The Games, designed to replicate the feel of the Olympics and Paralympics, already include events for children with a physical disability, but those with a learning disability have been excluded until now.

 

Mencap hopes that athletes with learning disabilities will be allowed to compete in this year's event after lobbying the Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe.

 

Steve Grainger, the chief executive of the Youth Sports Trust, who organise the event, told insidethegames: "Young people with learning disabilities are currently eligible to compete as athletes in the integrated events as part of the UK School Games, however there are currently no specific events solely for young people with learning disabilities.

 

"The Youth Sport Trust is delighted to be working closely with Mencap and the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) on developing events for young people with learning disabilities for the UK School Games."

 

Athletes with intellectual disabilities were first allowed to compete at the Paralympics in Atlanta in 1996 but there was controversy at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney when Spain were stripped of their basketballgold medals shortly after the Games closed when Carlos Ribagorda, a member of the victorious team and an undercover journalist, revealed to the Spanish business magazine Capital that most of his colleagues had not undergone medical tests to ensure that they had a disability.

 

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) investigated the claims and found that the required mental tests, which should show that the competitors have an IQ no more than 70, were not conducted by the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE).

 

The IPC announced in 2003 that, due to serious difficulties in determining the eligibility of athletes, it was suspending all official sporting activities involving an intellectual disability and the category was dropped from the 2004 Athens Paralympics.

 

There is a growing lobby, however, for it to restored to the Paralympics and the IPC have said they will study the matter after the Beijing Games.

 

Introducing it to the UK School Games could be an important step to it being put back on the programme for the 2012 Paralympics in London.

 

Mencap's chief executive, Jo Williams said: “This decision has opened up sport for children of all abilities and is an important step towards promoting inclusion and equality.”