed and 21 other people injured when a coach carrying year fives back from a trip to Exmoor Zoo came off the A396 on Cutcombe Hill.

A major incident was declared and hundreds of firefighters and ambulance service personnel deployed to rescue trapped passengers and treat the injured, some of whom were flown by air ambulance to hospital in Bristol.

Mrs Gilmour said: “No child of nine or 10 years should have to face the trauma experienced without professional support that is professionally planned and managed, a support put in place to offer the best possible chance for each child to heal from the impact of what unfolded.

“Due to the volume of children involved, I anticipate a specialist team will need to be formed to work with the children and their families both in the short-term, once safe to do so, and ongoing into the long-term.

“There will need to be significant funding for educational psychological support for the many children involved, who have undoubtedly suffered trauma due to the circumstances of the incident.

“I am personally devastated to report the loss of a child’s life and the injury to many children as a result of this incident involving a school bus on the way back from what should have been a lovely end of term school outing.

“Please revert to me with urgency in order steps can be taken to support the children in my constituency in the best possible way.”