News Archive
News Stories from the week ending 11 February 2011
Government advisers deliver fierce attack on work test
The government is set to ignore recommendations from its own benefits advice body, after it delivered a scathing assessment of the controversial work capability test.
The social security advisory committee (SSAC) had been examining proposed changes to the work capability assessment (WCA), a test introduced by the Labour government to assess eligibility for out-of-work disability benefits and now at the heart of the coalition's welfare reforms.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) insisted it would still introduce the changes - set to come into force in March - even though the committee said many of them should be postponed.
Government figures show the changes will lead to an increase in the proportion of new claimants found fit for work from 66 per cent of completed assessments to about 73 per cent, or an extra 75,000 people over three years, as well as a 13 per cent rise in appeals.
Campaigners have argued repeatedly that the WCA is not fit for purpose, and have called for major improvements before the government rolls out the test to an estimated 1.5 million people still receiving old-style incapacity benefit (IB), at a rate of 10,000 tests a week. The national rollout will start this spring.
In a report published today, the SSAC describes the WCA as lacking in "credibility" and says it fails to take into account whether disabled people found fit for work are "actually employable", because of the discrimination they face.
And it says it is "unreasonable and perverse"to force disabled people found fit for work onto the mainstream jobseeker's allowance when they cannot be expected to comply with its strict regime.
The report also delivers a brutal assessment of the WCA's points-based scoring system, which it says cannot guarantee objectivity or consistency.
The committee says several controversial changes to the WCA - recommended by an internal review carried out under Labour - should be postponed until the government has evaluated the results of pilot projects in Aberdeen and Burnley that have used the test to reassess people on long-term IB.
The DWP said it would ignore this recommendation, although it agreed with the need for "more empathy, improved communications with claimants and better decision making".
A DWP spokeswoman said the government was continuing to carry out reviews of the test and implement their findings, including those from Professor Malcolm Harrington's independent review, which would address some of the committee's concerns.
But she said: "We don't have to accept recommendations from the committee. We don't have to implement everything they say."
The report was released as the government published new regulations it said would improve the WCA.
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, said: "The SSAC and Disability Alliance are in complete agreement that the WCA needs significant improvement before 10,000 people are forced to undergo the test every week."
Meanwhile, the first figures from the Aberdeen and Burnley pilots show that of 1,347 decisions made using the WCA, about 30 per cent of people already on IB were found fit for work, with 31 per cent placed in the ESA support group, and 39 per cent in the ESA work-related activity group.
The figures are likely to increase concerns over the WCA, as the DWP had estimated that only 23 per cent of IB claimants would be found fit for work, although it also predicted only about 19 per cent would be placed in the support group.
10 February 2011
Cuts 'will leave equality watchdog emasculated'
The equality watchdog's commissioners are to be asked to approve a programme that will make more than half of its staff redundant.
Union representatives who obtained the plans for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) say the cuts would leave the commission with just a third of the combined staff of the three equality bodies it replaced in 2007.
Commissioners will be asked to reduce staff from 416 posts to just 200, about a third of the staff working for the Disability Rights Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission in 2007.
The figures were given to representatives of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU) by EHRC managers. The union said it believed the cuts would include outsourcing the EHRC helpline, which could lead to about 60 job losses, and the closure of the commission's regional offices.
The EHRC's budget for this year, 2010/11, appears to have already been cut from about £62 million to £53 million, and is set to fall to £45 million in 2011/12. Reports suggest it will be slashed to just £22.5 million by 2015.
In a letter calling on their commissioners not to approve the cuts, EHRC staff from the PCSU said they believed the government was "effectively seeking to close the body entrusted by parliament to protect and promote equality and human rights in the UK".
Mike Smith, chair of the EHRC's disability committee and an EHRC commissioner, declined to be interviewed about the cuts.
Anne Begg, the disabled Labour MP, said she believed the cuts would leave the EHRC "emasculated to such an extent that it will be difficult for it to do its job properly".
She said she feared it would not be able to carry out its statutory functions, and that much of the good work and practical help for disabled people that was carried out by the DRC was already not taking place.
She said: "Goodness knows what they are going to be able to do now. The body that should be there to speak out about these things will not have the staffing or funding to do so."
An EHRC spokeswoman said decisions on its future role would be taken "over the next few months".
But she agreed that the cuts would have a brutal impact on the work it could afford to do.
Another spokeswoman said later: "We aim to spend less on bureaucracy and more on ensuring that government and business act according to the highest standards of equality and human rights."
In a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank, Trevor Phillips, the EHRC's chair, claimed the commission was restructuring in order to do its work "more efficiently, for example using 'lightning strike' investigations as well as our more lengthy formal legal inquiries".
But he suggested that the EHRC would concentrate only on taking legal cases against "the Really Bad Guys, like the BNP"rather than on "individual cases, courtroom battles and remedies after something has happened".
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) said the government's review of quangos had concluded that the EHRC would "need to be substantially reformed to focus on its core functions".
A GEO spokesman said: "All public bodies need to tighten their belts and the commission is no different - in the past it has not been careful enough with taxpayers' money and that has to change.
"We will shortly be publishing our plans for reform of the EHRC, setting out our plans for the commission's future."
10 February 2011
BBC wins radio rights to 2012 Paralympics
The BBC has won the UK radio rights to broadcast coverage of the London 2012 Paralympics on its Radio 5 Live news and sports station.
The BBC said it would broadcast an estimated 25 hours of programmes and news on Radio 5 Live during the games, as well as extensive live commentary on its sister station Radio 5 Live Sports Extra.
The stations were awarded the rights this week by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).
A Radio 5 Live spokesman said the "key moments"of the games would be covered on 5 Live, with "blow by blow commentary"on Sports Extra.
Although he said it was too early to say how many hours there would be on Sports Extra, the total number of hours across both stations will be far higher than the 10 hours or so of coverage from the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
In a surprise decision by LOCOG in January 2010, the BBC lost out on the UK TV rights to Channel 4, which pledged to provide more than 150 hours of "blanket"coverage during the 12 days of the games.
Jane Jones, director of communications for ParalympicsGB, which manages Britain's Paralympians, said it was "delighted"that 5 Live had been awarded the rights.
She said: "We know they'll do a fantastic job of covering the games and the British team's exploits.
"We're looking forward to working closely with them in the run up to the most important games in our history."
Adrian Van Klaveren, controller of 5 Live, said: "There's unprecedented interest in the Paralympics taking place on home soil and we're delighted to be providing the radio coverage.
"We're committed to bringing our listeners all of the sporting stories, capturing the human drama and raising awareness of Paralympic sport."
Lord Coe, LOCOG's chair, said 5 Live was a "brilliant sports broadcaster"and would be "a perfect radio partner", while the BBC had been "a great champion of the Paralympic movement".
10 February 2011
Minister feels the anger during welfare reform webchat
A minister has been forced to confront the depth of anger and fear felt by people with mental health conditions over the government's welfare reforms.
Chris Grayling, the employment minister, took part in a live online question and answer session organised by the mental health charity Rethink.
Grayling answered 16 questions about incapacity benefit reform in the hour-long session, and although his extensive answers drew some appreciation from some of those who took part, there was also considerable anger and fear expressed over the coalition's policies.
The webchat took place nearly 24 hours after disabled people's minister Maria Miller took part in a similar event organised by the Guardian on disability living allowance reforms.
One of those who took part in the Rethink event told Grayling: "The 'reforms' being forced upon people with mental illness will undoubtedly lead to a serious deterioration in many people's mental health. Absolutely disgusting. People are living in fear, are you proud of that?"
Another asked: "How do you feel about the people with mental health problems who will kill themselves once they are forced off benefits and pressured into unsuitable work and training?"
Grayling stressed that he and work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith would "not use the language of scroungers"when discussing reform, following questions about the much-criticised media coverage of the government's welfare agenda.
And he defended the decision to impose a one-year time limit on people in the work-related activity group who claim "contributory"employment and support allowance (ESA) - the replacement for incapacity benefit.
He claimed the move would bring ESA more in line with the six-month limit for jobseeker's allowance (JSA) and achieve "a sensible balance".
This drew a particularly angry response, with one person asking: "How can you even consider that someone who is healthy and on JSA and someone who is ill and on ESA to have the same needs?
"What you are really saying is I have 12 months to 'heal' and then be thrown to the dogs!"
Another added: "This isn't a tough decision, it's an absolute disgrace, a horrific betrayal of those who paid into a system all their lives only to be abandoned at the most challenging time."
Grayling also pledged that all the recommendations made by Professor Malcolm Harrington in his review of the much-criticised work capability assessment - which tests eligibility for ESA - would be implemented "by the summer".
10 February 2011
Labour backs majority of government's welfare agenda
Labour's new shadow work and pensions secretary has backed large sections of the coalition government's welfare reforms, but has criticised some of its cuts to disability benefits as "not compassionate".
In a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research, Liam Byrne suggested there would be no radical change in direction from the former Labour government's welfare policies.
He said he would back the coalition government when it puts in place "radical welfare reform that works".
But he warned that the government's welfare reforms would fail if there were not enough jobs available.
He said: "Without a faster growing economy, the government's changes won't push people into a job. They will push them into a corner."
Byrne said the coalition was "failing the compassion test"with some of its reforms, including removing the mobility component of disability living allowance (DLA) from most disabled people in residential care.
He said this was not compassionate or supportive but was "a punishment for people who need our help".
And he said that cutting housing benefit by 10 per cent for all those who have been claiming jobseeker's allowance for a year - which will affect many disabled people denied out-of-work disability benefits - was also "not compassionate"and was a "punishment".
But Byrne said Labour agreed with more than three-quarters of the "principled and burden-sharing welfare savings and efficiencies"the government was making next year.
He said he didn't agree with imposing a one-year time limit on people in the work-related activity group claiming "contributory"employment and support allowance (ESA) - the replacement for incapacity benefit - because it "could hit people recovering from cancer", although he said a two-year limit "could work".
He also backed the need for DLA reform, although he warned that if it was "driven by a top-down cuts target"it risked denying support for "those in search of a more independent life".
The government has imposed such a target, saying it wants to cut spending on working-age DLA - and the number of working-age claimants - by 20 per cent by 2016.
The disability poverty charity Disability Alliance (DA) welcomed Labour's apparent move "away from the simplistic tone of office"and the "helpful"recognition that there must be "genuine work opportunities"available if welfare reform was to work.
DA added: "We believe DWP must develop, in partnership with employers, sustainable employment opportunities for disabled people rather than focus on reducing benefit levels."
10 February 2011
Government 'caused misleading stories' with DLA information
The government has been accused of causing disabled people "significant alarm"after releasing information about disability living allowance (DLA) that led to "misleading"media coverage.
The complaint came in a letter from the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) - a coalition of disability and welfare advice organisations - to Maria Miller, minister for disabled people.
Members are particularly angry about a Daily Mail article on 3 February, headlined: "The great disability benefit free-for-all: Half of claimants are not asked to prove eligibility."
The article - based on information released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - says nearly a million disabled people have been claiming DLA for more than 14 years, while half of claimants have never been asked for evidence to support their claim.
The consortium says the article concludes misleadingly that DLA is "over-claimed and under-scrutinised"and implies that it should be "time-limited".
The letter says: "It is extremely worrying that the DWP campaign information has been used to suggest a person's impairment or health condition and related higher costs somehow disappear over time."
And it warns the DWP of its obligations under the Equality Act not to "generate stigma, persecution or harassment of disabled people requiring support from the welfare system".
The letter says the information's release so close to publication of the government's welfare reform bill was "deeply unhelpful"and caused many disabled people "significant alarm".
Following similarly misleading and inaccurate stories around fitness for work tests and incapacity benefit reform, the consortium is to ask the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) to arrange a meeting with newspaper editors to "ensure disabled people and benefits are covered accurately".
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance (DA), a consortium member, said he believed it was "no coincidence"the information was released so close to publication of the bill, which will include details of far-reaching reforms affecting working-age DLA claimants.
Coyle said the DWP's "campaign dossier"allowed "scope for misunderstanding of the purpose of DLA", and led to coverage that caused "stigma and discrimination against disabled people who need support".
The letter asks Miller for reassurance that the DWP has challenged the media over the inaccurate DLA stories.
The DWP declined to comment on the letter.
The PCC said 44 people had lodged complaints about the Mail story on the grounds of accuracy.
Last week, a similar PCC complaint was lodged over another Mail story which accused disabled people of "trying it on"in a bid to secure incapacity benefits.
The Daily Mail said it would respond to the PCC complaints.
10 February 2011
Miller's online DLA answers spark fury
Disabled people have reacted furiously to the minister for disabled people after she took part in an online question and answer session about the government's disability living allowance (DLA) reforms.
Maria Miller answered just seven of scores of questions posted by visitors to the Guardian's website.
Many were angry that she avoided answering the tougher questions, and instead repeated familiar government lines about its reforms.
Miller, who revealed that she lives with her disabled mother, said the DLA system had no "inbuilt system of review"and had an "unwieldy"assessment process, and needed updating to make it "more transparent, consistent and fair".
Many of those taking part raised concerns about plans to remove the mobility component of DLA from most disabled people in residential care.
Miller again claimed it would remove the "overlap"between the mobility component and the obligations of local authorities and care homes to provide transport for residents.
Some questioned the coalition's apparent willingness to fuel "smears"about disabled people and disability benefits that have appeared in the media.
Miller failed to criticise the media, instead claiming that "cases of fraud bring the benefit system into disrepute and this is bad for everyone", which was why people with "legitimate claims need a benefit system that has robust assessment".
The disabled activist Rhydian Fon James told her: "The reasons given for DLA reform are not robust, with little evidence to support the case for reform and, importantly, no independent academic research."
Miller said the government's research was "generally"commissioned by the DWP from "external academic and independent researchers and this is what was used as evidence in the consultation".
One disabled war pensioner said afterwards that Miller had failed to answer "a single serious question", while others described her efforts as "a joke"and "a travesty".
Another described the exercise as "an absolute waste of time"and added: "I hope you can see just how frightened people are at the thought that, by a tick in the wrong box... our safety nets will fall and we will be left to suffer with absolutely no compassion by our government."
Meanwhile, 60 disabled campaigners have lobbied MPs about the mobility component plans.
They said it would have "a devastating impact on 80,000 disabled people who rely on the allowance to maintain their independence by covering the costs of getting around".
The House of Commons event was organised by a coalition of disability charities, led by Leonard Cheshire Disability, Mencap and Sense.
10 February 2011
Council delivers death blow to leading self-advocacy organisation
One of the country's leading self-advocacy organisations will be forced to close next month, after a council withdrew its funding without any warning.
Members of People First Lambeth (PFL), run by people with learning difficulties and set up in 1985, said the decision by Lambeth council not to renew annual contracts worth £118,000 meant it would close on 31 March.
The funding makes up 94 per cent of PFL's annual revenue. Two people with learning difficulties will lose their jobs.
PFL members have trained doctors and other public sector workers, run support groups, and have written a book which is on the Royal College of Nursing's recommended reading list.
PFL has worked with organisations such as the government's Valuing People Now team and the Social Care Institute for Excellence.
The council's decision came only two months after PFL members wrote to the prime minister and deputy prime minister to protest about the impact of the coalition's spending cuts on people with learning difficulties. They have yet to receive a reply.
Georgina Barret, one of PFL's members, said: "As far as I am concerned they sit on their butts and do all the paperwork but they don't come and see how we operate and what we do.
"My message would be: you are not going to find an organisation like this and you are going to regret what you have done. It is very sad."
Jennifer Taylor, another member, said: "I think it is very sad why the government have done this to us. I am disgusted. Where are people with learning difficulties going to go and what are they going to do with their lives?"
Lambeth council said it had to find savings of £79 million over three years, about a third of its budget, due to government cuts.
Cllr Jim Dickson, the council's cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: "We've worked hard to protect funding for dozens of organisations that do important work with vulnerable adults across the borough, but for a number of reasons, we have had to take the decision not to renew our contracts with People First Lambeth."
He said the council planned to cut £200,000 from services for people with learning difficulties, less than one per cent of its spending in this area.
He added: "We will of course be working with People First Lambeth to make sure their clients are directed to other sources of support."
To watch a film made by PFL about the decision to remove its funding, visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=os9_5pmXUUw
9 February 2011
Maynard faced disablist abuse from Labour MPs 'more than once'
A disabled MP who claimed he was mocked over his impairment by Labour MPs in a Commons debate believes similar abuse has taken place on several occasions.
The Conservative MP Paul Maynard, who has cerebral palsy, revealed in a newspaper interview how opposition MPs pulled faces at him, "really exaggerated gesticulations, really exaggerated faces".
He added: "Only they know for certain whether they were taking the mick out of my disability. But it certainly felt like it. That is why politics is held in such low esteem."
Following the interview, Stephen Brookes, a coordinator of the Disability Hate Crime Network and one of the MP's constituents in Blackpool, said Maynard told a hate crime conference in the town last November that he had been mocked by Labour MPs on several occasions.
Brookes said: "When he spoke to us at the event, he made it clear that right from the start people had found it quite funny that he had a speech impairment.
"If this is the way MPs treat us, then no wonder there is hostility developing in wider society."
The Commons speaker, John Bercow, told Disability News Service: "I have spoken to Mr Maynard who is keen that no further action is taken in relation to the incident you mention and I will respect his wishes.
"I can assure you that I am not complacent about any cases of discrimination or abuse. I have spoken extensively about the need to eradicate abuse and boorish behaviour in the chamber.
"Any member who feels that they have been the target of abuse in the chamber, on whatever grounds, should raise the issue with me."
Last year, Bercow told a joint meeting of all party groups, including those on disability and learning disability, that he would be the "disabled person's champion".
That meeting followed the speaker's conference on parliamentary representation - which he chaired - which reported on ways to increase the number of disabled, female and minority ethnic MPs.
The disabled Labour MP Anne Begg, who was vice-chair of the conference, wasn't in the chamber during the debate, but she said: "It is hard for me to believe that some of my colleagues would behave so appallingly, although I do know that the chamber can be quite a raucous place at times.
"At no point have I ever felt intimidated in that way. But the chamber will react to what people say if they think someone is saying something they disagree with."
Maynard has declined to comment further.
9 February 2011
EHRC boss calls for government to take equality action on recovery
The head of the equality watchdog has called on the government to ensure that the recovery from recession does not leave disabled people and other minority groups behind.
Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said in a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank that equality and inclusion were "good for our economy"and that "being fair, and being seen to be fair"were vital parts of "bringing Britain back to prosperity".
He called for a programme that would "bring every part of government to bear on the task of ensuring that the effects of painful spending reductions of the next few years will be fairly distributed by social grouping".
Phillips said that if "jobs and prosperity return for everybody except women, ethnic minorities, the young, the old or disabled people then we will still be paying the welfare bill for people who are kept out of work by discrimination".
He said the commission could play a major part in the recovery by enforcing the Equality Act to ensure that the government's spending review was implemented fairly.
An EHRC spokeswoman said afterwards that Phillips wants the government to back "determined action against discrimination"and wants to ensure that its economic strategy is "paralleled by an inclusion plan that prevents cuts and unemployment isolating some communities still further".
Phillips also said in his speech that the EHRC could increase the confidence of employers that anti-discrimination laws would not "land them with huge liabilities if they take on more women, older, minority or disabled staff".
The EHRC spokeswoman made it clear that this referred partly to companies that use new laws under the Equality Act that will allow "positive action".
From April 2011, when faced with candidates of equal merit, employers will be able to choose the one who is from a group that is under-represented in their workforce, such as disabled people.
Phillips also suggested in his speech that the EHRC could carry out regular surveys of the impact of cuts, and provide evidence to help public bodies focus their resources on those who need them most.
And he said the EHRC needed to be a regulator and leader but not a "state-funded pressure group".
9 February 2011
Spending cuts 'risk reversing decades of progress'
Government spending cuts risk reversing decades of progress towards more independence and control for people with learning difficulties, according to leading members of the self-advocacy movement.
Two prominent activists with learning difficulties spoke out this week as they backed a new campaign that opposes cuts to benefits and services for disabled people.
Steve Robertson, chair of People First (Scotland), said he was angry that funding for self-advocacy organisations was under threat across Scotland.
He said: "One of the things that makes me more angry is probably in the last 10 or 20 years we have come a long way to moving on from 'service land' to people being more in control over their lives."
He said he feared the cuts would risk the progress that had been made, with people moving out of the old institutions and into the community.
He added: "With the cuts there is a real worry that to save money they will go back to people sharing where it would work out cheaper."
Jackie Downer, another prominent activist with learning difficulties, said: "It is like we are going back to the early 1980s and 1990s and fighting again."
She said people with learning difficulties were having to refight the battles they fought and won for self-advocacy funding.
She said: "It makes me cry. It makes you want to chain yourself to one of the politicians. They are taking our lives away, they are taking our resources away. They don't care."
Self-advocacy organisations - like People First Lambeth - were already being forced to close, she said.
The Campaign for a Fair Society, launched with a full-page advert in The Times, says the cuts are "counter-productive"and "unfair".
Downer said: "I feel angry because it is not a fair society, it is a scary society."
Baroness Jane Campbell, who is also backing the campaign, said she hoped it would be one of many "over the coming months to prevent our hard-won personal support being withdrawn in the name of 'public service prudent cuts'".
She added: "It is not prudent to force disabled people back into dependency, which is inhumane and expensive."
Among cuts highlighted by the campaign are those to council funding, the closure of the Independent Living Fund to new members, and the decision to scrap the mobility component of disability living allowance for most people in residential care.
And the campaign says cuts to funding for the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme have "effectively rule out shared home ownership for disabled people".
9 February 2011
News Stories from the week ending 4 February 2011
Funding cuts cast shadow over new mental health strategy
User-led groups have welcomed a new government mental health strategy, but fear that spending cuts put its success in doubt.
The new cross-government strategy, No Health Without Mental Health, pledges "parity of esteem between mental and physical health services", with a focus on "early intervention and prevention"and services for children and young people.
The strategy also focuses on reducing the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health conditions, including support for the Time to Change anti-stigma campaign.
Sarah Yiannoullou, manager of the National Survivor User Network, said the initial reaction from mental health service-users and survivors had been to welcome the focus on children and young people, and a more "preventative approach"that would ensure the emphasis was "not just on crisis management".
But she warned that self-help groups, survivor groups and small voluntary and community organisations that had helped with preventative support were having to close due to funding problems.
She added: "There is such a conflict between what is being said in the strategy and people really believing that this can be delivered in the current climate."
She said the network was also disappointed with the government's lack of emphasis on service-users "leading the agenda".
She said: "We did have some input but at a distance. DH is still going to the large charities, but service-user led organisations need to be there as well.
"There are a lot of issues that only people currently accessing services will be aware of. We need to bridge that gap."
The government also pledged to introduce legislation later this year to repeal section 141 of the Mental Health Act, which says that MPs who are sectioned for at least six months must lose their seats.
Mark Harper, the Conservative minister for political and constitutional reform, who campaigned for the law to be scrapped in opposition, said section 141 "sends out entirely the wrong message that if you have mental health problems your contribution is not welcome in public life".
The strategy also allocates £400 million to pay for 1.2 million more people across England to receive psychological therapies over the next four years. This should mean 3.2 million people will use such services between 2011 and 2015.
The mental health charity Mind said the money was "an important step, as we know this is a highly effective and economic way of supporting people", but warned of the "backdrop of sweeping reforms to the NHS"and spending cuts, and said that "basic services must continue to operate on a local level despite tightening budgets".
3 February 2011
Court tells councils to think again on cuts after equality failure
A judge has told councils to rethink plans to slash spending on a London-wide grants programme because they failed to carry out a proper assessment of how the cuts would affect disabled people and other minority groups.
The high court ruling has been welcomed as a huge boost to disabled people fighting other public sector spending cuts.
London Councils, which represents London's 33 local authorities, wanted to scrap large parts of its grants programme, cutting spending from £26.4 million to £18.48 million next year, and to just £8 million in 2012-13.
Only London-wide schemes would have been funded, with other services left to local councils to support, while some city-wide services would also have lost future support because of a slimmed-down list of funding priorities.
Among disability organisations that would have lost funding were Disability Law Service (DLS) and Transport for All.
TfA receives £100,000 a year from London Councils - the bulk of its funding - and warned that losing the money could force it to close in the summer of 2012, just three months before London hosts the Paralympics.
DLS was set to lose funding for a project that provides disabled people with legal representation to take discrimination cases.
But Mr Justice Calvert-Smith ruled that London Councils had failed to consult properly or to carry out a full equality impact assessment (EIA) on the cuts.
He quashed all the funding decisions, affecting more than 200 voluntary sector organisations, and ordered London Councils to reconsider its plans, taking proper account of its public sector equality duties.
Nick Goss, managing director of Goss Consultancy, which provides EIA training to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the case was "a very clear signal to public sector organisations that by not giving due regard to their statutory equalities duties it was likely to cost, rather than save, public money through legal litigation".
He added: "The case reinforces the fact that it is not an option for public sector organisations to carry out EIAs and effective consultation, it is a legal duty and these have to be done in the right way and at the right time."
Linda Clarke, director of DLS, said: "In the current economic climate, with public authorities facing huge cuts to their budgets, we welcome this judgement, which reinforces the importance of seriously assessing equalities impact before taking decisions to cut spending which may disproportionately affect disabled people and other disadvantaged groups."
London Councils said it would now "reconsider the equalities impacts and consider different options in more detail".
3 February 2011
Court concludes that disabled volunteers have no rights
A court ruling that disabled volunteers are not entitled to protection under discrimination at work laws has sparked serious concerns over their rights.
The Court of Appeal ruled that a disabled volunteer for Mid Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau was not entitled to protection under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
Mrs X - who hopes to appeal to the Supreme Court - claims that when the charity asked her to stop volunteering, it was discriminating against her because she was HIV-positive.
But the court found she was not protected by the DDA because she was unpaid and did not have a contract, even though she had a law degree and a post-graduate qualification and hoped to secure a training contract with Citizens Advice (CA) so she could qualify as a solicitor.
The court also found that volunteers were not protected by the European Union's equal treatment directive.
Alex Eastwood, a legal caseworker for Disability Law Service, said discrimination against disabled volunteers was "all too common", so it was "strange"they were not covered by the law.
He said government welfare reforms were likely to lead to disabled people being forced to undertake voluntary work, but without any protection from anti-discrimination laws.
He said: "Employers will therefore have no duty to make adjustments for disabled volunteers or take steps to prevent harassment of volunteers."
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which "intervened"in the case, warned that if such laws do not apply to volunteers, organisations will legally be able to discriminate against disabled people and other groups.
An EHRC spokeswoman said: "Given that many employees begin their working life as volunteers, which provides them with valuable experience which they can use as a step up to paid employment, it seems unfair that certain groups of people can legally be denied this experience."
Andy Williams, from solicitors Charles Russell, who represents Mrs X, said the ruling could stop some people volunteering, harming the government's "Big Society"programme.
He said: "If the government's Big Society vision involves an increased requirement for volunteers, as things stand those volunteers currently have no legal rights whatsoever."
A CA spokeswoman said: "The law is clear that volunteers do not have the same legal rights and responsibilities as paid employees. That is not the same as saying that organisations should be able to treat volunteers unfairly."
She insisted that CA was "committed to equality, values diversity, and challenges discrimination"and had a "range of policies to support disabled people to volunteer", with more than 1,500 disabled people volunteering across England and Wales last year. 3 February 2011
DLA reforms lead disabled people 'to question value of their own lives'
Disabled people are beginning to "question the value of their own lives"because of government plans to slash spending on disability living allowance (DLA), according to a new survey.
Disability Alliance (DA) has released the latest results from a survey on the coalition government's reforms, which include plans to cut spending on DLA for working-age people by 20 per cent.
The disability poverty charity believes more than 800,000 disabled people are likely to lose their DLA because of the reforms.
Nearly one in ten of those who took part in the survey - most of whom were disabled people or carers - said death or suicide were possible outcomes of disabled people losing their DLA.
One said: "I would not be able to go to work, I would not be able to see my family or friends. Therefore I would not want to live."
Another said: "It would add an extra burden on me which I know I couldn't cope with. I would probably have to think about ending it all."
Neil Coyle, DA's director of policy, said: "Disabled people are telling us in great numbers that they fear the overall cuts - but that losing DLA in particular has resulted in people questioning the value of their lives."
So far, 13 per cent of those questioned believe cutting DLA would actually cost the government money, through higher costs for the NHS and local authorities, with Coyle warning of a potential "catastrophic explosion of costly demands in the longer-term".
Half of respondents said their DLA did not provide enough money to live on because of their disability-related costs.
One said: "I could not survive and would end it all as all my family are in difficult financial circumstances and I would have no-one to help."
DA has submitted an interim response to a government consultation on the reforms - including an analysis of the first 900 survey responses - because it fears the new welfare reform bill could be debated by MPs before the government has had time to respond to its consultation, which closes on 14 February.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said the government was "absolutely committed"to protecting DLA and was "working with Disability Alliance and other organisations to make sure that the needs of disabled people continue to be met".
She said: "We need to reform DLA to ensure that the £12 billion we spend on it makes the most difference and that people can rely on it for years to come. No final decisions have been taken."
3 February 2011
Hate crime website should help close reporting gap
A relaunched national police website should make it easier for disabled people to report disability hate crime to their local force.
The True Vision site now allows victims of hate crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to report offences online in greater detail, making it easier for police forces to investigate.
The site includes a "secure online reporting facility"that automatically distributes reports to the relevant police force, information about hate crime and why it is important to report it, and links to organisations offering support.
Figures released last December show there were 1,402 disability hate crimes recorded across England, Wales and Northern Ireland during 2009, the first full year since police forces started collecting figures.
But there were huge variations between different forces, with three claiming they had not recorded a single disability hate crime in the entire year.
Marije Davidson, public affairs manager for RADAR, welcomed the relaunch and "any initiative that makes it easier for disabled people to report disability hate crime".
But she added: "However, if it is not backed up with support for disabled victims of crime in their community it is just an exercise in window dressing."
Assistant chief constable Drew Harris, hate crime lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "We have a particular challenge to increase the reporting of hate crimes that target disabled people and True Vision offers specific advice for disabled people and links to organisations who can offer advocacy and support to those who do not wish to approach the police directly.
"Only by increasing reporting can we gain a better understanding of the extent of hate crime and it is for this reason that I urge victims and witnesses to use the True Vision website and to continue to come forward so we can bring the perpetrators to justice."
3 February 2011
Failure to consult 'led to London bus design flaws'
Designers of the successor to London's inaccessible Routemaster bus have failed to include enough space for wheelchair-users, say campaigners.
The accessible transport charity Transport for All (TfA) says the new Routemaster's wheelchair space is too small, and "considerably smaller"than spaces on London's existing buses.
The concerns come eight months after Transport for London (TfL) admitted failing to consult with disabled people's organisations on the bus's design.
The mayor of London's transport advisor, Kulveer Ranger, said then that disabled people would be able to "see the bus for themselves and feed back their opinions"when the full mock-up of the bus arrived in the capital.
But having seen the mock-up, TfA said that the "manoeuvring skills of a Paralympian basketball player seem to be required to get yourself into the space"in the new bus.
The old Routemasters were scrapped by the previous mayor, Ken Livingstone, largely because they were not accessible.
Lianna Etkind, TfA's campaigns and outreach officer, said: "We say that the best practice in consultation is 'nothing about us without us', and disabled and older people should be included from the very earliest stages and not just at the end."
If TfL had done that, she said, they would have avoided having to make "last minute"changes to the design, which is due to be finalised this autumn, with the first buses set to appear on London's streets early next year.
Etkind said the bus was London's chance to "set a gold standard for accessibility"in advance of next year's Olympics and Paralympics, but she was "not confident"that TfL would "make the appropriate changes"and "do the right thing for London's disabled and older people".
She said the new bus had some positive access features, including a low floor, the "i-bus"system, which announces destinations visually and via audio, and plenty of grab rails.
But she said that "if the final design incorporates a wheelchair space of this size, it will be bad for disabled people, and bad for parents with pushchairs".
A TfL spokeswoman said that, following initial feedback, some changes were made "to the location of the hand poles and the seats to provide more space for manoeuvrability", but that "further changes could be made".
She said creating more space for wheelchair-users would mean fewer "low floor"seats for older people or those unable to stand.
But TfL declined to comment on whether the design problems proved they should have consulted with disabled people earlier.
3 February 2011
Mail welfare story sparks complaints to press watchdog
Disabled campaigners have complained to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) after a national newspaper accused hundreds of thousands of disabled people of "trying it on"in a bid to secure out-of-work disability benefits.
The story in the Daily Mail was based on a government press release that aimed to justify its welfare reforms by pointing to the number of people being assessed as "fit for work"through the controversial work capability assessment (WCA).
But campaigners have accused the Mail of inaccuracy, discrimination and harassment of disabled people.
The article was published only two days after disabled activists took to the streets to complain about the unfairness of the WCA, and the company that carries out the tests.
The Mail story says the government's "astonishing figures laid bare how 94 per cent of new claimants were either 'trying it on' or would be fit enough to work in the near future".
The story implies that most people who applied for ESA were trying to defraud the system, stating that "just six per cent of one million claimants who tried to obtain sickness benefit in the last two years of Labour were actually incapable of working".
The figures actually show that of those applicants for employment and support allowance (ESA) - the replacement for incapacity benefit - who completed the WCA, only two-thirds were found "fit for work"and ineligible for ESA.
The Mail story included disabled people placed in the "work-related activity group"- who have not been found "fit for work"- to reach its "astonishing"94 per cent.
A follow-up column in the same paper - with a headline stating "400,000 benefits cheats show scale of workshy Britain"- then refers to unsuccessful claimants as "scroungers"who are "on the fiddle"and "defrauding the system".
But more than 40 per cent of those found "fit for work"are appealing against that decision, and about 40 per cent of these are successful and have subsequently been placed on ESA.
An initial complaint about the story was made to the PCC by members of the campaigning blog The Broken of Britain, who say the 94 per cent figure is "a clear manipulation of the facts in order to produce a highly misleading headline".
They also say the headline - "400,000 'were trying it on' to get sickness benefits"- was "grossly inaccurate".
Six more complaints have been lodged about the news story, under clauses in the PCC code relating to accuracy, discrimination and harassment.
A string of serious concerns have been raised by disability organisations about the unfairness of the WCA, particularly for those with fluctuating conditions or hidden impairments, such as people with mental health conditions.
An independent review last November was highly critical of the test and said the government should improve "every stage"of it to make it "fairer and more effective".
The Daily Mail declined to comment on the complaints.
3 February 2011
Government to review impact of housing benefit cuts
Campaigners and MPs have welcomed the government's decision to commission an independent review of the impact of controversial cuts and reforms to housing benefits on disabled people and other minority groups.
Lord Freud, the minister for welfare reform, made a "firm commitment"to commission independent research into the impact of the reforms.
He said the research would look at the effect of the cuts on disabled people, homelessness, black and minority ethnic households and older people, among other areas.
The coalition government plans to reduce housing benefit by 10 per cent for anyone who has been on jobseeker's allowance for a year.
It will also introduce a new cap on housing benefit payments, as well as new age limits so claimants under 35 - instead of 25 - will have to share flats or houses instead of being able to rent their own home.
The decision to commission an independent review was welcomed by RADAR.
But Marije Davidson, RADAR's public affairs manager, said disabled people should be involved in developing the terms of reference for the review, and that the charity would "like to hear how the Department for Work and Pensions plans to involve disabled people throughout the review".
The Commons work and pensions committee, which is led by the disabled MP Dame Anne Begg, also welcomed the review.
The committee had highlighted in a report how difficult it was to predict the effect of the changes and called on the government to "fully evaluate the impact".
Witnesses told the committee that the housing benefit reforms would "inevitably"lead to "evictions and increased levels of homelessness"for some groups, including disabled people.
Dame Anne welcomed the government's commitment to an independent review, which had been a "key recommendation"of the committee's report.
She added: "At that time, I highlighted how difficult it is to predict exactly what the impact of these changes will be. We look forward to assessing the outcome of the review."
The government's formal response to the committee's report is due later this month.
3 February 2011
Failure to close roads forces athletes to pull out of marathon
Two of Britain's leading Paralympic athletes were forced to pull out of the world championships wheelchair marathon because the organisers had failed to close the course to traffic.
David Weir - who had already won three gold medals during the IPC Athletics World Championships - and fellow British athlete Shelly Woods withdrew on the morning of last weekend's road race in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The rules of the governing body - the International Association of Athletics Federations - state that all roads have to be completely closed to traffic for such races.
UK Athletics, the governing body for athletics in the UK, said it would write to the IPC International Paralympic Committee to "reiterate"its concerns about the incident.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who was in New Zealand working for the BBC, backed their decision to pull out, telling her followers on Twitter that she agreed with Weir that it was "too big a risk"to race on open roads and that there was "nothing clever about putting yourself in danger".
Peter Eriksson, the British team leader, said the team "fully support"the decision to withdraw from the race "although obviously the athletes and UK Athletics as a whole are disappointed that they can't show what great form they're in".
He said: "Safety, however, is paramount, and with less than 600 days to go to the London 2012 Paralympic Games this presents a danger we are not prepared to take."
The world championships were the last major event before the 2012 Paralympics.
In the medals table, Britain came third behind China (21 golds) and Russia (18 golds), and the British haul of 38 medals (12 golds, nine silver and 17 bronze) was second only to China, which finished with 58, with Russia on 35.
Eriksson said it was a huge improvement on the Beijing Paralympics, in which the British team finished 18th in track and field.
He said: "Overall we're starting to see the gradual transition to a much more professional squad with a fantastic team spirit and it's paid off; I'm confident that our success will now continue through to London."
Meanwhile, the German mobility technology company Otto Bock has become the second Paralympic-only sponsor - after Sainsbury's - for the London 2012 games.
Otto Bock will provide repairs during the games to Paralympic athletes with prostheses (limb replacements), orthoses (limb supports) and wheelchairs.
3 February 2011
Activists postpone protest after EHRC's meeting pledge
Disabled activists planning to occupy the equality watchdog's offices in protest at its failure to stand up for the rights of disabled people hit by government spending cuts have agreed to postpone their action.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) contacted activists from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) after hearing about the protest, and promised to meet with them to discuss their concerns.
The EHRC has faced repeated criticism from disabled activists over its low profile on disability rights issues since its launch in 2007, but this would have been the first such protest action.
DPAC had told Disability News Service that they planned to occupy the EHRC's London offices sometime in March, although they said they would not be announcing which day the protest would take place.
They believe the EHRC should be challenging councils that are failing to provide adequate support for disabled people, and backing more legal actions on behalf of disabled people.
They have also pointed to the commission's failure to speak out on cuts and reforms to disability living allowance (DLA) - and particularly the loss of the mobility component for most people in residential care - as well as problems with the controversial work capability assessment; the closure of the independent living fund to new members; and cuts to housing benefits.
They say all these policies could be challenged as breaches of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly as the commission is monitoring its implementation.
Members were particularly angry at the commission's failure to fulfil a pledge to contact DPAC to discuss its plans to support disabled people.
Linda Burnip, a founding member of DPAC, said: "Following a threat to occupy their offices, they suddenly got in touch with us. We have postponed the occupation pending a meeting. They have given me a list of things they are planning to do."
She said the EHRC had told her that they were "limited in what they can do and how they do it".
Before the EHRC's intervention, Burnip had said: "We expect them to be helping uphold disabled people's human rights and the UN convention and they are not. They basically might as well not exist."
An EHRC spokeswoman said: "Our disability programmes director has had a positive discussion with Disabled People Against Cuts about their concerns and we're planning to meet with them to discuss this issue further."
1 February 2011
News Stories from the week ending 28 January 2011
ATOS PROTESTS: Activists target work test company
Protesters across the country have targeted the offices of the company paid hundreds of millions of pounds by the government to test disabled people's eligibility for benefits.
Much of the anger was directed at the company, Atos Healthcare, for its work testing people's "work capability"for the Department for Work and Pensions.
The work capability assessment (WCA) is supposed to test whether disabled people are eligible for employment and support allowance (ESA), the replacement for incapacity benefit.
But the test, and the work of the healthcare professionals who work for Atos, have been heavily criticised, both by disability organisations and Professor Malcolm Harrington, who carried out an independent review of the WCA.
One of the protests on 24 January saw more than 50 campaigners march on the central London headquarters of Atos Origin, the parent company of Atos Healthcare.
Police officers prevented the protesters from entering the building, and wrestled one activist to the ground after he tried to force his way into the reception area, but there were no arrests.
A smaller group of activists later invaded an Atos testing centre near Marylebone station. Police officers arrived as protesters were leaving the building, but it is not thought that anyone was arrested, although police were not able to confirm this.
A series of other protests - many targeting Atos - took place on the same day, including demonstrations in Livingston in Scotland, Burnley and Leeds.
In the small Gloucestershire town of Lydney, nearly 30 protesters - most of them disabled people - took part in a peaceful protest about the government's spending cuts.
Protester Tina Hogg said: "It just shows how worried, frightened and angry people are. There is an indignation and a righteous anger."
The disabled artist Penny Pepper said she was at the London protest to remind the "government and their lackeys"that disabled people "do have a loud voice and a presence, because all too often we are targeted as a soft option to attack".
Last November, Atos announced a three-year contract extension worth £300 million to "deliver medical advice and assessment services to support the UK government's welfare reform agenda".
Linda Burnip, co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts, which played a key role in many of this week's protests, said: "Benefit claimants are being forced into even greater poverty to fuel the greed and excesses of corporations like Atos making huge amounts of money by wrongly assessing disabled people as fit to work when they are not."
Robert Droy, another disabled campaigner who took part in the London protest, said: "We are constantly being attacked by the government as trying to get benefits that we are not entitled to, constantly having to justify why we need the benefit rather than letting us get on with living our life as other people do."
Ellen Clifford, interim director of the user-led Newham Coalition, said she believed Atos worked to "arbitrary"targets for the number of people they had to find "fit for work".
Mark Roberts, a founder member of Mad Pride, said Atos had "no expertise"in healthcare or mental health and that its assessors were targeting mental health service-users.
Adam Lotun said he had his disability living allowance (DLA) unfairly removed after an Atos assessment a year ago. He also lost his Motability car, and will not be able to renew his blue parking badge, which has now expired.
He said: "This is happening to a lot of people. Atos are using medical professionals who do not understand disability and living with a disability."
John O'Callaghan-Williamson, director of TCell, a campaigning website for people with HIV, said many disabled people were receiving letters accusing them of benefit fraud, while many HIV-positive people were so sick of the struggle for benefits that they were saying: "I will just stop my medication and let the hospital deal with me."
An Atos spokeswoman claimed the protests caused "no disruption"at any of its offices, but she refused to respond to any of the concerns raised by the protesters, or even say how many of its offices were targeted.
27 January 2011
ATOS PROTESTS: Concerns over police 'kettling' tactics
Disabled activists who took part in a peaceful protest outside the offices of a government benefits contractor have raised concerns over the use of a controversial police tactic to control their demonstration.
More than 50 protesters took part in the protest outside the headquarters of the company Atos Origin, near Euston station in central London, on 24 January.
Metropolitan police officers prevented the protesters from entering the Atos offices, but shortly afterwards set up metal fences hemming them in to a small area and allowing only one exit - a controversial containment tactic known as "kettling".
Some of the protesters have questioned the police tactics for what was a small, peaceful action. One activist tried to break through the police line, but there was no violence or threats of violence from any of the protesters.
Labour MP John McDonnell has tabled an early day motion (edm 1344) praising the disabled people who took part in the demonstration, and expressing concern on behalf of protesters about being kettled and "unduly restricted in their demonstration".
Linda Burnip, co-founder of Disabled People Against Cuts, who helped organise the protest, said she told police that some of the protestors had "serious medical conditions which may well cause problems"if they were kept behind the barriers.
She added: "A number of people with mental health conditions felt very threatened by the barricades around us."
The police tactics come only a month after the same force launched an internal investigation after disabled activist Jody McIntyre was allegedly hit with a baton and twice pulled from his wheelchair during the student tuition fees protests.
Adam Lotun, another of the Atos protesters, said: "I don't know why they felt they needed to contain that group of people.
"All of a sudden there were barriers around us - no warning, no discussion. It wasn't as if there was a violent element that was consistently trying to break out and cause any damage."
He was also angry that the police refused to allow disabled protesters - including a pregnant woman with a guide dog - to use the nearby toilet facilities at either Atos or a neighbouring gym.
No-one from the Metropolitan police was available to comment.
Meanwhile, security staff employed by the University of Birmingham took photographs and filmed disabled students taking part in a peaceful protest against cuts to disability benefits outside their university library.
Student Claire Lister, who is to lodge a complaint with the university authorities over the filming, said: "What they were trying to do is to stop people protesting by using intimidation tactics."
A university spokeswoman said the university "acknowledges the right of students and staff to protest peacefully", and that about six of its staff were present "to ensure there was no disruption to library services".
She added: "A visual record was made of the event, and a notice was posted nearby to notify protesters about this, which is a legal requirement.
"There was no verbal intimidation and the event was entirely peaceful. The university is currently unaware of any complaints being received in relation to this matter."
27 January 2011
Attitudes improving, says Office for Disability Issues
Attitudes towards disabled people appear to be improving slightly, according to figures from a national survey.
The Public Perceptions of Disabled People report by the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) found that just 17 per cent of the public said they viewed disabled people with "discomfort or awkwardness", compared with 22 per cent four years earlier.
And 85 per cent of those questioned said they thought of disabled people as "the same as everybody else", compared with 77 per cent four years before.
The figures were taken from the 2009 British Social Attitudes Survey, and were compared with a similar survey in 2005.
But they also suggest that people with learning difficulties or mental health conditions are more likely to face prejudice than those with sensory or physical impairments.
Many of those surveyed were uncomfortable with the idea of people with mental health conditions or learning difficulties being in positions of authority, with only two-fifths of people saying they would be very or fairly comfortable with having an MP with learning difficulties or a mental health condition.
The report also says that three-quarters of those surveyed thought of disabled people as needing to be cared for some or most of the time, a similar level to 2005.
The survey also suggests that disabled people are less likely to express views in line with the social model of disability - that barriers in society prevent disabled people living a full life - than non-disabled people. But a majority of both disabled and non-disabled people said they believed that social barriers were a factor in causing disability.
The ODI report concludes: "People are less likely to think of disabled people as getting in the way or with discomfort and awkwardness. Conversely, they are more likely to think of disabled people as the same as everybody else."
But it adds that, although "very few people express openly prejudiced views", the evidence suggests that "a degree of 'benevolent prejudice' the belief that disabled people need looking after rather than overt hostility exists towards disabled people".
27 January 2011
Self-advocacy groups 'must seek new funding sources to survive'
Self-advocacy organisations must look for new sources of funding to avoid the fate of other groups that have had to close due to spending cuts, according to a leading consultative body of disabled people.
The National Forum of People with Learning Difficulties spoke out as it published a new guide aimed at ensuring the survival of self-advocacy organisations.
The Staying Strong guide brings together the experience of more than 80 self-advocacy groups - in which people with learning difficulties come together to speak up for themselves - across England.
The guide, commissioned by the government's Office of the National Director for Learning Disabilities, says there are hundreds of groups working locally, regionally and nationally to make sure people with learning difficulties "are treated fairly and their voice are heard".
Michael Ratcliffe, co-chair of the forum, said: "We cannot pretend we have given self-advocacy groups all the answers, but we hope we have provided lots of new ideas, information to consider, and funding advice, which will hopefully help them survive in the current financial climate."
He added: "It is vital we have strong independent advocacy to ensure people with learning disabilities have a voice within society, as tragic things have occurred when they have not had access to advocacy services."
The forum has heard of self-advocacy groups being forced to close due to funding problems in the last year, although the scale of the problem is not yet known.
The guide contains advice and examples of how groups have raised funds, cut costs and formed new partnerships to ensure their survival.
Among the things such groups do well, the guide says, are: research and training; challenging services about cuts and charges; telling other people about their work; and helping members gain skills and jobs.
Its advice for self-advocacy groups includes being clear about what they do and why they do it, and the importance of planning for the future, being user-led, not being "pushed around by councils", and working with other groups.
The forum's job is to keep the government updated on progress with its learning difficulties strategy, Valuing People Now.
To download the guide, visit: www.nationalforum.co.uk
27 January 2011
Unlimited excitement over new work, but London artists miss out again
Disabled artists from the UK are set to collaborate with colleagues from across the world in a series of new disability arts projects commissioned for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
The 13 new commissions - worth a total of £820,000 - are the second series of projects to be funded through the three-year Unlimited programme, set up to create new work in the lead-up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Among the new commissions, the contemporary visual artist Rachel Gadsden will work with South African artist and activist Nondumiso Hlwele and a Cape Town women's group on a piece that will explore their "shared desire to communicate important messages about human fragility through art".
Another work will see 12 disabled and non-disabled artists -including the disabled actor and dancer David Toole - take part in an eight-week residency in South Africa to create a new dance work.
And Caution, by the Northern Ireland-based Sinead O'Donnell, will bring together performance artists from Canada, the US, Japan and Kurdistan to collaborate on a project exploring hidden impairments.
But there was disappointment that Unlimited has again failed to commission work from among the many talented disabled artists living and working in London itself.
The two London commissions - for the "inclusive"dance company Candoco and the performance artist Bobby Baker - are both seen as coming from the mainstream arts world, with Baker only recently beginning to address her disabled identity in her work. Candoco also secured one of the two successful London commissions in the first set of projects last year.
The disabled artist Ju Gosling said these works should have been commissioned as part of the Cultural Olympiad's far larger budget for mainstream arts.
Gosling said some "wonderful"projects from outside London had been commissioned through Unlimited.
But she said the failure to fund work from among London's talented but struggling disability arts community showed how disability arts had become "invisible"in London since London Disability Arts Forum lost its Arts Council funding and was forced to close in 2009.
She added: "There are still a large number of disabled artists in London, and we are still making work, often showing it internationally, but while the official policy is to 'mainstream' us, the reality is that we have never been more marginalised in relation to Arts Council activity."
Colin Hambrook, editor of Disability Arts Online, particularly welcomed the commission for Gadsden, whose work he said was "extraordinary"and whose project "looks very exciting".
He said the Unlimited commissions "are playing safe in a way but they were always intending to go for mainstream artists. I don't think Unlimited was ever going to be anything else."
Hambrook said the arts as a whole were being "decimated", and added: "Yes, disability arts is being marginalised, but in context so are all the arts being marginalised."
An Arts Council England spokeswoman said it wanted the artists leading the projects to be disabled people - as with Marc Brew and Claire Cunningham, the Scottish choreographers creating part of the Candoco commission - rather than insisting that the arts organisations themselves were disabled-led.
She said: "We certainly recognise that historically disabled artists have not been recognised sufficiently. By putting money into this programme it was one of the ways we wanted to pro-actively address that.
"The panel selected the projects they felt were strongest, that they were most excited about and had most potential and met the aims of the commissions."
27 January 2011
Work test reform plans could cause 'confusion' and 'misery'
A campaigning coalition has written to the government demanding that it abandons plans to introduce reforms to its controversial "work capability"test that it says will cause disabled people "further misery"and "distress".
The changes were recommended in 2009 following an internal review by the Labour government of its much-criticised work capability assessment (WCA).
The coalition members - mostly disability charities - say many of the changes contradict widely-welcomed recommendations accepted by the coalition government following an independent review of the WCA last year by Professor Malcolm Harrington.
The WCA tests eligibility for employment and support allowance (ESA), the new out-of-work disability benefit that is replacing incapacity benefit.
The letter, to employment minister Chris Grayling, warns that implementing the changes recommended by the 2009 review would make it more likely that many people with fluctuating conditions, learning difficulties and mental health conditions would be unfairly found "fit for work".
The coalition, led by the Papworth Trust, says the changes would "waste further resources", increase the number of appeals, and "diminish the positive impact of Harrington's recommendations".
Harrington told the BBC that he believed implementing the recommendations of the internal review would "cause some confusion"and that it would be better to wait for his changes.
Grayling said the government was making "almost constant improvements"to the WCA, but that he was "always willing to talk to the charities"and had "only just received this letter".
He said that "if we do something that does not prove to be the right thing, we will be happy to change it".
Meanwhile, the government is to start its national programme to retest all those disabled people claiming "old-style"incapacity benefit (IB) in late February, several weeks earlier than planned.
The national "migration"programme of the estimated 1.6 million people still claiming IB had been due to start in April.
Grayling said the government wanted to "ensure that the experience gained"from pilot schemes in Burnley and Aberdeen were "shared across all of the centres that will be dealing with the reassessment"before the move to the "full, national roll-out in April".
The government will start this "introductory phase"by sending out letters to 1,000 IB claimants a week from late February, increasing this to 7,000 assessments a week in April and 11,000 cases a week from May.
Anne Kane, policy manager for Inclusion London, said disabled people were being judged under a system that was "not fit for purpose"and "subject to ongoing review".
She said: "If the government are now speeding it up they are likely to make even more wrong judgements and not allowing themselves time to implement the findings of the Harrington review."
Marije Davidson, public affairs manager for RADAR, said she was also concerned and failed to understand the need for urgency.
She said: "Whatever happens, it's vital that there is clear communication with the people involved, and we'd like to know how selection for the trials happens and how voluntary it is."
27 January 2011
ODI director defends government on UN convention
A senior civil servant has publicly defended the government's record on disability, after disabled activists criticised its programme of spending cuts and attitude to human rights.
Tim Cooper, director of the Office for Disability Issues (ODI), was speaking at the launch of Disability Rights Watch UK, a new user-led project that is compiling evidence on how the government is complying with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Ray Ludford, a member of Lambeth Pan-Disability Forum, said disabled people were facing "catastrophic cuts to their standard of living", and added: "We are right on the bottom rung. I am really afraid for the future for all the people in this room and for all the people outside."
Andrew Lee, director of People First (Self Advocacy), said his "interpretation"was that "the government do not believe in the UN convention", and he said he was concerned that MPs had described disabled people as "scroungers".
Sandy Marks, a member of Disability Action in Islington, pointed to the government's plans to cut spending on working-age disability living allowance by 20 per cent, and the attitude of Atos Healthcare, the company paid by the government to test disabled people's "work capability"and which appeared to believe that "if you are able to breathe you are able to work".
Cooper said the government had signed up to the convention and had it "very clearly in their sights", while part of the ODI's role was to "take forward practical measures that do address the perceptions and stereotypes".
He pointed to a language guide produced by ODI to help MPs, cabinet ministers and peers "understand the issues".
Cooper, who himself is deaf, said: "I heard your anxieties and fears... Similar views are being articulated by disabled people and disabled people's organisations up and down the country.
"Clearly the coalition government has identified reduced public spending as one of its key political objectives."
But he said the ODI's role was to "ensure that as best we can that disabled people are not disproportionately affected by these public spending cuts. We will do that job to the best of our ability."
But he warned that the "political reality"was that the "vast majority"of UK citizens would be affected by the cuts.
Afterwards, he told Disability News Service that he believed both Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, and Chris Grayling, the employment minister, were committed to the rights of disabled people.
He added: "We are at a point where a number of key decisions have not been made. Some of the anxieties come from the fact that ministers are not able to say yet: 'This is definitely going to happen.'"
25 January 2011
Evidence needed for report on government's record on rights
Disabled people have been urged to come forward with examples of how their human rights have been abused, to provide evidence for a crucial new report to be submitted to the United Nations.
Their stories will be used as evidence of how the coalition government is complying with its duties under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The call for evidence was issued at the launch of Disability Rights Watch UK, a project led by the UK Disabled People's Council (UKDPC), with support from Disability LIB and Scope.
Nine disabled people's organisations (DPOs) have begun to contribute stories from their disabled members, but the project now wants to hear from other disabled people, DPOs and disability charities about their experiences since the convention was ratified by the UK government in June 2009.
Examples already submitted by members of Disability Equality (nw) - one of the nine DPOs - include disabled people who have faced discrimination at work, a young disabled person unable to attend their chosen school because their council will not pay the transport costs, a woman with a mobility impairment who was forced to walk off an airplane, and a series of disability hate crimes.
A report based on these experiences and other evidence collected through the new project will be sent to the UN, alongside other reports to be submitted by the government's Office for Disability Issues (ODI) - due this summer - the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC).
Julie Newman, acting chair of UKDPC, said the convention set out a "critically important"framework that provided a "unique opportunity"to "argue for full social inclusion and full human rights".
She said the convention provided a "moral code of behaviour"that could be used to hold the government to account over its decisions, policies and legislation.
And she said the convention made it clear that disabled people and their organisations should be closely involved in its implementation and monitoring.
Tim Cooper, director of the ODI, said: "Clearly we have made a lot of progress in the last 20 to 25 years but we accept that there is still more progress to be made and the convention is a really important driver in helping us make that change."
He said the convention's "true measure of success"would be whether it improves the "day-to-day lives of disabled people".
Afterwards, he told Disability News Service: "We have worked quite hard with the commissions (EHRC and SHRC) and with UKDPC so that all three organisations are working in parallel to each other.
"If there are not differences of opinion between us, that is a bit of a missed opportunity. It is by debating where we do not agree that we make progress."
To contribute to the report, visit: www.disabilityrightswatchuk.org
25 January 2011
News Stories from the week ending 21 January 2011
Police force faces third disability-related IPCC probe in a year
A police force is to be investigated over its failure to respond to a telephone call in which concerns were expressed about the health of a disabled man, who was found dead just two hours later.
It is the third time in a year that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has had to launch an investigation into how Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has responded to disability-related incidents.
One leading disabled activist said it raises fresh, serious concerns over how the force treats disabled people.
In the latest incident, Philip Dorsett, a wheelchair-user, was found dead by a relative at about 9.20am on 16 December 2010.
More than two hours earlier, a neighbour had called police expressing concerns about his welfare, after seeing him in a carpark near his home in Great Lever, Bolton.
An IPCC spokesman said Dorsett had been ill with a chest infection and is believed to have left his home for some fresh air - despite the near-freezing conditions - and to avoid disturbing his family with his coughing.
The IPCC spokesman said GMP failed to take any action in response to the phone call, or to pass the information to the ambulance service.
He said police failed to respond until receiving a call more than two hours later saying Dorsett had died. The death is not being treated as suspicious.
Naseem Malik, an IPCC commissioner, said: "It is unclear whether Mr Dorsett was already dead when the call was made to GMP, but it is important that we independently examine how the neighbour's call was handled and the decision-making that led to there being no police response."
GMP is already awaiting the result of two other IPCC investigations concerning serious incidents involving disabled people.
The IPCC is nearing the end of its probe into how the force dealt with the family of David Askew, a disabled man who was subjected to years of harassment and hostility from local youths, before collapsing and dying from "natural causes" shortly after yet another incident. GMP was also heavily criticised for not treating the incident as a potential disability hate crime.
There were also questions raised about whether the force failed to investigate a brutal and sustained attack on a young man with Asperger's syndrome as a potential disability hate crime. The three teenagers recorded the attack - which lasted three days - on a mobile phone.
And the IPCC is preparing to publish a report into an incident in which a GMP officer used a 50,000 volt "Taser" stun-gun on a man who was recovering from an epileptic seizure.
Stephen Brookes, a coordinator of the Disability Hate Crime Network, said: "I have had deep concerns about the way Manchester police have been caught short so often. Their attitude to disability hate crime is woefully lacking."
He said the force's attitude towards safeguarding, hate crime and supporting disabled people in vulnerable situations was "pretty bad".
He added: "They are just not doing the job and there is no question that they are not doing the job, otherwise these incidents would not be happening."
GMP said it could not comment on the three IPCC cases until the commission had finished its investigations.
But assistant chief constable Garry Shewan said: "We have conducted a number of internal reviews around how we handle the issue of disability hate crime, and we are currently developing a training package so that officers can quickly identify when an incident can be dealt with under disability hate crime legislation so that it can be prosecuted as such and offenders are given lengthier sentences."
He said the force was also "working hard to address the causes of disability-related harassment by working with disabled people, disability organisations and partner agencies to raise awareness of this very serious issue".
And he said GMP had introduced a new system to ensure neighbourhood officers "can identity anyone who might be vulnerable and at risk of anti-social behaviour so they develop specific action plans to stop that person from being a victim of harassment".
He added: "We have hosted a number of conferences to raise awareness of the issue of disability-related harassment and have enhanced our provisions for schools-based officers who can combat hate crime and bullying in schools."
21 January 2011
Thousands share 'heartbreaking' posts in DLA blog campaign
Organisers of an online campaign to raise awareness of the importance of disability living allowance (DLA) in the face of government cuts and reforms say they are "overwhelmed" by its success.
The One Month Before Heartbreak "blogswarm" encouraged people to post blogs about disability over the three days from 14 January - one month before the end of the government's consultation on its DLA reforms, on Valentine's Day.
More than 170 blogs have been posted and read by thousands of people, although the final figures have not yet been compiled.
Kaliya Franklin, who blogs under the name Bendy Girl and helped run One Month Before Heartbreak, said: "What we are doing is reaching people who wouldn't traditionally have engaged with disability rights, people who would not have seen themselves as disabled because they are ill."
The posts will be used to inform an official response to the consultation, being put together by disabled campaigners from The Broken of Britain blog.
One blogger, 'Jimboeth', wrote: "DLA is not allowing anyone an outlandish lifestyle (unlike say, bankers' bonuses). It merely allows a small number of people in this country a life. It allows them to live. That's what the 'L' in DLA stands for. Living. As in 'not dying'."
'Latentexistence' wrote: "Disabled people were treated badly enough by the previous government. The actions of this one in cutting benefits and making the criteria even stricter are despicable."
Tim Rushby-Smith wrote: "It's easy to shout loudly about benefit fraud and the 'Nanny State', but a small amount of scrutiny soon reveals that the majority of those affected by the cuts will be people who depend on relatively modest state support to allow them a reasonable quality of life."
And Sue Marsh posted about "the culture of fear" created around so-called "benefits cheats" and her right to take advantage of the rare moments when she is well enough to dance, play with her children, or take a motorbike ride with her husband.
Franklin said she was "overwhelmed by how well it went", with almost 20,000 blog pages viewed so far, and this number rising all the time.
She said: "I don't believe the British public want this at all. They believe that people in need will be protected.
"David Cameron should look at this and hang his head in shame. The way the students are personally angry with Nick Clegg, disabled people are angry with David Cameron.
"Disability is like an international family, it links us. Ivan (Cameron's disabled son, who died two years ago) was very much part of that family, and there is personal betrayal felt by disabled people of all kinds of political allegiance - we all had a degree of trust in David Cameron because he was Ivan's dad."
21 January 2011
Disabled protesters set to target Atos
Disabled activists are set to take part in a series of countrywide protests targeting the company that carries out the controversial assessments of eligibility for out-of-work disability benefits.
Protesters will target offices belonging to Atos Healthcare, the much-criticised company that tests disabled people's "work capability" for the Department for Work and Pensions.
One of the protests will take place outside the London headquarters of Atos Origin, Atos Healthcare's parent company.
Other demonstrations will take place in Edinburgh, Burnley, Leeds, Brighton, and Lydney in Gloucestershire, as part of a national day of protest against benefit cuts. Most of the actions on Monday (24 January) look set to target Atos.
The campaigning group Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) is playing a central role in the London action and other protests.
Healthcare professionals working for Atos carry out the work capability assessment (WCA), the test introduced in 2008 to assess eligibility for employment and support allowance, the replacement for incapacity benefit.
In his independent review of the WCA in November, Professor Malcolm Harrington said widespread complaints about Atos staff "must be taken seriously", and he criticised "poor decision making and a high rate of appeals".
Official figures show that about two-fifths of appeals against a decision by Atos to find someone "fit for work" are successful.
Protesters now fear that Atos will also win the government contract to reassess all working-age people claiming disability living allowance from 2013.
Linda Burnip, a founding member of DPAC, said disabled people were "really, really angry about the WCA and how people are treated".
Disabled students at the University of Birmingham are also planning a protest against government benefit and spending cuts they say will harm their future.
Student Claire Lister said they planned to protest against the "barriers to learning" the cuts would create, the work of Atos, and the impact the cuts would have when they left university.
The protests are the latest in a series organised by disabled activists against government spending cuts since last year's general election, including an action against cuts to housing benefits, one by members of Mad Pride, and another during the Conservative party conference in Birmingham.
Meanwhile, DPAC is encouraging disabled people to sign up for a workshop that will help build "resistance" to the cuts.
The DPAC workshop will take place as part of A People's Convention to Build Resistance to Cuts and Austerity, at which high-profile Labour MPs and union leaders will be speaking.
To book a place at the convention in London on Saturday 12 February, visit: http://righttowork.org.uk/2010/11/peoples-convention/
20 January 2011
Councils 'are making profits from care charges'
Some local authorities are imposing charges for home care services that are so high they must be making a profit from them, according to one leading disabled figure.
Sue Bott, director of the National Centre for Independent Living, said charges for support at home for disabled and older people were far higher than these councils needed to cover their costs.
She spoke out after new research showed hourly charges for support in 2010-11 reached as high as £21.66 an hour in one local authority, with other councils charging £19.80 and £19.70.
Only three councils were providing free care, while Barnsley charged just £5 an hour.
Bott said she believed the only rationale councils used to decide on their charges regime was "what they think they can get away with", with most local authorities not even publishing their charging policies on their websites.
The new research - by the consumer magazine Which? - also shows that seven in ten local authorities are restricting support to those with critical or substantial needs.
Care charges are means-tested and some councils operate a weekly cap on charges, but this can vary from £60 in Barnsley to £550 in Haringey and £850 in Brighton.
The figures - obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests - also show that only four of the local authorities provide care to those with low, medium, substantial and critical needs. Three councils provide support only to those with critical needs.
Which? contacted 185 local authorities across England and Wales, and 154 replied.
Bott said disabled and older people were facing a "double whammy" of higher charges while also having their support packages cut, and that the system was "out of control".
Another "worrying development", she said, was that some councils were trying to impose a cap on the disability-related expenditure that can be taken into account when calculating the charges a disabled person must pay.
The Department of Health (DH) would not say whether it was concerned about the variation in charges and capping, and councils potentially making profits from charging for support.
But a DH spokeswoman said charging decisions were the responsibility of local authorities, "in line with government guidance".
She said the government had announced £2 billion a year extra funding for social care by 2013-14, but that "even with this extra funding, every council has to make savings and, like the government, make tough decisions".
But she said the government accepted the need for long-term reform, which was why it set up the Commission on Funding of Care and Support.
20 January 2011
Remploy redundancy shock could be 'beginning of end' for factories
The announcement that 2,800 disabled Remploy workers are to be offered voluntary redundancy could be "the beginning of the end" for its sheltered factories, according to unions.
Remploy's disabled staff were said to be in shock this week after the company said the offer would be made in a bid to cut mounting losses in its factory businesses.
Unions reacted furiously to the announcement by the government-funded company and promised to fight any job losses at the remaining 54 sheltered factories.
Steve Sargent, a member of the GMB union and deputy national convenor for the Remploy trade union consortium, said he believed the company's long-term strategy was to close all of the factories.
He said: "Personally I think it is the beginning of the end. So far our members are in shock. People are very concerned about their jobs."
Sargent said his members were concerned that if significant numbers of staff accepted voluntary redundancy, it could lead to factories closing.
He said members were worried about the economic environment they would face if they lost their jobs, with government cuts to disability benefits and high and rising unemployment.
Remploy insisted it had no plans to close any of its factories, but said that half of the staff in many of them were being paid to do nothing, because of the lack of orders caused by the economic downturn.
The company said it could only decide how many redundancies there would be after consulting with staff and unions.
Last October, the Cabinet Office failed to reach a decision on whether Remploy would be scrapped as part of its review of quangos, and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed this week that that position had not changed.
Liz Sayce, RADAR's chief executive, is conducting a review of the employment support the government provides for disabled people, including those services run by Remploy.
When asked whether its long-term plan was to close all its sheltered factories, a Remploy spokesman said: "I wouldn't say that."
But he said the Sayce report would "play an important role" in deciding Remploy's future, and added: "It will be important, but let us not pre-empt it."
A DWP spokeswoman said the review would "inform how the government moves forward in this area", and added: "I think everyone would agree that moving into mainstream employment would be the best option. These factories were set up in the 1940s. They are outdated."
The government has pledged £111 million-a-year funding for Remploy until 2012-13.
Three years ago, the Labour government closed 29 Remploy factories as part of a modernisation programme.
GMB claims 90 per cent of the 2,000 disabled workers who took voluntary redundancy then are now out of work, a figure Remploy disputes.
The union has blamed "incompetent and overpaid management" for the factories' lack of work. Remploy said its managers had done "everything they can to try and win new business in a very tough economic climate".
Remploy said that anyone choosing voluntary redundancy would be offered help from its employment service, which this year is due to support 16,000 people into mainstream jobs.
20 January 2011
Government cuts 'risk reversing progress on equality'
Government cuts to spending on disability living allowance (DLA) and other benefits and support for disabled people could reverse the progress towards equality revealed by new official figures, say campaigners.
Statistics from the government's Office for Disability Issues (ODI) show the proportion of working-age disabled people in Britain with jobs rose from 47.4 per cent in 2009 to 48.4 per cent in 2010. The proportion of non-disabled people in work fell slightly over the same period.
The figures also show that the wage gap between disabled and non-disabled workers - the difference in their mean hourly wage rates - fell from £1.01 in 2009 to 52p in 2010.
And the proportion of working-age disabled people with no qualifications also fell, from 23.2 per cent in 2009 to 20.1 per cent in 2010, while the percentage of disabled people with degree-level qualifications rose from 12.7 per cent in 2009 to 13.4 per cent in 2010.
Marije Davidson, RADAR's public affairs manager, said progress was "still way too slow" and that "stronger action is needed to close the gap between disabled and non-disabled people".
She said the "slight sign of progress" could be reversed if cuts to public spending meant disabled people no longer received the support they needed, with less investment in accessible buildings and transport, and cuts to public sector staff and funding of user-led organisations.
Planned cuts to DLA spending, she said, could make it harder for disabled people to fund the extra costs associated with working, such as transport, and to stay healthy as they struggle with poverty.
Linda Burnip, a founding member of Disabled People Against Cuts, also said that cutting DLA and other support for disabled people risked reversing the gains, and added: "If they don't get DLA they will not be able to work or do all sorts of things."
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) welcomed the new ODI figures but denied that spending cuts risked reversing the progress made towards equality.
A DWP spokeswoman said: "Since taking office in May 2010, the coalition government has set out an ambitious programme of employment support to ensure that people get the help they need to find and keep jobs.
"Our aim is that government programmes such as Work Choice and the Work Programme should support more disabled people than ever before into sustainable employment."
20 January 2011
DLA cuts will stop disabled people working, finds survey
Half of disabled people who claim disability living allowance (DLA) and have jobs would be forced to stop working or reduce their hours if they lost their entitlement to the benefit, according to a new survey.
The survey, being carried out by Disability Alliance in response to a government consultation on its controversial DLA reforms, has prompted a huge response from disabled people, with more than 1,000 replies so far.
Interim results of the survey show that, of roughly one in four respondents who said they worked, half said they would have to cut back their working hours or quit their job if their DLA was taken away.
The chancellor, George Osborne, announced in June that the government would cut the 1.8 million working-age people claiming DLA - as well as spending on working-age DLA claimants - by 20 per cent by 2016.
Last month, the government warned that spending on DLA had become "unsustainable" and "poorly targeted", and published plans for widespread reforms. It will start to reassess all working-age claimants of DLA in 2013, through a new assessment. A consultation on its plans ends on 14 February.
Disability Alliance (DA) believes the government will have to remove DLA from 750,000 people if it wants to achieve planned savings of £1 billion a year. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it did not recognise DA's figures.
But Neil Coyle, DA's director of policy, said 750,000 was a "conservative estimate" and the total impact would be "much higher", with the numbers rising even higher if the government extended its cuts to older people and children.
Many respondents to the DA survey said they would "lose the will to live" if they did not have the financial support DLA provided.
One said: "If I lose my lower rates of DLA, I will lose my car, I will lose my own job and I might well lose my own life."
Another said: "DLA makes a difference between having a tiny bit of independence and life not being worth living."
While another said: "I wouldn't survive and would end it all."
Coyle said the government had "wildly under-estimated" the impact of cutting DLA.
He said many people who responded to the survey described DLA as their "lifeline".
He said: "Disabled people are incredibly anxious and fearful about what change will mean."
The DWP disputed DA's conclusions. A DWP spokeswoman said its reforms - which will see DLA renamed the Person Independence Payment (PIP) - would "help us protect DLA for the future and ensure that the £12bn we spend on it goes where it is needed the most", while it would continue to be non-means-tested and paid to people in and out of work.
She said: "At the moment, 80 per cent of people on DLA do not work and we want to make sure that disabled people who can work get all the help and support they need to do so."
19 January 2011
UK charity boosts inclusion in vital Sudan referendum
Disabled people in southern Sudan have been supported by a UK development agency to take part in the referendum that will decide whether their region achieves independence from the north of the war-ravaged country.
ADD International (ADD) helped secure funding for three Sudanese disabled people's organisations (DPOs) to raise awareness among their members of their right to take part in this month's referendum.
The referendum followed decades of bloody civil war between the north and south of the country, with hopes that a vote for independence for the south will end Africa's longest conflict.
Following a UN-funded workshop on voting rights for disabled people - organised by DPOs with support from ADD - the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission issued a document, Steps in the Voting Process, stating that disabled people must be shown to the front of the voting queue, while blind and visually-impaired people would be allowed to choose someone to support them to vote.
An ADD spokeswoman said: "ADD and its partners have achieved a lot in Sudan in really difficult circumstances.
"The work ADD does enables disabled people to advocate for their own rights and build the capacity of DPOs in order to create a strong disability movement."
ADD International has been working in Sudan for more than 20 years, and has links with more than 40 DPOs, with a combined membership of more than 45,000 disabled people, many of whom became disabled through injuries sustained in the civil war.
Although there is backing for a national pan-disability DPO, progress towards setting one up is slow, due to the vast distances involved in travelling between existing impairment-specific DPOs.
ADD International now hopes to support DPOs in Sudan to push for further measures to improve access to voting at future elections, including tactile guides to allow blind people to vote independently, and sign language interpreters.
Last year, ADD in Sudan supported DPOs to act as observers in the general election and to meet with the Sudanese president to discuss election access issues.
It also enabled leaders and members of DPOs to be involved in the election as candidates, voters, trainers, monitors and observers, with at least two disabled people subsequently being elected.
17 January 2011
News Stories from the week ending 23 August 2010
Channel 4 to paint portrait of incredible athletes
A feature-length, prime-time television documentary will paint a remarkable portrait of some of Britain's top Paralympic athletes.
Inside Incredible Athletes portrays the disabled sports stars - including footballer David Clarke, equestrian Lee Pearson and wheelchair rugby player Steve Brown - as obsessive, super-fit and incredibly skilful.
The Channel 4 documentary will be shown on Sunday 29 August, two years to the day before the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympics.
Brown, a member of Britain's wheelchair rugby squad, tells how he first encountered the sport while receiving treatment at the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville hospital.
He describes how he came from the hospital where "everybody's doing everything for you because it's such a struggle" to a wheelchair rugby training session where disabled people were "smashing the st out of each other in their wheelchairs".
He says: "They were angry, they were aggressive, they were violent, they were screaming, they were shouting. Human traits that I hadn't even seen for two months, let alone see anyone in a wheelchair ever have."
Pearson, training hard for his fourth Paralympic games and already the winner of nine dressage gold medals, explains how he controls his horse using movements in just his pelvis, lower back and hips. He competes successfully in events for both disabled and non-disabled riders.
And Clarke, who captains the England blind football team and has scored more than 100 goals for his country, describes how the stereotypes and "automatic assumptions" about blindness tend to vanish when people watch blind football for the first time.
He demonstrates his incredible spatial awareness and how he has a "perfect visual image about how the world is" that allows him to play football so well.
He says he wants to captain the British team at London 2012, which would be his last tournament, and adds: "The prize is there and my god is it worth it."
This week, Clarke was captaining the England side in the world championships in Hereford. A tense 1-0 victory over Colombia in their final group match secured a semi-final place against Brazil.
Inside Incredible Athletes, Sunday 29 August, 9pm, Channel 4.
23/08/2010
Solar Centre abuse scandal: Trust denies watering down report
The NHS trust at the heart of a day centre abuse scandal has denied "watering down" its report into the allegations.
The Serious Untoward Incident report into the allegations of abuse of people with learning difficulties at the Solar Centre in Doncaster was completed by Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) in September 2008, but was leaked to a newspaper last month.
The report says there were 44 alleged incidents between 2005 and 2007, involving 18 service-users, but provides details of just four alleged incidents at the day centre, in which a disabled person was locked in a store room, two others were hit, and another was slapped in the face and threatened.
The report also details some incidents involving a staff minibus, including staff throwing biscuits onto the floor for service-users to pick up and eat.
But Disability News Service has also seen a report by another agency into the allegations involving just one of the 18 disabled people, Richie Rowe, which suggests the alleged abuse was far more serious than suggested by the trust's report.
This report describes how two members of staff allegedly kicked Rowe's wheelchair "from one side of the room to the other causing Richie to crash into patients and the walls".
In another incident, Rowe - who has learning difficulties and high support needs - was allegedly lifted out of his wheelchair and thrown onto the floor.
On another occasion, it is alleged that two of the staff members each grabbed one of his arms and legs and threw him onto a trampoline.
Adrian Milnes, Rowe's step-father, said the "watered down" report had led families to "think it wasn't as bad as we had thought".
He said the trust had acted "immorally" and was "just as culpable" as the alleged perpetrators.
Valerie Kirsopp, whose son Robert was another alleged victim of the abuse, also said the allegations were more serious than those detailed in the trust's report.
She added: "It just beggars belief that nothing is being done about it."
South Yorkshire police are currently reviewing the trust's report and considering whether to reopen their original investigation from 2007, which failed to provide enough evidence to press any charges.
Kirsopp said: "I am so angry with the trust and the police. I have no faith in the police. If they can take an easy way out, they will do."
Sandra Mountain, whose daughter was another of the disabled people to have allegedly been abused at the day centre, also accused the trust of "playing down" the seriousness of the allegations.
Ian Jerams, RDaSH's chief operating officer, said the main purpose of the report was to "identify the root causes" of the incidents and "determine any lessons to be learnt", while detailed descriptions of the allegations were provided to relatives through their individual "safeguarding conferences".
He added: "Whilst the Serious Untoward Incident report makes summary reference to the incidents, there has been no attempt to 'water down' the severity of any incidents, which were described in full with all the relatives concerned."
All four former members of day centre staff involved in the alleged abuse are said to deny all of the allegations.
19 August 2010
Partnership provides chance to push for better housing
Disabled people have the chance to help push for urgent housing improvements across Scotland, thanks to a partnership between the Scottish government and two leading disability organisations.
The partnership programme was launched this week by Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living (GCIL) and Capability Scotland, with the first of seven consultation events to be held over the next few months for disabled people who have experienced housing problems.
There will also be a national survey asking disabled Scots about the barriers that prevent them accessing suitable housing, the priorities for action from the Scottish government, and other questions such as whether they can access every part of their own home.
Etienne d'Aboville, GCIL's chief executive, said housing was the "cornerstone" of independent living, because "if you cannot get in and out of your home you don't get very far with everything else".
He said the programme would link in with the independent living work the Scottish government was doing alongside local authorities and Scotland's independent living movement.
D'Aboville said he expects disabled people who take part to raise issues such as the lack of choice in accessible housing, the failure of councils to provide joined-up systems providing information on the availability of accessible properties, and the difficulty of securing adaptations to private rented accommodation.
He said there was a need for many more accessible properties to be built "to the right standards", following the recent slump in house-building.
D'Aboville said he was optimistic that the Scottish government would listen to what disabled people said in the consultation.
He said: "The limits will be about what is politically acceptable and how much money there is, but in terms of the will and intent to progress our agenda, I do think we have a very good chance of being listened to."
The consultation results will feed into a conference next year and will help GCIL and Capability Scotland to influence future housing policy and legislation.
19 August 2010
New centre for independent living leads to loss of two DPOs
Two disabled people's organisations (DPOs) in Northamptonshire have been forced to close after a total of nearly 50 years fighting for disabled people in the county, following the loss of key council funding.
The loss of the two DPOs has highlighted issues created by the Labour government's demand for there to be a user-led centre for independent living (CIL) in every area by 2010.
Disabled People's Alliance Northamptonshire (DPAN) and Ability Northants were both part of a consortium of local charities that bid for the contract to run a new CIL in the county.
But the £500,000-a-year contract was won instead by a DPO from neighbouring Bedfordshire, Disability Resource Centre (DRC).
DPAN also lost out in a joint bid with other local organisations for another £500,000-a-year contract to provide advocacy services for disabled people.
This contract was awarded to the national organisation Advocacy Partners Speaking Up - which is not a user-led organisation - supported by Advocacy Alliance, which works across Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire.
As part of this reorganisation, DPAN lost out on its core funding from Northamptonshire County Council and will have to close, while Ability Northants closed at the end of March.
John Smith, DPAN's coordinator, said losing traditional DPOs like DPAN would mean the loss of their independent "campaigning, checking role" that ensured councils were held accountable to disabled people.
Smith will probably join DPAN's disability rights service in transferring to the new CIL, which he said had been "very good in recognising that it is a difficult situation".
But he said many other user-led organisations that were winning contracts to run CILs were not DPOs, with many controlled by carers and other people "with an interest in disability".
He said: "The old CILs came from the grassroots. Disabled people developed them and now local authorities are saying they want carers in their CILs. It's a different animal.
"I think it is really important to retain that distinction, that little word 'of' as in an organisation 'of' disabled people, rather than 'for' disabled people.
"We didn't apologise that we were all disabled people. We should be assertive and say that that is the right way."
Mick Dillon, DRC's chief executive, said he was a wheelchair-user himself and DRC was "user-led at every level of the organisation".
He said the new CIL had established a board of service-users to "act as our watchdog", while 19 of its 20 staff came from Northamptonshire, and none from Bedfordshire.
But he accepted that DRC tried to "work in partnership rather than direct action".
Dillon said DRC was hugely experienced in running direct payments and personalisation services, and said services in Northamptonshire would be "further improved", building on DPAN's work and its "wealth of experience".
He added: "I am happy to be judged on my results."
A council spokeswoman said the new CIL would "bring both improved services and a wider range of services than ever before for disabled people in the county", while "local disabled people, carers and those who support disabled people" would have "a direct involvement" in how the service was run.
18 August 2010
Artists will pay Liberty tribute to David Morris
Friends of the disability rights campaigner David Morris are to pay tribute to his life and work at next month's Liberty disability arts festival.
Morris - who died in April - was a leading figure in Liberty's development and this year's festival - the eighth - will be dedicated to his memory.
But disabled artists Ju Gosling and Katherine Araniello are also organising a tribute to Morris's creative and cultural legacy through their Red Jesus chill-out tent at the festival in Trafalgar Square.
Red Jesus was the name Morris gave to a cultural "salon" he hosted in his apartment in Limehouse, east London, at which disabled friends showed their films and recited their poetry, as well as socialising and eating good food in an accessible environment.
Gosling and Araniello will be showing several of Morris's films, including the first four showings of Together!, a short film for the United Kingdom Disabled People's Council he had nearly finished when he died.
There will also be portraits of disabled people by the artist Silvia Jahnsons that were commissioned by Morris for his film, open mic sessions and an exhibition on Morris's life and work.
Gosling and Araniello are now setting up a Red Jesus social enterprise that will continue Morris's work, with several events a year in which disabled people will be able to meet, socialise and share their creative work.
Gosling said: "We were just very, very keen to carry on David's work in the way that he would have wanted it to be carried on, and continue with his projects.
"It was very important to him to encourage disabled people's creativity and to create a space where disabled people could come together, meet each other, network, relax and socialise in an atmosphere where everybody was equal and it didn't matter who you were."
Liberty's Red Jesus tent is being sponsored by Disability LIB, which focuses on building the capacity of disabled people's organisations and is supporting Gosling and Araniello to set up Red Jesus.
Stephen Hodgkins, director of Disability LIB, said Morris was a "renaissance man" and the Red Jesus Liberty event would be a "lovely tribute" to him.
As well as featuring the cream of disability arts talent, this year's Liberty will celebrate disability sport, with two years to go until London hosts the 2012 Paralympic Games.
The worlds of art and sport will be brought together by contemporary artist Rachel Gadsden, who will capture the action on life-size canvases as athletes from wheelchair sports charity WheelPower play wheelchair basketball and tennis.
Other festival highlights include a preview of Graeae's new musical Reasons to be Cheerful, which features the songs of the late Ian Dury.
Another new Graeae production will feature the powered wheelchair dancing troupe Rhinestone Rollers, with a "witty insight into dance through the ages", while bhangra legend Kuljit Bhamra will lead a street theatre performance inspired by Chutney, the popular music style of the Indian community in Trinidad.
Live music performances will include Yunioshi, singer Lizzie Emeh - with songs from her new album Loud and Proud - and The Fish Police, while the line-up in the cabaret and comedy tent includes Mackenzie Taylor, Francesca Martinez, Steve Day and Liz Carr, and poets from CoolTan Arts.
There will also be an aerial performance featuring Amici Dance Theatre and Cirque Nova, and an aerial collaboration between Candoco and Scarabeus Theatre inspired by the myth of the minotaur.
Liberty 2010 is at Trafalgar Square, London, on Saturday 4 September, from 1pm to 5pm. Entrance is free. More information and access details at: www.london.gov.uk/liberty
18 August 2010
Government gives personal budget approval for sex workers
The government has confirmed that it has no objection to disabled people using part of their council-funded personal budgets to pay sex workers.The confirmation followed the media storm created by the release of a new survey of councils by the Outsiders and the TLC Trust, which both provide advice and support around sex and disability.
The survey found only three per cent of local authorities had a policy on the use of sex workers by disabled service-users, with the same number happy for sex workers to be paid using money from a disabled person's personal budget or other council funding.
Despite these results, nearly three-quarters of the councils said they had explicitly supported the human rights of disabled people to develop social, personal and sexual relationships.
The Outsiders and the TLC Trust said the survey showed councils were guilty of a "scandalous neglect" of disabled people's sexual and emotional needs.
The survey was carried out using Freedom of Information Act requests of 206 local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales, of which 121 responded.
Following the survey's publication, at least three tabloid newspapers published stories critical of the small number of councils that said they did allow disabled people to use self-directed support to access sex workers.
The Department of Health (DH) said in a statement: "Money allocated through Putting People First the government's personalisation programme for adult social care should be used by councils to help people to live independently."
But a DH spokeswoman added: "The policy is that the decision is taken locally by the disabled person and the council on what is best for that person and the personal budget is used in the way that is best for that person."
Asked whether there was a DH policy that said personal budgets should not be used to pay sex workers, she said: "There would not be. It is not for us to dictate what is best for that person."
Disability consultant Alex Cowan said: "I believe it is a legitimate goal to want sexual contact and experiences.
"It is unfair not to enable a disabled person to overcome the barriers that a non-disabled person would not face in getting sexual contact.
"Sex can be a very important part of their life, and they are entitled to make choices about what kind of support and assistance they need to have it."
She said the goal of personalisation was for a disabled person to choose how they spend their limited personal budget to meet their needs.
Cowan added: "Disabled people have to go through a very rigorous assessment process with strong criteria about the goals of their personal budget.
"The story is about what are legitimate quality of life goals, and in my opinion, sex is a legitimate quality of life goal."
Dr Tuppy Owens, who founded both Outsiders and TLC Trust, said she hoped the survey would encourage local authorities to develop policies on the use of sex workers.
She said managers "like to pay lip service to the idea that their service-users enjoy real choice, empowerment and freedom, so long as that does not actually include sex".
For more information, visit: www.outsiders.org.uk and www.tlc-trust.org.uk
18 August 2010
News Stories from the week ending 14 August 2010
DWP uses 'Al Capone powers' to freeze assets in benefit fraud probe
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has used controversial laws designed for confiscating property from terrorists and drug dealers to freeze the assets of two disabled businessmen under investigation for benefit fraud.
The two disabled men - who cannot be named for legal reasons - say the investigation by the DWP has destroyed their lives and ruined their business, even though they have yet to be charged with any offence.
The government has used the Proceeds of Crime Act (PoCA) to freeze all of their assets - and made it impossible to continue running their company - before they have had a chance to defend themselves in court.
Allegations of Access to Work fraud were first made in March against the two men, who are directors of a company that provided jobs for a number of disabled people.
The allegations were later extended to cover fraud relating to disability living allowance. They have both been extensively interviewed over claims of fraud totalling millions of pounds, although they claim the grants they received totalled far less than this.
They say their Motability vehicles, electric wheelchairs, disability benefits, bank accounts, medical aids and access to council care and support have all been seized, restrained or denied.
Both men even had all of the cash taken from their wallets by police after being interviewed about the allegations. Under PoCA, they are both given £250 a week to live on, although it has taken four months for them to start receiving that money.
One of the men, David (not his real name), said they had had their right to a fair hearing removed, which had led to a "Kafka-esque situation" in which they had been subjected to "all the available sanctions available under law" before they had been charged with any offence.
Both men say they can prove that they are disabled and were entitled to claim the benefits.
David said: "They have literally thrown everything they can against us. I have had my company taken away. My livelihood has been removed.
"We feel like we've been scooped up and dumped in Communist Russia where justice for the common man no longer exists yet those in charge are able to do as they want and get away with it."
Writing about PoCA in the Guardian last November - before he became a government minister - the Liberal Democrat MP Chris Huhne said the "Al Capone powers" within the act to search homes, seize cash, freeze bank accounts and confiscate property were "designed to claw back the money and assets accrued by Mr Bigs and deprive them of a luxury lifestyle funded by a lifetime of criminality".
But he warned that the act had "increasingly been used to seize the assets of minor offenders" in order to meet stiff government targets.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "We do not comment on ongoing investigations."
When asked to comment on the DWP's use of PoCA, she said: "I would not comment on that."
But she added: "It is one of the laws we are entitled to use."
A spokesman for the police force which arrested the men said: "We were involved in taking out the search warrants, executing the searches and making arrests on behalf of the DWP. It is the DWP's case, which...police are assisting on."
12 August 2010
Government to use credit firms in latest benefit fraud crackdown
The government is set to use private companies to trawl through disabled people's credit histories as part of its latest campaign to cut benefit fraud.
The prime minister, David Cameron, announced this week on a visit to Manchester that the government would unveil an "uncompromising" crackdown on benefit fraud this autumn, which could include tougher penalties and more prosecutions for fraud.
He said the government wanted to use credit ratings agencies to "go after those who are claiming illegally".
The government wants to pay these companies according to how many fraudulent claims they detect. It was widely reported in the mainstream media that government sources had described these fees as "bounty payments".
Experian, one of the companies that already works on fraud detection with the government, claims it could use "simple data matching techniques to identify lifestyles incompatible with people genuinely incapable of work" and save £300 million in incapacity benefit (IB) fraud and error.
This is a far higher sum than the government's latest estimates of £210 million lost every year to IB fraud and error, of which just £30 million is fraud.
Experian would use techniques such as checking that information given to the DWP in a benefit claim matches information given by the claimant to other organisations, and analysing whether their income levels suggest they have a job.
But disabled activist Adam Lotun, director of Workplace Disability Adjustments, said he was very concerned about "consultants coming in who...do not understand the needs and requirements of disabled people".
He said: "I am worried that a lot of innocent disabled people are going to get caught up and accused of fraud."
The Scottish Campaign on Welfare Reform (SCoWR) said the DWP's figures showed total benefit fraud was less than one per cent of all claims, with errors caused by underpayments, overpayments, poor administration and bureaucracy far more of a problem.
Maggie Kelly, of the Scottish Poverty Alliance, said it was "about time that David Cameron started to focus on the huge amount of money lost through DWP mistakes and the £40bn a year lost in high level tax avoidance and evasion. The amount lost through benefit fraud is tiny in comparison."
It also emerged that the government is considering forcing claimants of the new employment and support allowance (ESA) to take their work assessment test earlier than the current 14 weeks.
Chris Grayling, the employment minister, suggested that many of the people who abandon their ESA claims before taking the test have been claiming the benefit fraudulently.
He said: "You can wait 13 weeks on ESA before you have a medical check - 30 or 40 per cent of claims stop before that 13 weeks is up. That is something we should give some thought to."
A DWP spokeswoman said they were "looking at options" for having the work capability assessment take place earlier in the assessment process for ESA, although no decisions had yet been made.
12 August 2010
Solar Centre abuse scandal: family's anger at health trust
Relatives of people with learning difficulties who were allegedly abused at an NHS day centre are to take legal action against the trust that ran the centre.
They also want South Yorkshire police to reopen its investigation into the allegations of abuse by four members of staff at the Solar Centre in Doncaster.
Police investigated the allegations in 2007, but failed to produce enough evidence to press any charges.
Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) then carried out its own investigation and uncovered evidence that 18 people with learning difficulties, high support needs and physical and sensory impairments had been abused.
The trust has said the "majority" of the allegations were proven, although all four staff members are said to have denied all the allegations. The trust's report was leaked to the press last month.
Adrian Milnes, whose step-son Richie was one of the alleged victims, called on the trust to name the four staff members.
He said: "We want to know their names. The trust should be open about that. The only assurance they have given us is that Richie will not come into contact with them on their premises.
"These people have been allowed to evaporate and disappear from the radar."
A spokeswoman for RDaSH said two former members of its staff had been referred to the Protection of Vulnerable Adults scheme - now the vetting and barring scheme run by the Independent Safeguarding Authority - and this "should ensure that they are not employed in the future in any other registered service caring for vulnerable adults".
She said a third member of staff was no longer employed within the trust's Learning Disabilities Directorate. The fourth member of staff was employed by a different trust. RDaSH was unable to say what measures would be taken to ensure that these two people would not have any contact with the alleged victims.
She said: "We can't release specific details about members of staff because then we breach our duty of confidentiality towards them."
Milnes said his family and at least one other would be seeking damages from the trust over its failure to protect their relatives.
He said his step-son's behaviour had completely changed as a result of what happened. "It has been broken sleeps and nightmares for nearly six years now. He has become aggressive. He is now perceiving threats where he didn't before.
"Before this happened he was very loving, patient and considerate. He doesn't have any patience anymore."
He is hoping to contact more relatives, so they can share information and offer mutual support.
12 August 2010
Alcoholics not disabled people, says Equality Act guidance
Alcoholics, people with hayfever and those with tendencies to steal or set fires will not be able to claim protection from disability discrimination under the Equality Act, according to new government guidance.
The draft guidance, published this week by the Office for Disability Issues, says that people with disfigurements caused by tattoos or non-medical body piercings should also not be treated as disabled people under the act.
The act defines a disabled person as someone with a "physical or mental impairment" which has a "substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities".
People with cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis do not have to meet this test and are protected under the act from the moment they are diagnosed, while those certified as blind, sight-impaired or partially-sighted by a consultant ophthalmologist are also automatically protected.
The final version of the guidance will be used by courts and tribunals to decide whether someone is a disabled person protected from discrimination by the act, which became law earlier this year. Implementation of most of the act begins on 1 October.
The draft guidance includes a string of examples of disabled people who would and would not be protected by the act.
For example, a woman with learning difficulties who finds it difficult travelling alone because she often gets lost in slightly unfamiliar areas would be seen to be experiencing a "substantial adverse effect" on her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Other factors that would be seen as having a "substantial adverse effect" on the ability to carry out such activities include "difficulty opening a moderately heavy door" and "persistent difficulty" in remembering the names of family or friends.
But factors that would not be included under the act include "simple clumsiness", "inability to carry heavy luggage without assistance", and "inability to sing in tune".
A consultation on the draft guidance, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, closes on 31 October 2010. To take part, visit www.officefordisability.gov.uk/working/equality-bill.php
12 August 2010
Government spending cut raises threat of repossessions
Tens of thousands of disabled people will be at risk of having their homes repossessed because the government is cutting spending on a mortgage interest support scheme, according to a national housing body.
The chancellor, George Osborne, announced in his emergency budget in June that the government would cut funding available through the Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) scheme, which helps many homeowners on income-related benefits.
From October, the rate paid will be cut from 6.08 per cent to the Bank of England average mortgage rate, which is currently about 3.67 per cent.
But the National Housing Federation (NHF), which represents housing associations in England, said this would mean many of the 64,000 disabled people who receive support through the scheme would be at risk of "plunging into arrears".
About 5,000 of these disabled people - many of whom have high support needs - have used the scheme to obtain niche mortgages to pay for shared ownership homes provided by housing associations.
The federation also fears that many of the building societies that offer these niche mortgages will withdraw the products from the market because the new rates will no longer meet their costs.
David Orr, the federation's chief executive, said it was "a particularly harsh way" to cut public spending because it would hit thousands of disabled people who would not be able to own a home outright or purchase one through shared ownership in any other way.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it was changing the rate because more than 90 per cent of people were currently receiving more than they paid out in mortgage interest every month, which was "unfair to the taxpayer and not a good use of public funds".
A DWP spokeswoman added: "Using the Bank of England rate will ensure that people still get the help they need with their mortgage interest payments."
But NHF insisted that many of the disabled people currently receiving support through the scheme pay more than 3.67 per cent on their mortgages and so could be at risk of losing their homes.
Gavin Smart, NHF's director of research, said the federation was concerned that the DWP did not appear to have carried out a comprehensive assessment of the impact of the spending cut on disabled people.
He said: "We are very concerned that when the rate drops to 3.67 per cent, a significant number of disabled people who use SMI as a way of accessing a secure and sustainable home of their own will be at risk of not being able to meet their repayments and at risk of losing their home."
11 August 2010
Channel 4's 2012 launch: Paralympics to be 'biggest event' in C4 history
Channel 4 says it wants to make its wall-to-wall coverage of the London 2012 Paralympics the "biggest event" in its history.
The broadcaster is promising a multi-million pound marketing campaign in the lead-up to London 2012 - again the biggest in its history - and promised that coverage during the games would be "pretty much first thing in the morning until last thing at night".
Channel 4 will start the countdown to 2012 later this month, with a weekend of Paralympic-themed programming.
The channel's youth strand T4 will be hosted across the bank holiday weekend from a location near the ParalympicsGB training camp in Bath and will include the first in a 10-week magazine series, That Paralympic Show, co-presented by former Paralympian Ade Adepitan.
On Sunday 29 August, exactly two years before the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics, the channel will air a feature-length documentary, Inside Incredible Athletes, which uses scientific tests and scanning technology to create "biomechanical portraits" of seven elite athletes hoping to represent ParalympicsGB in 2012.
The documentary will be promoted with an "ambitious" marketing campaign - using the phrase "freaks of nature" - that "aims to challenge perceptions of disability sport and encourage the audience to question their own prejudices".
The following day, Channel 4 will show highlights of the IPC swimming world championships in the Netherlands.
Launching the channel's plans for 2012, Julian Bellamy, Channel 4's acting chief creative officer, said research showed 84 per cent of the British public could not name a single Paralympian.
Adepitan said Channel 4 was "taking the Paralympics into a new era" and promised that it would "turn our Paralympians into household names".
Speaking after the launch, Alison Walsh, Channel 4's disability executive, said the broadcaster was "very alive" to potential criticism that its programmes would have a "medical model" emphasis on elite athletes and their impairments, overshadowing the problems caused by the barriers that disabled people faced in society.
But she said the channel hoped to change attitudes of "pity" towards disabled people. Inside Incredible Athletes would be "empowering" and portray the athletes instead as "really powerful", she said.
"It will not be all about making them into some kind of super-hero. They are going to be shown as really hard-working athletes."
But she added: "The disabled audience have to be the judge."
Chris Holmes, who won nine Paralympic swimming gold medals and is now director of Paralympic integration for the 2012 organising committee, said the games could change the way society views disabled people, as they did in South Korea after it hosted the 1988 games.
He said the weekend of programmes was a "great way to launch it with two years to go" and would be "a great weekend of sport".
Channel 4 also announced that BT and Sainsbury's had become joint sponsors of its Paralympic programming.
That Paralympic Show, Saturday 28 August, 1.25pm, Channel 4.
Inside Incredible Athletes, Sunday 29 August, 9pm, Channel 4.
9 August 2010
Channel 4's 2012 launch: Nationwide search for disabled talent
Channel 4 has pledged that at least half of the presenters it uses for its blanket coverage of the London 2012 Paralympics will be disabled people.
It made the promise as it announced initial details of a £500,000 programme to find disabled sports reporters and presenters and develop their skills in readiness for its blanket coverage of the London games in 2012.
Ade Adepitan, the Channel 4 presenter and former Paralympian, said: "I think it's important to have Paralympians commentating and imparting their knowledge of the Paralympic games."
Although some of those recruited are likely to be former Paralympians, Channel 4 also wants to identify other disabled "talent", who could eventually work across "all of Channel 4's broadcast output".
Alison Walsh, Channel 4's disability executive, said the broadcaster had made "a lot of progress" in featuring disabled actors in its drama, as well as disabled people on reality shows such as Location, Location, Location and Big Brother.
But she said: "Presenting talent is the last big hurdle. It is a big launching pad for us to find new and good presenting talent that can have a life beyond the Paralympics.
"We are not talking about parachuting disabled people in just because there's a quota. It's a barrier that needs to be broken through."
And she said it was "key" that Channel 4 kept up its "proper mainstream inclusion of disabled people across other parts of the schedule".
She added: "I think it's really important that I keep my foot on the throttle for that."
The 2012 talent search will be launched later this month.
9 August 2010
News Stories from the week ending 31 July 2010
Police considering new probe into abuse allegations
Police are considering reopening an investigation into abuse of people with learning difficulties at an NHS day centre, after a report detailing the abuse was leaked to the press.
The report describes how staff at the Solar Centre in Doncaster allegedly hit service-users and used "inappropriate force", as well as detailing other allegations of ill-treatment between 2005 and 2007.
The local newspaper that obtained the report said there were 44 allegations of abuse, and that staff had allegedly threatened and humiliated service-users, withheld food and drink and locked them in cupboards.
Following concerns raised by other members of staff in early 2007, South Yorkshire police investigated allegations that staff were physically assaulting service-users, but failed to produce enough evidence to press any charges.
Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) then carried out its own investigation, which ended in November 2008.
Its subsequent report described incidents involving 18 service-users with learning difficulties, high support needs and physical and sensory impairments.
The trust said the "majority" of the allegations made against four members of staff were proven, although all four are said to have denied all the allegations.
But the trust failed to pass copies of its report to families of those allegedly abused until January this year, at the end of lengthy disciplinary procedures.
And RDaSH admitted this week that it also failed to pass a copy of its report to the police.
Ian Jerams, the trust's chief operating officer, said: "The police had already concluded their enquiries and much of the trust's report was based on the police investigation.
"The trust is of the view that there is no additional evidence from its internal investigation not already known to the police.
"We are however liaising with the police over any future action they may wish to pursue."
It is also unclear what action was taken against the four members of staff following the disciplinary process.
Jerams said: "Two no longer work for the trust and a third did not return to work at the Solar Centre or in any of the trust's community learning disability services.
"A fourth person involved was employed by another trust and worked at the Solar Centre under a service level agreement."
He added: "The trust has expressed sincere regret and has apologised to the service users and their families for failing to protect the day centre users from the actions of the staff members concerned."
Detective chief inspector Matt Fenwick, of South Yorkshire police, said in a statement: "I have requested a copy of the report that came out in January.
"This will be reviewed and if additional evidence is present, or further allegations have been highlighted, then consideration will be given to reopening this investigation."
29 July 2010
Shadow of spending cuts hangs over autism consultation
The coalition government has launched a consultation on the guidance that will provide the "teeth" of the new Autism Act in England.
But it has already warned that the new draft guidance for social care and health services should be seen in the "context" of cuts to public spending.
The Department of Health said it would examine the "relative costs and benefits" of any measures that "may require additional investment or redistribution of funding". For example, the consultation document warns that the government would "explore the cost and benefits of issuing guidance that training be available to all staff".
The guidance, which also covers issues such as provision of services and assessments of people's needs, will support the adults with autism strategy, Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives. But it will not be finalised until after the end of the government's spending review in October.
In March, the Autistic Rights Movement UK (ARM UK) heavily criticised the autism strategy for its failure to demand real change from councils and health trusts, its "weak" language and "derisory" funding of £500,000.
Russell Stronach, co-chair of ARM UK, welcomed what appeared to be a genuine consultation process on the draft guidance, although he has yet to examine the document closely.
But he said the warning on public spending cuts was "just a loophole to give them the freedom to do what the hell they please".
Stronach said he was particularly concerned at the Department of Health's continuing failure to work closely on the autism strategy with groups led by people with autism.
He said: "If they would talk to us they would know what we need, not what they think we need. If they give us what they think we need, the outcomes are likely to be disastrous."
Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care services minister, said the consultation would "help shape our priorities as we seek to help adults with autism live fulfilling and rewarding lives".
Mark Lever, chief executive of the National Autistic Society, said: "This is the vital next step people with autism and their families have been waiting for.
"During the passage of the Autism Act, parliament described this statutory guidance as the 'teeth' of the act, so it is vital that it secures real and lasting change at ground level."
He urged people with autism and carers to take part in the consultation to ensure the guidance was "robust" and could be used to "hold their local services to account".
The consultation closes on 22 October. The final guidance will be published by the end of 2010.
For more information, visit: www.dh.gov.uk/en/consultations/index.htm
29 July 2010
Rapid passage of Academies Act leaves SEN concerns in its wake
Campaigners say they have "huge concerns" about how the new Academies Act will affect disabled pupils' ability to obtain the specialist support they need.
The act, which received royal assent this week after being rushed through parliament, makes it easier for schools to become academies - publicly-funded independent schools that are free from council control.
Both peers and MPs repeatedly raised concerns in parliament about the impact of the act on pupils with special educational needs (SEN).
Ed Balls MP, the Labour leadership contender and shadow education secretary, said the government was "on a fast track to treat as second class the majority of children with special educational needs who will find their funding cut and their opportunities reduced by this legislation".
And Labour MP Pat Glass said: "I do not believe that there has been any detailed analysis of the bill's impact on vulnerable children, particularly those with special educational needs."
MPs and peers said they feared pupils with SEN would find it hard to gain admission to academies, while parents would find it difficult to challenge academies that failed to meet their children's support needs.
They also said pupils with SEN could be more likely to be excluded from academies than council-run schools.
A widely-welcomed amendment introduced by the disabled Labour peer Baroness Wilkins means councils will keep all the funding for support services for pupils with "low-incidence SEN", rather than giving a share of the money to academies.
And the government said another amendment would impose on new academies "all the SEN obligations on admissions and exclusions that apply to council-run schools".
But Tara Flood, chief executive of the Alliance for Inclusive Education, said: "Virtually no real attention has been given to what this act will mean for children and young people identified as having SEN.
"Given that local authorities will have potentially no role in supporting young people in academies - if they get in in the first place - how will academies access specialist services?"
She said ministers and civil servants had simply promised to "sort that out once the act has been passed".
She added: "I think there might be an awful lot of parents out there who are very worried about the future inclusion of their young people now the role for local authorities has been removed from an increasing number of schools moving to academy status."
She said she was also deeply concerned that parents of children with SEN who were excluded from an academy would now have to appeal to the secretary of state, rather than their local authority.
29 July 2010
Employers 'missing out on young disabled talent'
Talented and highly-educated young disabled people are continuing to miss out on opportunities for training, employment and career progression, according to a new report.
The Right to Work report is the latest investigation by the Trailblazers group of young disabled campaigners - run by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign - and surveyed more than 100 young disabled people.
Two-thirds of them said they may have had job applications rejected by employers because of discrimination. A similar number believed the job application process puts them at a disadvantage, while about 70 per cent said physical access to the workplace was one of the biggest obstacles they faced in obtaining paid work.
One in seven disabled graduates - with an average age of 26 - had never had a paid job, while one in five survey respondents felt they had been forced out of a job due to poor disability awareness.
Some campaigners said interviews or work experience had been called off when the employer realised they were disabled.
Members of Trailblazers also carried out undercover investigations of access at Jobcentre Plus offices and recruitment agencies across the UK.
Now they want the government and employers to set up a national disabled graduates training scheme, promote the business case for employing "talented, qualified and dedicated" disabled candidates, and encourage disability equality training for line managers
They also want to see more accessible facilities at Jobcentre Plus offices and recruitment agencies, and more disabled people employed as disability employment advisers by Jobcentre Plus.
And they called for greater promotion of the Access to Work scheme and for it to be extended to disabled volunteers, interns, and those on work placements.
Jagdeep Sehmbi, a wheelchair-user and multimedia communications graduate from Birmingham, said: "When I was applying for jobs, I noticed that as soon as I mentioned I needed wheelchair access the attitude would change - whereas I had initially felt a conversation was leading to an invite for interview, it suddenly ended with being told they would get back to me, which never happened."
Bobby Ancil, Trailblazers project manager, said: "More than anything in this report, we were struck by the amount of talented and bright individuals employers are missing out on because they can't see past disability.
"It is shocking that so many well-qualified people who want to work are unable to find jobs."
To read the report, visit: www.mdctrailblazers.org
29 July 2010
New powers 'could finally force change on voting access'
The UK's elections watchdog says that tough new powers would allow it to force action from elections officers who fail to make their polling stations accessible to disabled people.
The Electoral Commission called for the new powers in a report on this year's general election, when chaotic scenes saw more than 1,200 people unable to vote because of queues at polling stations.
The commission said the government should produce a "comprehensive electoral modernisation strategy" to ensure that future elections were "straightforward, accessible and secure".
A commission spokeswoman told Disability News Service that giving it a "power of direction" over returning officers - who are responsible for running elections in local areas - would enable it to force improvements in those areas with inaccessible polling stations.
A survey of more than 1,000 polling stations at the election by the disability charity Scope found two thirds (67 per cent) failed to meet at least one of seven basic access criteria - such as having large print ballot papers and a tactile voting device for visually-impaired people. This was an improvement of just one percentage point since 2005.
Scope also found just 59 per cent of polling stations had properly-designed level access into the building, down from 60 per cent in 2005.
The commission spokeswoman said: "At the moment there is nothing either us or Scope could do outside the normal disability laws. Part of the problem is all we can do is give guidance to people."
Marc Bush, Scope's head of policy, said non-disabled voters had suddenly realised what disabled people had been experiencing at elections "since time immemorial".
He said Scope was "slightly disappointed" that the commission was only calling for urgent change because of the problems experienced by non-disabled people.
He said: "Had they heeded the findings of our previous reports they would have known that inevitably the system would lead to this for non-disabled people as well."
He said Scope was also disappointed that the commission's report did not call for an expansion of voting methods, such as online voting.
He said: "If people had that choice and they could enforce best practice at polling stations people would have a real choice."
A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said the government welcomed the report, and the finding that the elections were "well run in the main with most areas encountering no major issue" was "welcome".
She added: "We will respond to the report once we've had a chance to consider it fully and to hear the views of other stakeholders on the recommendations made."
29 July 2010
Minister hints that ILF could be scrapped
The minister for disabled people has hinted that the government could be set to scrap the Independent Living Fund (ILF) as part of its spending review.
In a ministerial statement this week, Maria Miller MP attacked the previous government for failing to "take a principled and strategic decision" on the fund's future.
Miller said an independent review of the fund in 2007 suggested the government should make a decision on its future in 2009-10, "based on the presumption" that ILF support would be merged with local authority funding for personal budgets.
Miller also criticised the Labour government for taking a last-minute decision to cut the ILF budget for 2010-11 by £11 million to £348 million in March this year.
Miller said this move - as well as the "uncertainty and sensitivity" of methods of forecasting spending on the fund - led to the ILF's decision to restrict new applicants to those in paid work of 16 hours or more, and then later to close the fund to all new applicants for the rest of 2010-2011.
Miller added: "The confusion and uncertainty caused by this chain of events is unacceptable."
She said the ILF had now put in place a "more robust methodology" for forecasting its spending and had "safeguarded the support allocated to the 21,000 existing recipients of the fund".
She said: "I have asked the Department for Work and Pensions and the ILF to ensure that all the lessons are learned from this situation and that appropriate procedures are put in place to ensure that the fund's budget remains on track."
She added: "The coalition government are committed to ensuring severely disabled people receive the support they need and, working closely with the trustees, we will consider and settle the long-term future of the ILF as part of the forthcoming spending review."
But confusion still surrounds the timing of the Labour government's decision to cut the ILF budget and how that affected the decision to restrict eligibility.
Disability News Service was told by ILF on 24 March - after it had announced the decision to restrict eligibility - that the budget for 2010-11 would be £359 million.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman was this week unable to clarify exactly when the decision to cut the budget was taken.
And when asked whether Miller's statement implied that the government was planning to scrap the ILF, he said: "The future of the ILF is going to be reviewed in the autumn. Watch this space. I cannot speculate."
28 July 2010
Work Choice given government go-ahead
The coalition government is to go ahead with plans to launch a new work programme for disabled people with higher support needs.
The Labour government had announced plans to replace specialist programmes such as WORKSTEP with a new scheme called Work Choice this autumn.
But the future of the new programme had been cast into doubt because of the new government's plans for a single work programme for all people on out-of-work benefits.
Maria Miller, the disabled people's minister, announced this week that Work Choice would be launched on 25 October and would "sit alongside" the single work programme.
Miller said Work Choice would "help into work disabled people who face the most complex and long-term barriers to employment and who may require high intensity support in the workplace".
She said it would replace the "existing confusing array" of specialist disability employment programmes - WORKSTEP, Work Preparation and the Job Introduction Scheme.
And she said it would "greatly improve upon the effectiveness of current provision by tailoring support to the needs of each severely disabled individual to help move them into and stay in long-term sustainable jobs".
There will also be a cut in the number of contracts with employment support providers from more than 200 to just 28.
A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesman denied that the move signalled a rethink on plans for a single, overarching work programme.
He said: "They want provision for the hardest to help groups. It is very important to have that."
Meanwhile, new DWP figures show that the number of disabled people who received support through the Access to Work (ATW) programme rose from more than 32,000 in 2008-09 to more than 37,000 in 2009-10.
Of those receiving funding to provide adaptations, equipment and other work support in 2009-10, only 390 had mental health conditions, while 1,720 had learning difficulties, 5,450 had hearing impairments and 5,280 were visually-impaired.
More than 11,500 ATW awards were made for aids and equipment, nearly 10,000 for support workers, and 12,700 for travel to work, while 250 were made for adaptations to workplaces, and 270 for adaptations to vehicles.
28 July 2010
New figures 'prove that work test needs reform'
New government figures provide further proof that disabled people are being unfairly denied out-of-work disability benefits because of a controversial new assessment, say campaigners.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show the number of people found "fit for work" after taking the work capability assessment (WCA) between October 2008 and November 2009.
Of those who completed the assessment, two thirds (66 per cent) were found fit for work and ineligible for employment and support allowance - which replaced incapacity benefit (IB) for new claimants in October 2008.
A further 24 per cent were told they could claim ESA but would have to carry out some work-related activity, while the other ten per cent were judged unable to work and allowed to claim ESA at a slightly higher rate without having to engage with government work programmes.
The figures showed a slight increase in the number of people granted ESA, compared with earlier data from October 2008 to May 2009 that showed 70 per cent of people being found fit for work, and nine per cent unable to work.
The government is due to start rolling out the WCA to existing claimants of IB from this October.
Anne Kane, policy manager for Inclusion London, said the number of people being found fit for work "can only mean that many people are being unfairly denied benefits", while it was "absurd" that only between nine and 10 per cent of applicants were being judged entirely unable to work.
She said the WCA "takes far too little account of the impact of fluctuating conditions and the complex realities of illness and disability", and it would be "a disaster" if the government rolled it out in its current form.
The government figures also show that 37 per cent of those who applied for ESA dropped out before the assessment was completed.
Kane said disabled people had told Inclusion London they had dropped out because the test was "too gruelling".
Citizens Advice Scotland said the system was "punishing people who are genuinely too sick to work", was "unfit for purpose" and "must be stopped and reformed before it does any more damage".
A DWP spokeswoman said an independent review of the WCA would report later this year, while an internal review found it was "by and large an accurate assessment".
And she said there was "no evidence" to suggest that disabled people were dropping out because the assessment was "too onerous".
She said: "The most likely explanation is that people get better and either return to work or transfer to jobseeker's allowance."
She added: "At the moment, we believe in the assessment. We wouldn't have brought it in if we didn't think it would work.
"We are having this external review and things may change, but the numbers are not an indication that we think something needs to be changed."
Meanwhile, the government has issued a "call for evidence" on how the WCA is operating. The evidence gathered will feed into the independent review.
Professor Malcolm Harrington, who is leading the review, said: "Fairness and effectiveness of these assessments are central to the success of employment and support allowance as a system, just as unconditional support to those who need it most should be central to a decent society."
The consultation will run until 10 September. For more details, visit: www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/work-cap-ass-call-for-evidence.pdf
28 July 2010
Mayor's equality scheme 'is vague and confusing'
The mayor of London's new scheme for promoting disability equality is vague, confusing and "shows signs of having been pulled together in a hurry", according to the capital's leading disabled people's organisation (DPO).
The draft version of the mayor's disability equality scheme (DES) describes how the Greater London Authority (GLA) - which is led by the mayor - will use its powers to improve equality for disabled people.
The DES should set out clear objectives for improved disability equality in areas such as planning, transport, policing, culture, housing and economic development, and describe how improvements will be measured.
But Inclusion London, which represents London's Deaf and disabled people, said much of the draft DES was "vague" and "confusing".
In an information paper, Inclusion London points to figures showing the proportion of the GLA workforce who said they were disabled fell from 51 of 662 employees (eight per cent) in September 2008, to just 40 of 581 (seven per cent) last September. The draft scheme fails to include an objective for increasing this figure.
In the chapter on measuring success, there are no targets set for culture, planning, tourism, or any mention of a target of 10 per cent new hotel bedrooms to be wheelchair accessible, which is mentioned elsewhere in the DES.
The Inclusion London paper says the GLA will have a legal duty under the new Equality Act to set equality objectives and take action to achieve them.
And it says it is "vital" that the DES is improved so the GLA's disability equality objectives are "more comprehensive, state clearly what the objectives are, what specific actions are to be taken to implement the objectives, how improvement will be measured and what will success look like".
A GLA spokesman declined to comment on the specific criticisms, although the draft DES says the GLA will do "further work to identify the measures most relevant to disability equality and publish the relevant data" during 2010-11.
The spokesman added: "The disability equality scheme is open to public consultation, which runs to the middle of October, and people can contribute their views."
To take part in the consultation, which closes on 15 October, visit: www.london.gov.uk/consultation/disability-equality-scheme
Meanwhile, Inclusion London is holding a half-day seminar on 23 September to examine the impact of the disability measures contained in the new Equality Act. The act starts to come into force in October. For more information, visit: www.inclusionlondon.co.uk
28 July 2010
Thalidomide campaigners turn attention to long-serving prisoner
Disabled activists are calling on the government to push for the release of a thalidomide survivor who has served 18 years in prison in the Philippines for drug smuggling.
Billy Burton was handed a life sentence after he was caught trying to smuggle more than five kilogrammes of cannabis out of the country in 1992.
But the time he had to serve before being eligible for parole was increased from eight to 20 years, then 30 years and then 40 years as the government increased sentences for drugs offenders.
Burton is now not due for release until 2032, when he will be 70.
Now a campaign to push for his release is being led by one of the disabled activists who helped secure a government apology and increased financial support for thalidomide survivors in the UK.
When that campaign ended successfully in January, Guy Tweedy - also a thalidomide survivor - focused his energies on campaigning for Burton's release.
Tweedy has written to a string of public figures to ask for their support, including the Archbishop of York and foreign secretary William Hague, has met with shadow foreign minister Ivan Lewis and is due to meet Labour leadership contender Diane Abbott.
Tweedy said: "I think the establishment has let him down. The British embassy in the Philippines should be doing more and looking for a way to get him home.
"I feel that after 18 years he has done his time. During those 18 years, murderers have come and gone and he's still there.
"He's a good person who did a bad thing, he knows that. The time has come now to be compassionate. Everybody deserves a second chance."
Burton, originally from Wetherby, west Yorkshire, has serious health problems, and is currently being kept in the prison's hospital.
Dr Martin Johnson, director of The Thalidomide Trust, which administers the compensation paid to UK thalidomide survivors, visited Burton at the prison near Manila in February.
Although Burton's health was deteriorating - including musculo-skeletal pain and problems with his hearing and eyesight - Johnson said he was in "fairly positive spirits" but "not allowing himself to think about getting out".
More than 15,000 prisoners are kept in huge "factory-type buildings", he said, and have to buy or beg wood to build their own living spaces.
They also have to buy any food other than the basic ration of rice, and to protect themselves from other prisoners must belong to one of the four gangs that rule the prison.
Johnson said: "It is an environment where the weak go to the wall. Bill, with his severe arm damage, is in a really difficult position.
"We support all our beneficiaries. The money we make available basically kept him going and gave him a reasonable quality of life, along with help from the local British consulate."
Johnson is trying to encourage the British embassy to find a way to persuade the Philippines government to listen to a request for clemency.
Tweedy, who is from north Yorkshire, spoke to Burton by telephone in June. He said he was "overwhelmed" by the campaign to secure his release. "He couldn't believe that after all this time anybody would bother with him."
The trust's national advisory council - an elected committee representing thalidomide survivors, of which Tweedy is deputy-chair - are also backing the campaign.
Johnson said: "The guy committed a crime and that is bad, but it is 18 years and he has more than served his time and he ought to be out. That is their view. It is about mercy rather than justice this time round."
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Obviously we are aware of William Burton and are providing ongoing consular assistance to him all the time."
27 July 2010
UKDPC uncovers widespread reports of hate crime deaths
New research by a leading disabled activist has uncovered reports of more than 20 violent deaths of disabled people - many of them likely to be disability hate crimes - over just three months.
The report, by hate crime campaigner Anne Novis for the United Kingdom Disabled People's Council (UKDPC), found reports of 141 offences that appeared to involve targeted hostility towards disabled people.
Of these crimes - which include physical assaults, rape, robbery, torture and arson - at least 21 involved the violent deaths of disabled people.
Some of the reports come from trials of people accused of murder and other serious offences, while others were media reports of how disabled people had died violent deaths and where the perpetrators had yet to be arrested.
Novis said she hoped her report would deliver a "wake-up call" on the extent of disability hate crime, but would also help disabled people's organisations secure funding for their own hate crime projects.
The report has already been submitted as evidence to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's inquiry into disability-related harassment. A second, wider report by Novis for UKDPC into the extent of disability hate crime over the last three years will also be submitted to the inquiry.
Jaspal Dhani, UKDPC's chief executive, said the crimes collated by Novis were "only the tip of the iceberg" and showed how much work needed to be done by the government to comply with its duties under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
He said: "I think that if the public became aware of the extent of the problem they would be horrified."
Novis said she believed disability hate crime was increasing "significantly", and was even more widespread than described in her report, partly because of under-reporting by disabled people.
Her report is based on "informal research" that draws evidence from online articles, disabled people's blogs and disability discussion forums, and provides a "snapshot" of reports of disability hate crime over a three-month period from March to May 2010.
Novis called for disabled people and disabled people's organisations to be given funding to carry out formal, detailed research into the extent of disability hate crime.
She said the targeted hostility experienced by disabled people was being aggravated by the debate around welfare reform, the government's call for cuts to the disability benefits budget and the media focus on disability benefit fraud.
26 July 2010
DLA survey results come at perfect time
A disabled people's organisation has told two government ministers that their cost-cutting disability living allowance (DLA) reforms could be "counter-productive" and make it harder for disabled people to work.
Both the disabled people's minister, Maria Miller, and the care services minister, Paul Burstow, visited Essex Coalition of Disabled People (ECDP) last week, just as it was about to publish its survey on the government's planned changes to DLA.
In June, the government announced a major reform of DLA, with tighter eligibility, a new medical test and reassessments for all claimants of working age over the three years from 2013.
The ECDP survey found 93 per cent of disabled people were very or quite concerned about the planned changes to DLA, while more than three-quarters said the changes were likely to have a big or fairly big impact on their everyday lives.
More than half of the 141 respondents feared their DLA could be taken away, while a third thought they might not be able to work if this happened.
Rich Watts, ECDP's director of policy and development, said: "What we were very keen to impress on the two ministers was that our survey said that one in three people said they were unlikely to work as a result of the changes in DLA.
"These changes could be counter-productive to their goal of getting people back in work.
"To both of them we said: 'Rather than swinging the axe we would like you to talk to disabled people and their organisations on how to approach this and how to minimise the impact on disabled people.'"
Watts said there had been a strong sense of "injustice" among the disabled people who took part in the survey, who believed the government was "picking on disabled people" and "trying to lump us into the same category as benefits scroungers".
Many were worried about the prospect of another hugely stressful assessment.
He added: "Some people just seemed tired that they worked so hard to get the right care and support but will have to go through this all over again."
One respondent accused the government of "putting disability back under the medical microscope".
Another said: "Having endured the form and the medical, I dread having to go through the whole process again along with millions of others."
And a third disabled person said: "Without my DLA I would lose my adapted car, my independence and my job. DLA supports me to contribute because it enables me to work full time."
26 July 2010
News Stories from the week ending 24 July 2010
Campaigners face new euthanasia battle
Disabled activists campaigning against the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia are facing yet another attempt to force the government to weaken the law.
Lawyers for Tony Nicklinson, a stroke survivor with high support needs, announced this week that they want the director of public prosecutions (DPP) to issue guidelines stating when it would be in the public interest to prosecute cases of euthanasia.
They said that Nicklinson, who can only move his head and eyes, has made a "clear and settled" decision that he wants to die when ready to do so, but is unable to carry out that wish himself.
He wants his wife to be able to end his life without facing prosecution for murder.
The case is similar to that of Debbie Purdy, who used the courts to force the DPP to list the factors to be considered by prosecutors when deciding whether to charge someone with assisted suicide.
But Nicklinson wants the DPP to issue guidance for cases of euthanasia, in which someone actively takes a disabled person's life, rather than assisting them to take their own life.
The DPP, Keir Starmer, has refused to issue new guidance because he believes existing guidelines and advice for prosecutors are "sufficient".
Nicklinson's lawyers this week issued legal proceedings in the high court seeking a judicial review of the DPP's refusal to issue new guidance.
But the Care Not Killing alliance - whose members include RADAR - said the current law "acts as a powerful deterrent" and changing the law was opposed by "the vast majority of disabled people and disability rights organisations in our country" and would "contribute to a mindset that the lives of sick or disabled people are somehow less worth living".
In a witness statement, Nicklinson said he had "no privacy or dignity left" and added: "I am fed up with my life and don't want to spend the next 20 years or so like this."
Saimo Chahal, Nicklinson's solicitor, said: "The law of murder is inflexible and the Law Commission was right when, in 2006, it recommended that the law should be reviewed, particularly in the context of mercy killing."
A spokeswoman for the DPP said there were "a number of important distinctions between assisted suicide, euthanasia and so-called mercy killing".
She said: "Suicide, whether assisted or not, and murder are very different acts in that the former requires a person to take their own life, whereas the latter involves a person doing an act that ends the life of another."
22 July 2010
Open employment with support 'is the ideal', says RADAR
Disabled people should be supported to find mainstream employment rather than "special" jobs in separate, sheltered workplaces, according to a new report.
The Supporting Sustainable Careers report by RADAR suggests ten "propositions" that would make it easier for disabled people to gain decent pay, career development opportunities, status and inclusion in society, and freedom from discrimination.
It concludes that in general - although not for every disabled person - open employment with the necessary support meets more of these "key factors" than other options, such as sheltered workplaces.
The report was funded by Remploy, which still employs about 3,000 disabled people in 54 sheltered factories, despite closing 29 factories as part of a controversial modernisation programme.
Tim Matthews, chief executive of Remploy, told Disability News Service at the report's launch that he doubted whether there would be a long-term role for employment settings where there were "100 per cent disabled people congregating together".
He said that "there may well be a place for sheltered factories in the future" but they would "increasingly" have to fulfil the criteria outlined in the report, such as providing career progression, offering "real jobs" that were not subsidised and being part of an inclusive workforce.
RADAR's report also says that the continued existence of separate workplaces just for disabled people makes it harder to tackle bullying, harassment and discrimination in mainstream workplaces.
And it says disabled people should be offered extra support to keep their jobs - particularly in the light of current public spending cuts - because they face greater risks of long-term unemployment.
The highest priority, says the report, is to enable disabled people to achieve "career security" - building up the skills and experience to move from one job to another.
Liz Sayce, chief executive of RADAR, said: "In past recessions, disabled people have ended up living on benefits for decades.
"As public sector jobs are cut we need to stop that happening again - by using scarce resources efficiently on the type of employment support we know works.
"That means offering all disabled people the chance of a regular job as jobs come back on stream, help to get the skills the economy needs and pay that is at least the minimum wage. Everyone needs to raise their expectations of what disabled people can do."
Researchers for the report talked to more than 50 disabled RADAR members, disability organisations, trade unionists and supported employment providers.
Among its other "propositions", the report says disabled people should have the opportunity to manage and control their own job support, while more social firms should be led and managed by disabled people.
It also says that there is "no place" for sheltered work that contributes to the economy but offers less than the minimum wage, while businesses should only let contracts to social firms or supportive businesses that offer at least the minimum wage to their disabled employees.
And it calls for disabled volunteers to be offered career development support so they can move on to paid employment.
22 July 2010
Care commission starts work under shadow of funding cuts
Disabled campaigners have welcomed the new commission that will examine the funding of adult care and support in England, despite concerns that the government could have already ruled out some methods of funding the system.
Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care services minister, said the government was "determined to build a funding system that is fair, affordable and sustainable".
But Andrew Lansley, the Conservative health secretary, warned that the new system would have to be "consistent with the government's deficit reduction plan".
And he said the commission would be asked to find "the best way to meet care and support costs as a partnership between individuals and the state".
Lansley also said the commission's recommendations would have to be compatible with the government's personalisation agenda, take into account how the right "housing and related services" can support disabled people, and examine the links between the social care and benefits systems.
Sue Bott, director of the National Centre for Independent Living, said she was "concerned" about the use of the term "partnership" because it could imply that the government will not consider funding the care and support system through general taxation, a solution which has widespread support among disabled people and their organisations.
She said: "We will be reiterating again that we think social care should be funded from general taxation. If that funding option is ruled out we would be very unhappy."
But she welcomed the tight timescale, with the commission told to complete its work by the end of July 2011.
She said: "The crisis is now. We have had these debates ad infinitum. It is time to get on with it."
Marije Davidson, RADAR's senior policy and parliamentary officer, called on the commission to ensure that its recommendations were "fully informed by the views and experiences of disabled people".
She said the current system "leads to inequity across the country", causes "stress and insecurity to disabled people", keeps them in poverty and denies them opportunities to participate in their communities.
The commission will be chaired by the economist Andrew Dilnot, who will be joined by two former directors of social services, Dame Jo Williams, the former chief executive of Mencap and now acting chair of the Care Quality Commission, and the Labour peer and former health minister Lord Warner.
There has been some concern that the government failed to appoint a disabled member of the commission, but a Department of Health spokesman said the government was "confident" it had "the right mix of skills and experience to engage effectively with the needs and preferences of people with disabilities".
He said the government had suggested that the commission should appoint a panel of representatives of older people, working-age disabled people and carers to be "consulted regularly on the commission's work".
22 July 2010
Football cat cruelty advert cleared by watchdog
The advertising watchdog has ruled that a TV advert that features a blind footballer accidentally kicking a cat is not offensive and does not need to be taken off air.
More than 1,000 viewers complained to the advertising watchdog about the advert for the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power - so far seen by an estimated ten million adults - which features two blind football teams using a ball with a bell inside it.
When the ball is kicked out of play, a cat with a bell around its neck runs onto the pitch, and is kicked into a tree by a player who mistakes it for the ball.
Of those who complained, 220 viewers said it was offensive to blind people while more than 1,000 complained on the grounds of animal cruelty.
Paddy Power told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the ad "enabled them to promote and create awareness of a lesser-known sport", "would enhance appreciation of the skill required by those who participated in the sport" and was "humorous and slapstick in nature".
The company claimed it had received "extremely positive feedback from the blind and partially sighted community".
The ASA claimed the ad "featured, and was supported by members of the England Blind Football Team" and that it was "unlikely to be seen by most viewers as malicious or to imply that blind people were likely to cause harm to animals".
It concluded that the ad was "unlikely to be seen as humiliating, stigmatising or undermining to blind people and was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence".
It ruled that Paddy Power had not breached the advertising standards code, either in its depiction of blind people or in its treatment of cruelty to animals.
A spokesman for the Football Association (FA), football's governing body, which supports the national blind football squad, said only former international players had taken part in the advert, and so the part of the ASA ruling that said the advert was supported by members of the England team was "not strictly accurate".
But no-one from the FA was available to comment further on the ASA ruling.
The world blind football championship is due to take place in England from 14 to 22 August.
21 July 2010
Obama and Cameron discuss disabled hacker
The prime minister and the US president, Barack Obama, have discussed the case of disabled computer hacker Gary McKinnon, who faces the threat of extradition to the United States.
The two leaders discussed McKinnon's case during their meeting at the White House this week, and in a subsequent televised press conference.
If extradited, McKinnon, who has Asperger's syndrome, faces a trial for allegedly hacking into US defense department computer systems, and a possible prison sentence of 60 years if convicted.
David Cameron said he hoped a "way through" could be found in the case but that he understood McKinnon was accused of "a very important and significant crime".
Obama said he hoped the matter could be "resolved in a way that underscores the seriousness of the issue but also underscores the fact that we work together and we can find an appropriate solution".
Cameron later told the BBC that discussions between the UK and the US ambassador about the case had started under the Labour government and were continuing.
He appeared to suggest that these discussions were focused on allowing McKinnon to serve "some" of any prison sentence handed to him by a US court in a British prison. But this would still mean extraditing him to the US to stand trial.
Cameron said discussions had been taking place "to see if there isn't some way of dealing with this case where perhaps the sentence is given in America but some of the - if there is a prison sentence - is served in a British prison".
Cameron and Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, were among senior coalition figures who criticised the Labour government's failure to stop McKinnon's extradition when they were in opposition.
Home secretary Theresa May has asked for more time to consider McKinnon's case, before the high court rules on whether the previous government was right to refuse to halt the extradition.
Last November, the then home secretary Alan Johnson decided the extradition could go ahead after considering new evidence relating to McKinnon's mental health, which suggested he was highly likely to try to kill himself if extradited.
Johnson told MPs at the time that extraditing McKinnon would not breach his rights under the European Convention of Human Rights.
The high court is due to consider whether Johnson should have halted the extradition in the light of the new evidence.
21 July 2010
Solutions to housing shortage 'are not complicated'
Local and national government could take simple steps that would make it easier for thousands of wheelchair-users to find accessible homes, according to a new report.
The Mind the Step report estimates that about 78,000, or 13 per cent, of households in England that include a wheelchair-user are living in homes that are not fully wheelchair-accessible.
The report - produced by the accessible housing association Habinteg and London South Bank University - says that only about 16 per cent of all homes in England would allow a wheelchair-user to enter easily through the front door.
Sandra Ruddick, a wheelchair-user and a Habinteg tenant and board member, who spoke at this week's launch of the report, said there was "such a vast amount of need out there" for wheelchair-accessible housing.
She also pointed to the contrasting provision in different parts of the country, sometimes even between neighbouring London boroughs.
Nearly one in four wheelchair-user households in the north-west of England and nearly one in five in London are in accommodation that is not fully wheelchair-accessible, compared with less than one in ten in the south-west and one in 20 in the south-east.
The report concludes: "The figures are not huge, the solutions are not complicated and most of the mechanisms to increase the supply of suitably designed homes and improve the accessibility of people's existing homes are already in place."
Among its recommendations, the report calls for more new homes to be built to wheelchair-accessible standards and for the government to recognise the importance of adaptations to homes.
It also criticises the inefficient allocation of existing accessible and adaptable social housing - in 2008-09 only 22 per cent of local authority and housing association "wheelchair standard" properties were allocated to households that included a wheelchair-user.
Councils, it says, should set up accessible housing registers to hold information on accessible properties and housing applicants who need wheelchair-accessible housing.
The report also calls for continued funding for wheelchair-accessible housing from the Homes and Communities Agency, which sponsored the report, and for local authorities to ensure that wheelchair standard homes are included in all new developments with reasonable access to local amenities.
It suggests that local authorities should use the report's figures on unmet housing need to set their own five-year targets for the development of new wheelchair standard homes.
And it calls on estate agents and lettings agencies to use accessibility as a selling point in advertising homes for sale or rent.
21 July 2010
UK 'could learn from developing world' on disability equality
Disability organisations in the UK could learn from developing countries about how to cope with the impact of public sector funding cuts, according to a leading disabled human rights expert.
Diane Mulligan, who leads the Equality and Human Rights Commission's work on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, said many developing countries had been forced to be "creative" in how they promote disability equality.
She told Disability News Service: "With the austerity measures being taken by the new coalition government, we can learn a lot from the global south on how to do things well within a limited budget and resources."
In using role models to change attitudes to disabled people, some developing countries have focused on everyday disabled people doing everyday things, rather than "over-performers" such as Paralympians or the Labour MP David Blunkett, she said. Other developing countries have developed low-cost accessible latrines.
Mulligan, a long-standing member of the EHRC's disability committee and a new member of the government's Equality 2025 advisory network, said the impact of funding cuts on disabled people would become clearer in the autumn when the government starts "spelling out some detail on welfare reform, independent living and social care".
But she said the "age of austerity" and the lack of resources might prove to be "beneficial", as it could force disability organisations to come together and cooperate in campaigning for the government to fully implement the UN convention in the UK.
She believes the UN convention will have an impact on disabled people's rights in the UK, in areas such as independent living, particularly as disabled people will be able to hold the government to account for its decisions, as it has signed up to the convention's optional protocol.
But she said the disability movement and other disability organisations would have to work together "with a united voice" and "forget our differences" if they want to "make much headway" in ensuring disability rights are fully implemented.
She added: "It is easy to fight your own corner but there is strength in coalitions."
Earlier this month, Mulligan was nominated as the UK's candidate for election in 2012 for one of 18 seats on the UN's expert committee which monitors implementation of the convention in those countries where it has been ratified.
She has government funding for her campaign to run for election over the next two years and wants the majority of that money to be spent working with DPOs, so she will know their key concerns.
One area she will focus on in the lead-up to the election is examining why the Labour government ratified the convention with reservations and an "interpretive declaration" - the government's convention opt-outs - on inclusive education, immigration, employment in the armed services and benefits.
As a member of the EHRC disability committee, Mulligan said she will ask the new coalition government to say when it will re-examine these opt-outs. "I am very interested to know why other countries didn't feel the need to put reservations or interpretive declarations in place - there needs to be a conversation with the new government about that approach."
One of the opt-outs concerns the convention's demand for an inclusive education system.
Mulligan said Cuba was the only country in the world with a truly inclusive education system. "Cuba is not a particularly rich country but they decided that they were going to have an inclusive education system even if it meant there was one-to-one support for three children in a classroom. And it works, and it works really well."
But she warned: "It is going to cost quite a lot of money. Unless you are prepared to invest, it is not going to happen."
Mulligan was speaking as the EHRC published a new guide to the UN convention, describing disabled people's rights and how to use them.
The guide sets out how disability organisations can use the convention in negotiations, in advocacy and in legal cases, and how they can send their own reports to the UN on how the government is implementing the convention.
Mike Smith, chair of the EHRC's disability committee, said the EHRC would "continue to work with the government to make sure that it is implemented fully".
He said: "The convention is not just a paper 'declaration' without any teeth. It requires government to take action to remove barriers and give disabled people real freedom, dignity and equality.
"Our role is to ensure Britain makes rapid progress towards making the convention rights a reality for disabled people."
The guide is available at: www.equalityhumanrights.com/UNCRPDguide
21 July 2010
News Stories from the week ending 9 July 2010
Campaigners fear government will water down Equality Act
Campaigners fear that delays in bringing forward key elements of the Equality Act could mean the coalition government is planning to water down parts of the legislation.
The government announced this week that much of Labour's act - which streamlines existing equality laws and provides new protection in some areas - would come into force this October, as planned.
This will include laws banning employers from using health questionnaires to discriminate against disabled job applicants; providing protection from indirect disability discrimination; and making it easier to prove that someone seeking protection under the act is a disabled person.
But the coalition government has yet to consult on the draft regulations that will describe the specific duties that public bodies such as councils and NHS trusts will have to meet as part of a new single equality duty.
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) told Disability News Service this week that the public sector duty and the draft regulations were being considered as part of a review of laws passed by the previous government but not yet implemented.
A GEO spokeswoman said the government was "looking at how the rest of the act can be implemented in the best way for business".
Earlier this week, Theresa May, the home secretary and minister for women and equalities, said: "A successful economy needs the full participation of all its citizens and we are committed to implementing the act in the best way for business."
The duties have been a key area of concern for many campaigners. Only when the government publishes the draft regulations will disabled people know how far the government wants public bodies to go in promoting disability equality.
Anne Kane, policy manager for Inclusion London, said she was concerned about the government's delay in publishing the draft regulations, and feared that this might signal a weakening of the specific duties.
She highlighted concerns that the government's comments about business might mean it is planning to water down Labour's plans for specific duties on procurement.
The procurement duties could force public bodies to consider disability and other equality factors in the £125 billion a year they spend on buying goods and services from the private sector.
8 July 2010
Government research finds DLA plays vital role
Disability living allowance (DLA) allows disabled people to maintain control and independence in their lives, and helps them avoid having to move into residential care, according to new government-funded research.
The Impact of Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance report, published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), says there is "a wide range of ways" in which DLA and AA enable disabled and older people to pay for the services and goods they need.
The report's authors - who carried out face-to-face interviews with 45 recipients of DLA and attendance allowance (AA) - say that working-age recipients were "unanimous in expressing views that DLA made a big difference to them".
Their report concludes that "while DLA or AA often does not go directly towards paying for personal care, the benefits have a key role in reducing potential demand for formal services", and help people avoid residential care and in "maintaining or avoiding deterioration in health".
The findings are likely to be seized upon by disabled campaigners fighting government plans to slash the disability benefits bill, with both the chancellor, George Osborne, and Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, highlighting the cost of the DLA budget in recent weeks.
The report says disabled people use DLA and AA to manage their lives "by being able to afford market prices for housework, laundry, garden maintenance, odd jobs and taxi rides; by buying frozen meals or buying hot meals outside the home; by relying on frequent use of telephones, and by running private vehicles".
The disabled people who were interviewed said DLA and AA provided a safety net, helped them manage their debts, and allowed them to work, to live at home and to be part of society.
A second piece of research for the DWP reports on the possible reasons for the low number of DLA claimants in work.
The Disability Living Allowance and Work report concludes that DLA recipients are, on average, "more severely disabled than other disabled people, and that they suffer higher levels of disadvantage and lower employment rates as a result".
But it also says that DLA claimants are "significantly less likely to have a job" than other disabled people facing similar employment barriers.
The report says this could be because receiving DLA "will reduce the financial incentive to take up employment", that taking a job could put their benefits at risk, and because there is a "widespread perception" that DLA provides compensation for those unable to work because of their impairment.
But the report also says that DLA can help people remain in work, and it calls for more support to help those recently disabled to keep their jobs.
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, said there was a "perverse incentive" for people claiming DLA not to work because of the risk of a DWP spot check on their eligibility if they take a job.
He added: "Actually, if you are going to go into work you are more likely to need support with travel, work clothes and more personal assistance."
DA is about to begin new research into how DLA is spent, whether it meets people's needs, how well it supports them to work and whether it "does the job it was intended to do".
He said: "We are not saying DLA is perfect. We acknowledge there are issues within DLA that we would like to see addressed."
But he said the government's plans were about cutting the number of people receiving DLA by 20 per cent, rather than addressing the problems with how DLA works.
8 July 2010
SEN review 'is chance to fight for inclusion'
Inclusive education campaigners have welcomed the announcement that the government is to publish a green paper on disabled children and those with special educational needs (SEN) this autumn.
Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat children's minister, said the SEN system needed to be "more family friendly so that parents don't feel they have to battle to get the support their child needs" and "far more transparent".
And she said the government wanted to "make sure that the most vulnerable children get the best quality of support and care".
Teather said she would look at the results of Ofsted's review of SEN, expected later this summer, and the other "many reviews of SEN policy in recent years".
These are likely to include Brian Lamb's SEN inquiry for the Labour government, which called last December for an end to the "culture of low expectations" for children with SEN.
Teather said she would also listen to the views of "parents, teachers and organisations with an interest in this area".
Her government has already pledged to "remove the bias towards inclusion" in disabled children's education and "prevent the unnecessary closure of special schools".
Tara Flood, chief executive of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE), said she welcomed any review of SEN policy "because it gives us the opportunity to raise again the support that there is for inclusive education across many, many parents" and "to explode the myth that there is a bias in favour of inclusion".
She said: "They say they absolutely support the right of parents to choose mainstream schools and to ensure children get the support they need - if the review is going to put that into practice and make choice genuine for parents of disabled children we cannot do anything but welcome that."
But she said ALLFIE was "disappointed" that Teather appeared to have changed her enthusiastic pre-election support for inclusion, and was now quoting the Conservative manifesto - which says that "the most vulnerable children deserve the very highest quality of care" - almost word for word.
Flood said the emphasis on "vulnerable children" and "care" would send "alarm bells ringing across the country".
She said: "All children have a right to be educated and I think they are shifting away from that right and that is extremely alarming."
Flood said she hoped Teather would work closely with disabled people on the review "because it is disabled people who are experts in this area, given that we are the ones who have been subjected to the SEN framework."
8 July 2010
Leap in ESA appeals 'exposes flaws in system'
The number of disabled people appealing against a decision to refuse their claim for the new out-of-work disability benefit has rocketed over the last year.
New figures released by the Tribunals Service show that in the first quarter of 2009-10 there were about 10,000 employment and support allowance (ESA) appeals.
By the second quarter of the year, this had leaped to 29,000, with a further steep increase to 41,000 in the third quarter, and up again to more than 46,000 in the first three months of 2010.
The figures also show that nearly two-fifths of ESA appeals that were completed at a hearing last year were successful.
ESA replaced incapacity benefit for new claimants in October 2008, with those claiming the benefit being subjected to the much-criticised work capability assessment (WCA).
So far, 69 per cent of those who complete the assessment have been found "fit for work" and ineligible for ESA, far higher than the Labour government's prediction of 49 per cent.
In March, a report by Citizens Advice said "high numbers" of "seriously ill and disabled people" had been found "fit for work" after taking the assessment.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said the number of appeals had increased because ESA was a new benefit and there were long "time lapses" in the application process, including a 13-week assessment phase and the length of time Jobcentre Plus has to submit an appeal to the Tribunals Service.
She said that, although ESA started in October 2008, there were not significant numbers of appeals until March 2010, while appeals were "now in a relatively steady state".
But Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, said the change to ESA "has not been communicated well", so many people were appealing because they did not understand why their claim had been turned down.
This has added to the problems with the WCA, which was "not doing the job it was intended to do" and was "undermining the changes to the welfare reform system".
He added: "There really is an imperative to get the assessment right first time and ensure communication is done well, so we avoid unnecessary expenditure on appeals at a time when all government departments are being squeezed so significantly."
8 July 2010
Anger grows over government's plans for DLA
Anger at the government's plans to slash spending on disability living allowance (DLA) has continued to mount, with one disabled people's organisation describing it as "wholesale, brutal attack on disabled people".
Documents published after last month's emergency budget reveal that the Treasury expects to cut the number of people claiming DLA - as well as spending on DLA - by a fifth by 2016.
The budget 2010 policy costings document says the cuts will be achieved by assessing all new and existing working-age DLA claimants through a new medical test over three years from 2013, along with "revised eligibility criteria".
Anne Kane, policy manager for Inclusion London, the capital's new Deaf and disabled people's organisation, said the plans were "absolutely horrific".
She said: "The government's intention to shatter the lives of disabled people becomes clearer by the day."
She said the aim of a 20 per cent reduction in the number of people receiving DLA and in spending on DLA was a "wholesale, brutal attack on disabled people which, particularly when considered together with the attack on incapacity benefit and attack on public services and other benefits, is without comparison in the post-war decades".
A small number of MPs - mostly from opposition parties - have started to record their opposition to the plans by signing Commons early day motions (EDM).
EDM 369, by Labour MP Fiona O'Donnell, which states that the DLA reforms will lead to more disabled people living in poverty, has been signed by more than 30 MPs. EDM 393, put down by Labour MP Kate Hoey, criticises moves to introduce the new medical assessment, and has so far won cross-party support from 23 MPs.
Disabled activist Adam Lotun and three other disabled campaigners visited Parliament this week to lobby MPs to oppose the government's DLA plans and sign Hoey's EDM.
Lotun said he and his fellow activists spoke to more than 20 MPs and 40 researchers. Several MPs said they had believed the new assessment was just about "weeding out" benefit fraudsters.
Lotun said disabled people were "living in a state of fear" over the proposed cuts to DLA, along with other welfare reforms and plans to drastically cut government spending.
8 July 2010
Academies bill 'could undermine specialist support for pupils'
Disabled peers have raised fears that the government's academies bill could "fatally undermine" the provision of specialist support to disabled pupils.
They fear that withdrawing money from councils' specialist support budgets to give to new academy schools - as proposed by the bill - will leave too little money for local authorities to provide services to children with "low incidence" special educational needs (SEN) or impairments.
The bill aims to expand the number of academies - publicly-funded independent schools that are free from council control.
The government has said that academies would be able to buy back specialist support from their local authority.
But Baroness Rosalie Wilkins pointed to research by the National Deaf Children's Society, which found that out of 66 local authorities where a deaf child with a statement of SEN was enrolled in an existing academy, in only 17 did the academy buy in support from the council.
Baroness Wilkins said she backed calls by the National Sensory Impairment Partnership to set up a working group to examine the problem urgently.
She added: "Children with low incidence needs may, by definition, be fewer in number. That cannot be an excuse to pass a bill which would potentially prevent many from getting the support that they need.
"I urge the minister to do more than just recognise that there is a problem. He must find solutions before this bill is allowed to pass."
Lord Colin Low said specialist services - such as support for mainstream teachers, Braille teaching, and communication support - were "at the heart of special education provision".
He said it was "absolutely essential" that the government made it clear "exactly how specialist support services will be sustained" when the bill becomes law.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson - who was speaking in place of Baroness Jane Campbell - said that the all party parliamentary disability group had "frequently been told that too many disabled children are not getting the specialist support that they need at school fully to engage with the curriculum".
She said: "I am concerned that the bill may have the unintended consequence of worsening this problem."
Lord Hill, the Conservative junior education minister, said he would meet with Baroness Wilkins to discuss the issue further.
The bill completed its report stage in the Lords, with its third reading due on 13 July.
8 July 2010
Campaigners fear government could bow to building lobby
Campaigners fear the government could bow to pressure from the house-building lobby and delay the implementation of compulsory accessibility and adaptability standards for all new homes.
The Foundation for Lifetime Homes and Neighbourhoods - the accessible housing provider Habinteg, RADAR, Age UK and the Town and Country Planning Association - spoke out as it launched a new version of its Lifetime Homes Standard following a consultation.
The standard is a set of 16 design criteria - key features that should be included in the design of accessible and adaptable housing.
The foundation said it was vital that all new homes were designed according to the Lifetime Homes Standard, with 300,000 disabled and older people living in unsuitable housing.
The Labour government had agreed that all public sector housing in England would be built to the Lifetime Homes Standard from 2011 (it is already a requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland), with a target of 2013 for all private sector homes.
But it backed away from this commitment in last December's pre-budget report, saying it wanted "a proportionate approach" and that any move to make the standard mandatory for all new homes would not be until 2013 "at the earliest".
Labour's review of Lifetime Homes policy is continuing under the new coalition government.
Andy Shipley, the foundation's Lifetime Homes coordinator, said: "The government has committed to continuing the review but it is still unclear which way they are going to go with it and how committed they are to seeing Lifetime Homes as the way forward."
And he warned that even the target for Lifetime Homes to be mandatory for all public sector homes by 2011 was now not guaranteed.
He said there was "considerable concern" that the government would bow to demands from housing developers for a "lighter regulatory touch" because of the state of the economy.
No-one from the Communities and Local Government department was available to comment.
The disabled peer Baroness Rosalie Wilkins, a patron of the foundation, has called on the government to consider "the range of social, health, welfare and economic savings" made by adopting the Lifetime Homes Standard.
During a Lords debate on affordable housing, she added: "In developing their social care policy, will the government include the benefits of the universal adoption of the Lifetime Homes Standard as an efficient way to support care delivery in the home?"
Baroness Hanham, the junior communities and local government minister, said that the Lifetime Homes Standard "remains an aspiration that should be met, even if not for every single home".
8 July 2010
New European laws should boost accessible travel by boat
New laws approved by MEPs should make it easier for disabled people across Europe to travel by boat, and could also mean new rights to accessible bus and coach travel.
The regulations approved by the European Parliament will mean that transport providers will not be able to deny a disabled person the right to board a boat, unless it would be unsafe or the design of the ship or port made it impossible.
Ports and ships will also have to provide free assistance to disabled people - as long as they are given at least 48 hours' notice.
There should also be full compensation for lost or damaged mobility equipment or assistive devices.
And important information about the journey, such as delays and cancellations, should be made available in accessible formats, while the complaints process should also be accessible.
All passenger boats carrying more than 12 passengers will have to obey the new laws, which are set to come into force in 2012, although there will be some exceptions, such as excursions and sightseeing tours.
The European Parliament also approved new laws that would provide free assistance to disabled bus and coach passengers.
But the bus and coach regulations have yet to be approved by the individual EU member states, with negotiations likely to take place this summer.
Campaigners are hoping the regulations will include compensation for lost or damaged mobility equipment, and a duty to provide key information in an accessible format, if they finally become law.
The European Disability Forum (EDF) welcomed both sets of proposals.
An EDF spokeswoman said: "European law applicable in all EU countries is the best way to ensure that disabled people will enjoy a comparable travel experience as everyone else."
She said that disabled passengers face a "multitude" of barriers with transport infrastructure, vehicle design and staff attitudes, despite the European Union treaty guaranteeing freedom of movement to all EU citizens.
She said there was a "serious lack of information" in accessible formats, poor levels of assistance, and "difficult physical access".
But she warned that some companies would probably "not respect" the new laws, so disabled people would have to take legal action to enforce their rights, as they did with the EU's air passenger laws, which came into force in 2008.
The EDF called on the disability movement to lobby national governments to back the bus and coach proposals.
7 July 2010
Disabled campaigner nominated for UN role
A leading disabled campaigner has been nominated by the UK government to join the worldwide body that monitors how countries are implementing the UN disability convention.
Diane Mulligan was put forward by Maria Miller, the minister for disabled people, as the UK candidate to join the UN expert committee on the rights of disabled people.
If she is elected in 2012, she will become one of the 12 human rights experts who monitor how the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is being implemented around the world.
Mulligan is a long-standing member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) disability committee, and leads its work on the UN convention, representing it in Europe and at the UN.
She was also appointed this year to the government's network of disability equality advisers, Equality 2025, and in January was recognised with an OBE for nearly 20 years' work with disabled people in developing countries and in the UK.
Mulligan is a former director of the charity VSO in Indonesia, set up the Sussex Amputee Support Group, and is an advisor on disability and social inclusion for the development charity Sightsavers.
Mike Smith, chair of the EHRC's disability committee, said: "It's a huge credit to the work that Diane has done on disabled people's rights that she is being put forward by the minister as a candidate for the UN committee for 2012.
"She'll be up against candidates from around the world who are also leaders in this field."
He said the EHRC, Foreign Office, Office for Disability Issues, disabled people's organisations and others would support her through the selection process.
7 July 2010
New guide calls for community action on hate crime
Disabled people and disabled people's organisations (DPOs) must do more to raise awareness of disability hate crime in their local areas, according to a new publication.
The online guide, published by the United Kingdom Disabled People's Council (UKDPC), describes how to report a disability hate crime and where victims can find support.
It says disabled people should report any crimes they believe are related to their impairment, including harassment, theft, verbal abuse, physical assaults, arson, graffiti, offensive letters and malicious complaints.
The guide says: "The more people who do this the more records there will be of what we experience and then more and better plans will be made to deal with it."
And it says that disabled people and DPOs can make a "huge difference locally and nationally by raising the issue of disability hate crime".
Anne Novis, who leads on disability hate crime issues for UKDPC and collated the information in the guide, said it was important for DPOs and their allies to provide services, influence the way hate crime was dealt with, and join local partnerships involved in tackling hate crime, such as hate crime panels and crime reduction panels.
She said: "A lot of DPOs and individuals just don't know where to start around this issue. They want to do work on it but they haven't got any money so they don't know how to get involved."
The guide describes how DPOs can become "third party reporting sites", taking reports of disability hate crime from disabled people and then passing them on to the police.
And it calls on disabled people to become involved with the police as independent advisors or community representatives, and to contact their local politicians to raise awareness about disability hate crime.
The guide also calls on disabled people and DPOs to take part in the Equality and Human Rights Commission's inquiry into disability-related harassment.
For a copy of the report, visit:
www.ukdpc.net/library/Disability%20Hate%20Crime,%20How%20to%20Get%20Involved%20Guide%20PDF%20version3.pdf
6 July 2010
Welfare reforms 'could breach government's UN duties'
The government's welfare reforms could cause it to breach its obligations to disabled people under the UN disability convention, peers have suggested.
Baroness Jane Campbell said the government's disability living allowance (DLA) reforms and the closure of the Independent Living Fund to new applicants could lead to a breach of its duties under the UN Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities.
She said the government had a duty under the convention to ensure disabled people had an adequate standard of living, and pointed out that a third of disabled people already live below the poverty line, even before the extra costs of disability are taken into account.
Lord Freud, the Conservative welfare reform minister, said the government was on "a journey towards complete equality for disabled people".
He added: "It would be naive to claim that within one bound we shall produce total equality. This has been a long journey, which started many years ago.
"We are committed to press on and make sure that as we move ahead we produce greater equality and improve the lot of disabled people steadily as the years progress."
Baroness Greengross, a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, asked whether, in the light of government welfare reform announcements around incapacity benefit (IB) and DLA, planned cuts to public spending could impede the implementation of the UN convention.
Lord Freud said that "in our welfare reforms we will look precisely at making sure that those who need support the most continue to receive it".
Lord Knight, a Labour peer, asked how the government had involved disabled people in decisions which would cut £360 million from the DLA budget in 2013 and more than £1 billion in 2014.
Lord Freud said the government would "go through the normal budget processes in terms of ensuring that equality and human rights issues are dealt with".
6 July 2010
News Stories from the week ending 2 July 2010
Government to review impact of welfare reforms
The government has ordered a review of how its package of welfare reforms will affect disabled people.
Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith announced the "strategic review" following growing anger among disabled people at repeated government references to the need to cut spending on disability benefits, as well as concerns about other welfare reforms and threatened cuts to public spending.
Duncan Smith claimed he had ordered the review because he was "committed to ensuring that disabled people and carers receive the support that they deserve".
The review will look at the impact of scrapping Labour's employment support programmes and replacing them with a single work programme, as well as reforms around incapacity benefits and disability living allowance, among other measures.
The review was announced during the final day of the budget debate - although it was not publicised by the government - and will be carried out by the Conservative minister for disabled people, Maria Miller.
Duncan Smith said Miller would take a "principled look" at the support provided for disabled people, "to ensure that the effect of all the measures is appropriate and that they work".
A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said afterwards: "The secretary of state has asked the minister for disabled people to conduct a strategic review of how proposed welfare reforms will impact on disabled people and carers as a key part of her role.
"She will maintain an ongoing dialogue with the secretary of state on this moving forward to ensure that the interests of disabled people are looked after as we make fundamental reforms to the welfare system."
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance (DA), welcomed the announcement. He said DA had called for such a review in its response to last week's emergency budget.
Anne Kane, policy manager for Inclusion London, said she hoped the review would be "serious" and that disabled people's organisations would be able "to make it clear how damaging the impact of these changes threaten to be".
1 July 2010
Conservatives attack DLA spending - again
Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has launched another government attack on disability living allowance (DLA), claiming that spending on the key disability benefit had "spiralled out of control".
Duncan Smith told MPs during the final day of the budget debate that the DLA system had been "vulnerable to error, abuse and, in some cases, outright fraud".
His comments followed last week's comments about spending on DLA - using similar language - in George Osborne's budget statement.
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show spending on DLA has risen in real terms from £6.7 billion in 1997/98 to an estimated £11.7 billion in 2009/10.
DWP figures also show that estimated DLA fraud for 2009/10 was £60 million, just 0.5 per cent of the money spent on DLA.
Estimated incapacity benefit (IB) fraud was also just 0.5 per cent, or £30 million.
These figures compare with far higher levels of fraud among claimants of income support (2.8 per cent, £240 million), jobseeker's allowance (2.5 per cent, £120 million) and carer's allowance (3.9 per cent, £60 million).
Duncan Smith also confirmed that the government would implement new rules agreed by MPs last year, which will allow severely visually-impaired people to claim the higher rate of the mobility component of DLA, instead of the lower rate.
The new rules will come into effect in April 2011 and should mean an extra £30.90 a week for about 22,000 people.
Later in the debate, Conservative MP Stewart Jackson complained that 6,000 of his constituents "languish" on DLA, and "most shockingly, more than 1,000 of them languished on that particular benefit for more than 12 years".
Maria Eagle, Labour's former disabled people's minister, said: "People who work receive DLA. It is not a benefit that one languishes upon. It is a recognition from society that disabled people need a little extra support to enable them to participate in life."
She said the introduction of a new medical test for those on DLA "looks like harassment", and appeared to be a way of cutting the number of people on DLA by a fifth in order to save money.
Following the debate, Anne Kane, policy manager for Inclusion London, said the government had clearly been trying to condition people, including MPs, to accept that cuts to the IB and DLA budgets were "unavoidable" and "necessary", when they were not.
1 July 2010
Briefing throws incapacity benefit plans into confusion
The coalition's welfare plans have been thrown into confusion after two government departments appeared to be delivering contrasting messages about the speed of its reforms.
The chancellor, George Osborne, told reporters that he wanted to reduce spending on benefits such as housing benefit and incapacity benefit (IB), and its replacement, employment and support allowance, in order to avoid cuts in other government departments.
But several national newspapers also reported that the chancellor wanted to speed up the process of reassessing all those still claiming old-style IB.
The coalition government announced last month that it would reassess a small number of people claiming IB through a "small trial", starting this October. The trial will take place in Burnley and Aberdeen.
A "national reassessment programme" will run from spring 2011 to March 2014, with the first letters likely to be sent out to disabled people next February.
This is likely to mean about 10,000 people on IB every week being reassessed through the much-criticised work capability assessment (WCA), usually at the time their benefit review is due.
A Treasury spokesman said he could not confirm or deny who briefed journalists about the chancellor's wish to speed up this process.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman denied any plans to speed up reassessment, and said: "There have not been any changes from our end. We are not moving from 10,000 a week."
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, said the continuing uncertainty following a string of welfare reform announcements was "extremely unhealthy and unhelpful", while the government could still speed up the process at a future date.
But he said the key problem was not with the speed of the scheme, but with the need to ensure the system "gets things right". He said: "The problem is the assessment. The assessment is not effective."
Employment minister Chris Grayling this week announced changes to the WCA, which will mean fewer people with severe mental health conditions and all those waiting for or between courses of chemotherapy no longer being asked to attend a WCA.
Coyle welcomed the changes and said they could ease the problems in the system, and cut costs.
Grayling also said that an independent review of the WCA - headed by occupational health expert Professor Malcolm Harrington - would be completed by the end of 2010.
1 July 2010
New Scottish law is step on road to better access to pubs
A new law which could improve access to pubs and clubs in Scotland has been passed by the Scottish Parliament.
The law will force bars to provide details of their access when applying for new licences or major changes to their licensing conditions.
Local councils will publish the statements on their websites, so disabled people can check out access at a pub or club before they visit.
The new law was included as an amendment to the criminal justice and licensing (Scotland) bill, which was passed by the Scottish parliament this week.
The amendment was lodged by MSP George Foulkes, who took up the issue after being approached by wheelchair-user Mark Cooper, from Edinburgh.
Cooper launched a successful Facebook campaign for better access - Barred! - after being told by an Edinburgh pub that it had no accessible toilet, even though it had level access.
Cooper's campaign was taken up and expanded by the disability charity Capability Scotland, which now employs him as a parliamentary and policy officer.
Cooper said he was "delighted" that campaigners' hard work had paid off, and said the new law would ensure that "disabled people can make informed choices about where they go to socialise".
He added: "I think it will make a tremendous difference because it will allow disabled people to plan and enjoy a night out and not have to figure out the barriers that could occur."
Jim Elder-Woodward, convenor of Independent Living in Scotland, a disabled people's organisation set up to develop the independent living movement in Scotland, praised the Barred! campaign but said the new law was "only a start" towards making it easier for disabled and non-disabled people to meet and relate to one another.
He said pubs and bars had been "central to the British way of socialising for generations" but "for many disabled people, they have been no-man's land".
He said: "The inaccessibility of most bars and pubs has cut off vital resources in disabled people's attempts to integrate and participate in their local communities.
"Irrespective of the amount of time spent in sharing work or educational experiences, it is only by sharing social time with non-disabled people, that the real barriers between them and disabled people can come tumbling down."
1 July 2010
New disabled MP criticised over views on inclusion
Westminster's newest disabled MP has been criticised after attacking the "dogmatic" views of campaigners for inclusive education.
The Conservative MP Paul Maynard - believed to be the first former special school pupil to become an MP - spent two years at a special school from the age of three, before spending the rest of his education in mainstream schools.
He told Disability News Service: "Saying we need to have inclusion because segregating people is wrong overlooks the fact that some people may need specialist provision, which is only available in special needs schools."
The new MP's views mirror those laid out by his party in its general election manifesto, which pledged to "end the bias towards the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream schools" and called for a "moratorium on the ideologically-driven closure of special schools".
Maynard, who received two years of intensive therapy in a special school before transferring to a mainstream primary school, where he received several years of speech therapy, said he had "seen both sides of the coin".
But Tara Flood, chief executive of the Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE), said his comments were "unhelpful" and his experience was very different from "the majority of special school survivors".
She said: "I don't think two years at the very beginning of his life can really be the basis of support for special schools. He had the benefit of a full, full-time, formal mainstream education."
She said research showed that time spent in a special school had a lifetime negative impact, with former special school pupils less likely to move on to further and higher education or to be in work.
Maynard, the MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, said: "We need to stop trying to fit children into this tick-box approach and build services around the needs of each child."
When asked why such provision could not be provided in a mainstream setting, he pointed to a special school in his constituency, which had a "fantastic hydrotherapy suite".
He said: "I do not think you can expect public money to fund fantastic hydrotherapy facilities in each mainstream school just to facilitate an ideologically-based inclusion agenda.
"Would that we had a money tree in the garden. In the age of tighter public spending, it is even harder still."
But Flood said it was not cost-effective to have such expensive facilities in special schools, either.
She said: "It cannot be cost-effective that the reason someone goes to a segregated environment is to access a warmer-than-usual swimming pool."
Flood said Maynard's experience was "fundamentally different" to that of those disabled people who spent their entire education in special schools.
She added: "We would be delighted to work with Mr Maynard to help him understand that."
1 July 2010
Stevie Wonder's Glastonbury access plea
Soul legend Stevie Wonder has delivered a plea to "make the world more accessible", at the end of his headlining appearance at the Glastonbury music festival.
The singer-songwriter, who is blind, had performed some of his classic hits, including Higher Ground, Superstition and Happy Birthday, in front of an estimated crowd of 100,000 people on the final day of the festival.
But as he finished his set, he appealed to the crowd to "encourage the world to make the world more accessible for those who are physically challenged".
To a roar of approval from the crowd, he added: "Make it more accessible. Let there be nowhere that I cannot go being blind, or one cannot go being deaf, or someone cannot go being paraplegic or quadriplegic.
"Make it accessible so that we can celebrate the world as well as you can."
The musician has a long track record of campaigning on civil and human rights issues, and raising funds for disability and other causes.
Elsewhere at the festival, Attitude is Everything (AIE), which campaigns for better access to live music for disabled people, showcased several Deaf and disabled musicians and DJs on one of the open air stages.
Performers included Bug Prentice and La Rebla Fam, both of which have disabled band members, and Deaf Rave DJs MC Geezer, DJ Inigo and DJ Ceri.
Other disabled musicians who appeared at the festival included the Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili and Mystery Jets, whose frontman Blaine Harrison is disabled.
AIE also provided 10 Deaf and disabled stewards to assist disabled festival-goers on the accessible campsite and on the viewing platforms.
Suzanne Bull, chief executive of AIE, said it was too early to evaluate access at this year's festival, but she added: "Glastonbury work very hard to do the best that they can. They are open to the suggestions and feedback and evaluation that we give them."
She pointed to notices written by festival founder Michael Eavis on the doors of the accessible toilets, asking non-disabled people not to use them.
She said: "What is changing is that they are asking the question now instead of us bringing it up."
She added: "They are not just talking about disabled audiences anymore, they are talking about artists, too."
1 July 2010
Disabled delegation set to pull out of Pride over access
The national LGBT disabled people's organisation is set to pull out of London's annual gay rights parade this weekend, because they say organisers have failed to make vital access arrangements.
Regard produced a report after last year's Pride London event, describing access as "difficult and dangerous" - which organisers have denied - with many arrangements agreed in advance not put into place on the day.
This year, despite repeated complaints and questions directed at the organisers by Regard members, detailed information about accessible transport only appeared on the Pride website this week, just hours after questions were asked by Disability News Service and only five days before the event was due to take place.
Regard says organisers have also failed to arrange any reserved accessible parking.
Regard is now compiling a file on the continuing access problems at Pride London stretching back at least ten years, to present to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
One Regard member said she was one of "no doubt many disabled lesbians who have given up on the idea of travelling to London to take part in Pride".
She said she and her partner "just cannot risk turning up and not being able to get the support that we might need", and had emailed organisers for information several weeks ago but received no reply.
Dr Ju Gosling, co-chair of Regard, said: "I know how miserable I felt when I was really ill in July 2000, and found for the first time since coming out that Pride wouldn't be accessible to me.
"I really wanted to be at Pride, to show that I couldn't be made to feel ashamed of being either gay or disabled, however much I was punished for it. But instead I sat at home in tears.
"It makes me very sad that, ten years on, nothing has really changed despite many years of hard work by LGBT disabled people.
"And it makes me angry that disabled people are still having to fight for equality at so many levels within the community."
No-one from Pride London, or the office of the Mayor, one of the event's main sponsors, or Westminster council, which licenses the event, was available to comment.
1 July 2010
London's Dial-a-Ride still 'plagued by problems'
London's door-to-door transport service for disabled people continues to be "plagued" by "significant problems", according to a new report.
The London Assembly's transport committee investigated the performance of Dial-a-Ride - London's largest door-to-door service, provided free to its 50,000 members - last year after "many complaints" from users.
Now a follow-up report by the committee says concerns remain around availability, efficiency, the booking process and consultation with users, although overall performance has improved "slightly".
In a survey carried out by the committee earlier this year, one in four users said the service provided by Dial-a-Ride was either poor or very poor.
The report says the telephone booking service is a "source of frustration" to users, with two thirds of those surveyed saying they had had to wait at least ten minutes for a booking call to be answered, or did not have their call answered at all.
Although some aspects of the service have improved, the service is still providing fewer journeys (1.25 million) than it did in 2001/02 (1.26 million), against a target of 1.4 million.
In its evidence to the investigation, the campaigning accessible transport charity Transport for All said it continued to be concerned that Dial-a-Ride was "seen as the poor family relation" by Transport for London (TfL).
Transport for All said it feared standards could slip further if funding was not increased, and called for more coordination between Dial-a-Ride and London's community transport sector.
Caroline Pidgeon, deputy chair of the transport committee, called on TfL and the mayor, Boris Johnson, to take action to improve the service.
A TfL spokeswoman accepted there had been problems with Dial-a-Ride, including with the booking system.
But she said: "Dial-a-Ride services are getting better and we are pleased the transport committee report reflects the improvements made in the last year.
"There has been an increase in the demand for the service and last year we completed 76,000 more trips compared to the previous year."
She added: "Of course we are not complacent and will continue to make improvements to the service."
She said TfL was awaiting the outcome of a review of door-to-door services being carried out by London Councils, which represents the capital's local authorities.
The transport committee is also carrying out a wider investigation into how to improve access to public transport for people with mobility impairments, with a report due early next year.
30 June 2010
Healthcare battle for direct payments could be over at last
A woman who lost a legal battle for the right to use direct payments to manage her long-term condition has welcomed a new pilot project that should allow her to continue controlling how her healthcare is provided.
Valerie Garnham was one of two disabled people who were forced to drop a court case against the government earlier this year.
Garnham, from Islington, north London, and Steven Harrison, from Yorkshire, argued that the government acted unlawfully and breached their human rights by not allowing them to manage their continuing healthcare through direct payments.
But they had to drop their appeal when the Department of Health said new laws which would only allow direct payments for healthcare through official pilot schemes were to come into force the day before their case was to be heard.
This week, the government announced the first eight primary care trusts (PCTs) - including Islington - that will take part in the pilot schemes to "road test" direct payments for personal health budgets. More trusts are expected to join the scheme later this year.
PCTs that take part will be able to give money directly to individuals, allowing them to decide how they receive their healthcare, in partnership with the local NHS.
Garnham has been receiving direct payments from Islington PCT for several years, but two years ago the PCT told her she would have to receive her healthcare through an agency, because of new government guidance.
Garnham welcomed this week's announcement and said she was keen to work with the PCT to make the pilot scheme a success. She said the pilots should give her and other disabled people "choice and self-autonomy", and save money.
She added: "I do feel it's a victory. Our court case highlighted the situation and brought it to public notice."
Her solicitor, Frances Lipman, from Disability Law Service, welcomed the new pilots, and said: "Islington have always been cooperative and wanted Valerie to have a direct payment, but just felt constrained by the legislation. It is good news that PCTs like Islington are keen to make it work."
She said Garnham had proved that direct payments for continuing healthcare could work.
Lipman has encouraged other disabled people to press their PCTs to take part in the pilot scheme.
Islington PCT welcomed the announcement, but said it was too early to confirm who would be taking part in its pilot, which will be smaller than others given the go-ahead by the government.
Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care services minister, said: "There is strong evidence from the social care sector that direct payments help achieve better outcomes, and give people more choice and control over the care they receive."
He said the new programme would "stop healthcare from slipping back to the days of one-dimensional, like-it-or-lump-it services".
30 June 2010
Government's benefits bashing 'could lead to hate crime'
Activists have warned that repeated government references to the need to slash the disability benefits bill could lead to a rise in disability hate crime.
The government is making it increasingly clear that the more money it can save from its benefits bill, the less it will have to cut from other areas of spending.
Speaking to journalists at the G20 summit in Canada, the chancellor, George Osborne, highlighted incapacity benefit and housing benefit as two large budgets that the government wanted to cut.
The comments followed his emergency budget, in which he stressed the cost of spending on disability living allowance (DLA).
Anne Novis, a leading national campaigner on disability hate crime, said she was "appalled and dismayed" at the government's "targeted hostility" towards disabled people.
She said: "The ignorance around what DLA is and how it supports disabled people with the recognised extra cost of being a disabled person is perpetuating a myth that disabled people have it easy, get everything free and have an easy life.
"It reinforces the attitude that some have towards us that we are a burden on the state and should be got rid of or marginalised into more poverty by such extreme measures."
Novis said the government appeared to have no understanding of the importance of DLA to disabled people and how crucial it was in promoting independent living.
She said disabled people were experiencing increasing physical and verbal assaults "due to everyone believing the myth perpetuated by many MPs and ministers that disability and sickness fraud is extremely high, when this is not the case".
DWP figures show that estimated DLA fraud for 2009/10 was £60 million, just 0.5 per cent of the money spent on DLA. Estimated incapacity benefit (IB) fraud was also just 0.5 per cent, or £30 million.
These figures compare with far higher levels of fraud among claimants of income support (2.8 per cent, £240 million), jobseeker's allowance (2.5 per cent, £120 million) and carer's allowance (3.9 per cent, £60 million).
Stephen Brookes, joint chair of the disabled members' council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and another leading anti-hate crime campaigner, emailed NUJ colleagues this week to say he was becoming "deeply concerned" at the growing numbers of "sensational headlines and stories about disability 'scroungers' and 'benefit cheats'".
He said the government was spreading the message that "if only they can stop 'disabled benefits cheats' then other cuts won't have to be so bad".
Brookes warned that such stories could create a "serious discriminatory attitude which will clearly lead to abuse of disabled people".
29 June 2010
Government pledges improvements to wheelchair services
The government has admitted there are "unacceptable" variations in the quality of wheelchair services across the country.
Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care services minister, said many disabled people experienced a "poor" service, with long waiting-times and "far too much off-the-shelf or 'like it or lump it' provision".
His comments came in a Commons debate on wheelchair services, secured by Labour MP David Anderson, who chairs the all party parliamentary group on muscular dystrophy.
It followed last week's Commons launch of the Get Moving report by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, which called for improved wheelchair services.
The report includes a string of examples of disabled people who have had problems obtaining the right wheelchair.
Burstow, who attended the launch of the report, said he had been left "in no doubt that wheelchair services is an area that really does require improvement", while there needed to be "real improvement in extending personalisation to wheelchair services".
He said it was common for people to wait months for a wheelchair, and not uncommon for them to wait years for a powered wheelchair, with an "unacceptable" degree of regional variation in the standard of services.
Burstow added: "The majority of wheelchair services are provided by the National Health Service, and should be subject to consistent, national standards, applied by local commissioners to the needs of individual populations."
And he said his jaw "nearly hit the floor" when he discovered that 57 per cent of wheelchair budgets were eaten up by administration costs.
He said that two pilot projects in the east and south-west of England - announced by the Labour government in March - would "sow the seeds for best practice to take root across the whole NHS".
The pilots were the latest in a series of efforts by the Labour government to improve wheelchair services.
In 2002, it launched a "Wheelchair Services Collaborative", a partnership between the Department of Health and the NHS Modernisation Agency that aimed to "support significant improvements in NHS wheelchair services".
And in 2006, prime minister Tony Blair announced that a Transforming Community Equipment and Wheelchair Services programme would aim to find a new way of delivering equipment, with a bigger role for charities.
29 June 2010
Disability sports bodies welcome plans for national schools event
Disability sports organisations have welcomed government plans for a national school sports competition modelled on the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The competition was launched this week by Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for culture, media and sport, who said he wanted to "harness Olympic and Paralympic values to revive the culture of competitive sports in every school in Britain".
Primary and secondary schools will start taking part in new district leagues from January 2011, with up to £10 million lottery funding.
Successful teams or individual athletes will take part in up to 60 county or city-level finals, with the most talented athletes selected to represent their school at a national Olympic and Paralympic-style event.
The first national finals are set to take place on the eve of the 2012 Olympics in London's new Olympic stadium.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said there would be a "Paralympic element" at every level of the competition for young disabled people.
There are no details yet on how disabled children in mainstream schools will take part, with Hunt saying he would be talking to Paralympics GB - the charity that runs Britain's Paralympics teams - about "how we can best bring the benefits of the scheme to young disabled people".
Martin McElhatton, chief executive of WheelPower, the national wheelchair sports charity, said the plans sounded "very exciting".
But he said he would need to hear more detail about how much of the funding would be devoted to disability sports and how it would work for disabled children in mainstream schools, as well as for those in special schools.
He said disabled children in mainstream settings do not always find out about sporting opportunities available to them.
And he said it would be important to make sure that the new competitions fit into the opportunities already available for disabled children.
McElhatton said disability and mainstream sports bodies were already working on how to ensure competitive opportunities for disabled people from beginners up to Paralympic level.
He added: "We are looking forward to hearing what it means in reality and how it will work."
ParalympicsGB welcomed the inclusion of a Paralympic element to the competition.
But a ParalympicsGB spokeswoman said: "Clearly the implementation of the Paralympic element isn't as straightforward as the Olympic element as many disabled children are integrated into mainstream schools, meaning inter-school competition will be harder to achieve in terms of numbers, but we support the ambition and are looking forward to working with DCMS on the plans."
29 June 2010
News Stories from the week ending 25 June 2010
EMERGENCY BUDGET: DLA reforms will 'hit disabled people hard'
Disabled campaigners have reacted with anger and concern to the government's plans to reform disability living allowance (DLA), and introduce a new medical test for claimants.
From 2013, all existing working-age claimants will be reassessed using the new test, which will also apply to all new DLA claimants, while the government also looks set to tighten eligibility criteria as part of plans to slash the welfare budget.
Announcing the plans as part of his emergency budget on Tuesday, the chancellor, George Osborne, said the costs of DLA had quadrupled to more than £11 billion, making it "one of the largest items of government spending".
He said the new assessment would allow the government to "continue to afford paying this important benefit to those with the greatest needs, while significantly improving incentives to work for others".
London's new Deaf and disabled people's organisation said disabled people would be "hit hard" by the plans.
Anne Kane, policy manager for Inclusion London, said the changes would "intensify the poverty and disadvantage facing disabled people", while the impact would be increased by other changes announced in the budget, including huge reductions in public spending, an increase in VAT to 20 per cent and cuts to other benefits.
She said it was clear the government intended to ensure that fewer people qualified for DLA.
Kane said DLA was intended to contribute to - but not cover - the extra costs of disability, and was "already subject to stringent qualifications".
She said: "Already disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty as non-disabled people. Today's budget will make this worse."
The National Centre for Independent Living (NCIL) said the chancellor's argument that DLA prevented people working was "bizarre" and "ridiculous".
Sue Bott, NCIL's director, said she feared that people with hidden impairments "may well be the ones who end up paying for all this" because they would find it harder to prove they were disabled.
She suggested that the number of people claiming DLA might have risen because there was now less stigma attached to being a disabled person.
And she said the move to reassess current claimants would "cost a fortune", including the cost of the "inevitable" appeals.
Bott said: "We need to be making our points about the impact that DLA has on individual disabled people's lives and how important it is. We need to do a bit of educating."
RADAR criticised the announcement of "yet another assessment regime", and said that making it harder to claim DLA was "not the way to encourage people into the job market".
Liz Sayce, RADAR's chief executive, said DLA had "no connection with employment whatsoever".
She added: "We will continue to campaign for one point of entry and assessment for all benefits and related support for disabled people - we want to make the anxiety introduced by multiple assessments history."
Disability Alliance (DA), the disability poverty charity, said the budget and previous government announcements "raise the spectre of grinding poverty and increased social isolation for disabled people and their families".
DA said the government's austerity package risked "a significant assault on support for disabled people", who were "being hit fastest, hardest and will suffer longest from the impact of the new government's reaction to the nation's finances".
Vanessa Stanislas, DA's chief executive, added: "The government must tackle the budget deficit, but Disability Alliance is deeply concerned that 'tough action' has not been spread evenly across government and society.
"Instead, today's cuts will be felt by our most disadvantaged citizens who are not responsible for the banking crisis but will now suffer its harshest consequences."
Adrian Whyatt, chair of Neurodiversity International and co-chair of the Autistic Rights Movement UK, accused the government of deliberately attacking disabled people, particularly those with invisible impairments.
He pointed to research by the National Autistic Society which found more than 30 per cent of adults with autism had "no income at all" from benefits or employment "because of the practically total inaccessibility of the job market and the benefits system to them".
He said the budget would make the situation "even worse" and that the government had now "lost all legitimacy" among disabled people, particularly those with invisible impairments.
He said: "Why should poor, sick and disabled people pay for the 'banksters' and corrupt politicians, consultants and cronies and the mess they have made of the world?"
The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) - a coalition of disability and welfare advice organisations - said it believed the budget would have a "disproportionate impact on disabled people".
The DBC said the DLA changes would increase the number of disabled people living in poverty, while the new test would create "additional stress and anxiety" for claimants, and lead to unnecessary bureaucracy and increased costs through the new assessments and appeals.
The DBC said it was also concerned about the chancellor's decision to uprate benefits annually in line with rises in consumer prices instead of retail prices - which the chancellor said would cut more than £6 billion a year from the benefits budget by 2015.
The DBC said it was worried that "priority has been given to saving money over ensuring sufficient support for disabled people".
24 June 2010
EMERGENCY BUDGET: Government set to restrict DLA eligibility
The government is set to launch a major reform of disability living allowance (DLA) - with tighter eligibility, a new medical test and reassessments for all claimants of working age.
The chancellor, George Osborne, announced in his emergency budget on Tuesday that the new medical test would be applied to "new and existing" DLA claimants from 2013.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said later that reassessments of existing DLA claimants would only apply to adults of working age.
A DWP spokeswoman told Disability News Service: "It has not been ruled out that we would look at other claimants of DLA later on. We might, we might not."
The announcement was one of a series of measures designed to deal with what Osborne said was the "staggering" increase of £60 billion in the welfare budget over the last ten years.
He said the annual cost of DLA had quadrupled to more than £11 billion and that he wanted to improve "incentives to work".
He also announced budget cuts of an average 25 per cent for all government departments - apart from health and international development - which the Institute for Fiscal Studies later said would lead to "the longest, deepest sustained period of cuts to public services spending at least since World War Two".
Inclusion London said the DLA changes would be "bad for disabled people and bad for equality", while Disability Alliance said the government's austerity package raised "the spectre of grinding poverty and increased social isolation for disabled people and their families".
Further details obtained by Disability News Service appear to confirm that the government wants to make it harder for disabled people to claim DLA, a key benefit in helping disabled people live independently.
The DWP spokeswoman said current spending on DLA was "unsustainable" and the new "more objective" assessment would make DLA "fairer and ensure its financial sustainability", with support "targeted on those with greatest need".
Asked if this would mean stricter criteria, in order to cut the number of people claiming DLA, she said: "It looks like that is the way it could go if they want to reduce the numbers on the benefit. I think so, yes."
Budget documents also make it clear the government intends to tighten eligibility, stating that DLA reform would "ensure support is targeted on those with the highest medical need".
RADAR and the National Centre for Independent Living are among those that have raised serious concerns over Osborne's suggestion that receiving DLA could lower a disabled person's incentive to find a job. DLA is intended to help with the extra costs of disability, and has no connection with whether the recipient is in work.
But in his budget statement, Osborne said the reforms would mean "we can continue to afford paying this important benefit to those with the greatest needs, while significantly improving incentives to work for others".
The DWP spokeswoman said the government was committed to ensuring that DLA "improves work incentives and encourages responsibility and fairness".
She added: "How the work incentives element will play out is still to be worked out."
The DWP also confirmed that there would be an entirely new medical assessment for DLA claimants, which would be separate to the much-criticised work capability assessment (WCA), the new test for out-of-work disability benefits.
The DWP said it would "use some of the learning we have had from implementing the WCA, but it would be a different assessment".
24 June 2010
EMERGENCY BUDGET: Benefit change welcomed but housing crisis remains
New rules announced in this week's emergency budget will allow disabled people who need an extra bedroom for a personal assistant to claim housing benefit for the additional cost.
Campaigners had complained that the rules on local housing allowance (LHA) -which determine how much housing benefit is paid to those renting from private landlords - do not allow disabled people who need an overnight support worker to claim for the cost of an extra bedroom.
Councils can make "discretionary" payments to cover the extra costs, but these are short-term and only paid if the council has sufficient funds.
The disabled Labour peer Baroness Wilkins had told the Commons work and pensions committee that the rules were causing "real hardship and loss of control".
The chancellor, George Osborne, announced in his budget statement that the government would now "cover the cost of an additional room for those claimants with a disability who need a carer".
Budget documents released on the same day reveal that the change will be introduced from April 2011.
Despite widespread criticism of the impact of other budget measures on disabled people, the LHA announcement was welcomed by disabled people's organisations.
Liz Sayce, chief executive of RADAR, said: "This is something RADAR has campaigned for and we are delighted the government has listened on this significant issue for people who face considerable disadvantage."
But RADAR warned there was still a "real housing crisis facing disabled people", with a shortage of accessible, affordable housing.
The charity said that LHA restrictions announced in the budget - saving £1.8 billion a year by 2015 - could "drive disabled people further into inaccessible housing, making them prisoners in their house".
The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) - a coalition of disability and welfare advice organisations - also welcomed the move to allow disabled people to claim housing benefit for an extra room for an overnight support worker.
But it joined RADAR in warning that the package of housing benefit cuts announced in the budget "risks leaving many disabled people unable to afford suitable accommodation".
Rebecca Rennison, senior policy officer at Leonard Cheshire Disability and co-chair of the DBC policy group, said that LHA provides "vital support to many disabled people on low incomes".
She added: "If the government is serious about tackling disability poverty it has to ensure that all disabled people are able to access suitable and affordable housing."
24 June 2010
Parents who locked children in bedrooms 'did not breach rights'
A high court judge has ruled that two sets of parents are not breaching the human rights of their disabled children by locking them in their bedrooms at night.
Both the disabled people - a nine-year-old girl and a 22-year-old woman - have Smith-Magenis syndrome, which causes self-harm, destructive behaviour and disturbed sleep. In both cases, the parents decided they could only guarantee the safety of their daughter by locking her bedroom door every night, the court was told.
The local authority for the area where both families live had asked the court whether locking them in their rooms was an unlawful deprivation of their liberty, under article five of the European Convention on Human Rights.
But Lord Justice Munby made it clear that both sets of parents in the case had provided "devoted and exemplary care", that there was no "deprivation of liberty" in either case, and that locking their bedroom doors at night was "quite plainly" in their best interests.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which intervened in the case as an independent expert, but did not examine the cases of the two families, told the court that any local authority that learns of a real risk of "deprivation of liberty" must investigate and appoint an advocate for the person at risk.
If the council or advocate decides there is potential "deprivation of liberty", the council must ask the court to rule on whether it is unlawful, said the EHRC.
The EHRC told the court that such a system provides protection to a "potentially large number of vulnerable children and adults".
Lord Justice Munby agreed with the EHRC, but made it clear that parents remain in control of how they bring up their children, despite the council's obligations.
He said a council's duties and powers were limited to investigating, providing support services and, if appropriate, referring the matter to court.
An EHRC spokeswoman said after the judgement was published this week that the ruling had been useful because it "clarifies the law around the local authority's role" in such situations.
John Wadham, the EHRC's group legal director, said the case provided a "timely reminder that only in exceptional circumstances can authorities override the decisions of loving parents".
24 June 2010
Minister could reform ILF over closure controversy
The new minister for disabled people has suggested the government could reform the Independent Living Fund (ILF), following its decision to stop accepting any new applications for the rest of the year.
Speaking at a meeting of the all-party parliamentary disability group, Maria Miller MP suggested the government could change the way the ILF was run and said its problems could have been caused by a "failure of management".
Last week, the ILF - which is funded by the government and supports disabled people with high support needs to live independently - admitted it would only be able to fund 600 of the 1,000 new awards it had intended to make this year.
Its announcement in March that disabled people who wanted to apply for financial assistance would now have to be working at least 16 hours a week led to a huge influx of new applications.
The ILF said this led to its decision to stop accepting any new applications for the rest of this financial year, because the new awards were at a "much higher cost" than usual. It also blamed its decision on the rising costs of support.
But responding to concerns raised at the meeting by disability equality consultant Nick Goss, Miller said she was "very disappointed" by the ILF's decision, which "doesn't reflect well" on the previous Labour government.
She said: "Despite the fact that budgets were increased by three per cent, I think it really isn't the position I would like them to be in and I think it doesn't reflect well on the way that was handled by the previous administration.
"It could be time to think again about how (the ILF) operates, particularly in the light of the management situation."
The ILF declined to comment on the minister's criticism.
Asked after the meeting for further details of her future plans for the ILF, Miller said: "The ILF provides additional help to some of the most disabled people in Britain and I am very disappointed that the fund has been closed to new applicants.
"This unfortunate sequence of events is a result of the previous government's failure to properly manage this fund.
"I am working urgently to ensure more effective support for disabled people in the future and will ensure that lessons are learned from these events."
24 June 2010
Government 'will do more' on academies' SEN obligations
The government has agreed to do more to ensure that academy schools set up under proposed new laws will have to match existing obligations to pupils with special educational needs (SEN).
The pledge came after concerns raised by the disabled peer Lord ColinLow, which received widespread backing from fellow peers during the committee stage of the academies bill.
Lord Low said that, despite previous government commitments, there were still areas that were unclear and gaps that "need to be plugged" in the SEN obligations of academies - independent schools that receive government funding.
He called for "further assurance" that the academies expansion programme would not lead to a "weakening of the requirements that govern SEN provision in schools".
He said he been told of cases heard by the SEN and disability tribunal which showed existing academies were "driving a coach and horses" through their SEN obligations.
Lord Low said there was also "room for real concern" that a local authority's ability to arrange SEN provision "will be hampered by the independent status of academies".
The Bishop of Lincoln added: "There are some issues where it is too risky to leave matters simply to good will or mutual understanding, and special educational needs is one of them.
"We need to ask the minister if he will look at ways in which that dimension of academy life can be secured clearly in the bill."
Lord Hill, the Conservative junior education minister, laid out a number of measures that would ensure academies met their SEN obligations.
But he pledged to "think about how best to achieve parity" between the SEN obligations of academies and those of maintained schools - those funded by local education authorities - and said he would produce new proposals at the bill's next stage in the Lords.
24 June 2010
Polling stations 'little better on access' nine years on
The proportion of polling stations that reached a basic level of accessibility at May's general election was only slightly higher than the last election five years ago, according to a new survey.
The survey of more than 1,000 polling stations found two thirds (67 per cent) failed to meet at least one of seven basic access criteria, an improvement of just one percentage point since 2005.
And just 59 per cent of polling stations had properly-designed level access into the building, down from 60 per cent in 2005.
The disability charity Scope, which carried out the survey as part of its long-running Polls Apart campaign, said the number reaching basic levels of access (an increase of just two percentage points since 2001) was "very disappointing".
The access barriers meant many disabled people were unable to cast their vote without assistance and in secret and some were not able to vote at all or could not check their vote had been counted.
Almost half of those disabled people who used postal votes also reported at least one significant access barrier.
Scope called for new laws that would allow councils to use any public or private accessible buildings as polling stations.
It also wants councils to publish a list of the access features of its polling stations before an election, and to carry out annual reviews of polling station access.
Among other recommendations, Scope said local disabled people's organisations should carry out "mystery shopper" access audits on polling stations, while the Electoral Commission should refer serious cases of discrimination to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, or the equivalent bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
It also called on the government to carry out pilots of internet voting.
Ruth Scott, Scope's director of policy and campaigns, said: "There is a pressing need for clearer accountability over how elections are delivered, to help improve the accessibility of current voting methods, as well as expanding these to include alternative methods.
"Unless this happens disabled people will continue to struggle to exercise their right to vote."
The Electoral Commission said it would "look at the recommendation in Scope's report, in light of our statutory duties", which include "supporting electoral administrators so that they can meet their responsibilities to make elections accessible to disabled people".
A spokesman for the commission added: "Our recent report on the problems experienced by some voters on polling day highlights the need for better planning by those that run elections.
"Good planning should also, as Scope's report suggests, include planning to make voting accessible to everyone."
23 June 2010
Website aims to see Paralympians reunited
The charity that manages Britain's Paralympics teams has launched a search for hundreds of missing Paralympians.
ParalympicsGB wants to track down as many as 1,700 sportsmen and women who have competed for Britain at previous Paralympic Games but have now dropped out of contact.
It wants them to sign up to the Paralympians' Club, a new website designed to reunite former GB teammates and "engage the public" in the run-up to London 2012, and provide a way for local communities to request a Paralympian for a public appearance.
The club will also offer benefits provided by London 2012 sponsors to its members, including access to a career support programme from sponsor Adecco, with other benefits yet to be confirmed.
ParalympicsGB hopes the website will become a popular resource for schools and colleges to find out more about current and former stars in the build-up to 2012. The plan is for every member of the Paralympians' Club to eventually have their own profile on the site.
Phil Lane, chief executive of ParalympicsGB, said the charity had in the past failed to keep in contact with retired Paralympic athletes in "any systematic way" and suspected there could be as many as 1,700 "missing" Paralympians, dating back to the first summer Paralympics in 1960.
The search was launched by double Paralympic swimming gold medallist Ellie Simmonds, who said: "I am proud to be a Paralympian and to be a member of the Paralympians' Club.
"Not only does the club offer some great benefits, but it's great for the public as they can use the website to find out more about us.
"I would really encourage anyone who competed for Great Britain at a Paralympic Games to contact ParalympicsGB and join the club."
Former British team members can contact retired Paralympian Iain Gowans at iain.gowans@paralympics.org.uk
For more information, visit www.paralympiansclub.org.uk
23 June 2010
New disabled people's minister pledges to fight for rights
The new Conservative minister for disabled people has pledged to work closely with disabled people, improve access and equality and work towards ending disability poverty.
Speaking at a meeting of the all-party parliamentary disability group, Maria Miller MP provided few new details about the coalition government's policies around disability rights.
But Miller, appearing the day before the chancellor announced tough new reforms of disability living allowance in his emergency budget, referred repeatedly to rights, equality and the importance of working with disabled people and their organisations.
Miller hinted that the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) would not fall victim to government spending cuts, despite concerns raised in the Lords last week, stressing its important role as the "focal point" for implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
She said: "Its principles need to become mainstream - the ODI will work with disabled people to make sure that happens."
She also praised the ODI's "Roadmap" - which details how the government plans to work towards disability equality by 2025 - as a "very useful tool" in measuring progress towards equality.
The minister made several comments about the importance of consulting and working with disabled people and disabled people's organisations (DPOs).
She said the government could only remain on course for full equality for disabled people if it had the "expert advice of disabled people and disabled people's organisations underpinning it".
Asked by Stephen Hodgkins from the Disablity LIB alliance what the Conservative call for a "Big Society" would mean for disabled people and DPOs, she said that many organisations supporting disabled people were "run on a shoestring by people who have an immense knowledge and commitment".
She added: "What I want Big Society to do is support an increase in the capacity of those organisations to do more to support disabled people."
After Baroness TanniGrey-Thompson raised concerns that campaigners could become complacent and stop fighting for equality and inclusion because of the "difficult economic times ahead", the minister promised that the government's emphasis on "fairness...comes right from the top of the coalition".
She gave no new details about the government's welfare reform agenda, but repeated the pledge of "comprehensive and unconditional support" for those unable to work, and said concerns over the new work capability assessment were "very much uppermost in all of our minds".
She also repeated the government's pledge to reform the Access to Work programme, so disabled people would be able to secure funding for workplace adaptations and equipment before they applied for a job.
She also promised that "ending disability poverty" was a "key part" of the government's "wider social agenda".
Baroness JaneCampbell asked whether the new government would introduce "portability" of care packages - giving "freedom of movement" to disabled people who want to move to a different local authority area.
Miller said she had not yet formed a "clear view" on the issue, but saw "enormous value" in "trying to ensure that wherever possible the packages we put in place are as personal as possible".
In answer to a question from Baroness RosalieWilkins, Miller said access to housing for disabled people was "critical", but could not yet give any details on future government policy.
She said: "We are going to ensure that disabled people have greater access to housing, transport, healthcare and employment and a whole range of other services."
She also promised that schools would be "held to account for the progress of all their pupils and not just some".
In response to a question from the new Conservative MP, Paul Maynard - who is believed to be both the first former special school pupil and the first person with cerebral palsy to become an MP - Miller reaffirmed the government's commitment to set up a fund to support more disabled people to become involved in public life.
Maynard also asked her about disability hate crime, which he said was an issue raised by "an awful lot of people" on the streets.
Miller said there was a need for ensuring "as much support as we can from the police and other local organisations in local government in recognising and tackling hate crime".
Labour MP Anne Begg asked if the minister could ensure the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) played "a much more proactive role" in ensuring that anti-discrimination laws were "actually applied".
Miller said she would take the issue up with the EHRC, because it was "clear" that court action was needed to ensure that "legislation has teeth and that it bites".
Responding to Lord ColinLow's request for the government to "put its shoulder to the wheel" in ensuring the progress of the European equal treatment directive - particularly the possible inclusion of measures to ensure the accessibility of manufactured goods - she promised to "go away and look at it in some detail".
Baroness Campbell also announced the all-party group's new officers. She will continue to co-chair the group, while the new Commons co-chair is Anne McGuire, the former Labour minister for disabled people, who herself has a long-term health condition.
The vice-chairs will be Conservative MP Peter Bottomley and Baroness Wilkins, a Labour peer, with Chris Skidmore - the Conservative MP for Kingswood who defeated the group's former co-chair Roger Berry at the general election - the new treasurer and secretary.
22 June 2010
Doctors admit people with learning difficulties face discrimination
Almost half of doctors - and more than a third of nurses - believe people with learning difficulties receive poorer healthcare than the rest of the population, according to a new survey.
Similar numbers have seen a patient with a learning difficulty being treated with neglect or lack of dignity or receive poor care, while nearly four out of ten doctors and a third of nurses believe people with learning difficulties face discrimination in the NHS.
The online survey of more than 1,000 doctors and nurses for the charity Mencap also found that more than half of doctors and more than two thirds of nurses admitted they needed guidance on how treatment should be adjusted to meet the needs of patients with learning difficulties.
The results come two weeks after Andrew Lee, director of People First (Self Advocacy), said people with learning difficulties still faced a two-tier health system.
Lee told Disability News Service that he and other people with learning difficulties faced a "lottery" on whether they were taken seriously by healthcare staff when seeking treatment.
Three years ago, Mencap's Death by Indifference report highlighted the cases of six people with learning difficulties who died unnecessarily in NHS hospitals, and accused the NHS of institutional discrimination.
The following year, Sir Jonathan Michael's inquiry into access to healthcare for people with learning difficulties - set up in response to Death by Indifference - found "convincing evidence" that they had "higher levels of unmet need and receive less effective treatment".
Mencap published the results of the new survey as it launched its Getting It Right campaign, which has been backed by the National Autistic Society.
It wants health trusts to sign up to a charter, which explains the adjustments healthcare professionals should make when treating someone with a learning difficulty.
Among its demands are: awareness training for all staff; a learning difficulties liaison nurse in every hospital; staff to ensure every person with a learning difficulty can have an annual health check; and information that is accessible to people with learning difficulties.
Mark Goldring, Mencap's chief executive, said the survey showed the need for "urgent action", while the campaign aims to ensure that "ignorance and discrimination need never be the cause of death of someone with a learning disability".
He said the charter would make health trusts accountable to people with learning difficulties, and their families and carers.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Improvements have been made in delivering healthcare for people with learning disabilities but there is still much to do. Health remains one of the three priorities for the government's learning disability strategy."
21 June 2010
Council and Guide Dogs 'will work together on shared streets plans'
A high-profile court case has been put on hold after a council agreed to work with disability organisations on its plans for a controversial "shared streets" development in London's tourist heartland.
The charity Guide Dogs had raised serious concerns - backed by 30 disability organisations - over the development of Exhibition Road by Kensington and Chelsea council.
Shared streets designs usually remove kerbs so motorists and pedestrians can share the street space, but users of the space have to make eye contact to establish right of way.
Campaigners say the need for eye contact and the absence of kerbs, which people with guide dogs and long canes use to navigate, puts visually-impaired people at risk.
Exhibition Road is used by an estimated 19 million pedestrians a year and runs from Hyde Park past the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Guide Dogs won the right in March in the high court to challenge the council's plans through a judicial review. But the court case has now been put on hold after the charity reached an agreement with the council.
As part of the agreement, Kensington and Chelsea said it hoped to obtain permission from the Department for Transport for a new shared streets traffic sign that would give pedestrians right of way.
Guide Dogs and other disability organisations will also work with the council on "real world trials" to test the "corduroy paving" markings that will separate the pedestrian and traffic zones.
Guide Dogs and other members of the scheme's access group will be "fully consulted" on how the trials are carried out, and how the results are evaluated.
If the trials show the tactile paving is not "sufficiently detectable", the council has promised that its cabinet will reconsider the designs.
Richard Leaman, chief executive of Guide Dogs, said the charity was "delighted" with the agreement, and said he hoped it could "herald a new approach to the development of street design in the UK".
He added: "Blind and partially sighted people have told us that, for them, shared surfaces are ambiguous and distressing environments which can stop them from enjoying the independence and freedom that the rest of us take for granted.
"By working together, we should be able to ensure that Exhibition Road meets the needs of everyone - so being truly fit for the 21st century."
Inclusion London welcomed the council's decision to work with Guide Dogs and disabled people on the trials "and amend the plans if trials reveal barriers to disabled people".
21 June 2010
News Stories from the week ending 18 June 2010
Peers raise fresh concerns over government cuts
Peers have raised fears that the government could be planning cuts to the disability living allowance (DLA) budget and the Access to Work (ATW) programme, and could be set to abolish the Office for Disability Issues (ODI).
The concerns were raised in a debate held to mark the 40th anniversary of The Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act.
The disabled peer Lord Colin Low said there had been "rumours" that the ODI - which works across government to promote equality for disabled people - was "under threat".
And he warned that any move to cut spending on ATW would "directly undermine the government's efforts to move disabled people off benefits and into work".
He said disabled people were "anxiously awaiting the Budget next week, with the possibility of cuts in their income through means-testing and restrictions on benefits such as the disability living allowance and attendance allowance".
The former Labour minister Baroness Thornton asked whether the new coalition government was planning cuts to ATW and a review of DLA, and whether it would take forward the Labour government's independent living strategy.
The disabled peer Baroness Jane Campbell told the debate that the social care system was "in crisis" and that disabled people face "obscenely tough personal assessments of their needs".
She said: "We need a new approach and new legislation to enable disabled people to face the future with dignity and the assurance that they will not be forgotten by a society that puts resources before need."
She also criticised the Equality and Human Rights Commission for putting equality for disabled people "on the back-burner", and said it still needed to learn to incorporate disability rights into its equality and human rights agenda.
Lord Freud, the Conservative welfare reform minister, said it was "vital that any budget cuts do not disproportionately affect disabled people", and that the coalition was "committed to championing disability equality across government".
But he said it was too early in the new administration to answer "specific questions" about the government's plans.
All of the peers paid tribute to Lord Alf Morris, who introduced the act as a private members' bill when he was a new Labour MP.
Lord Low said the act was "one of the most celebrated pieces of legislation in modern times" and was "unquestionably a landmark act".
Baroness Campbell said the act was "groundbreaking" and praised Lord Morris for being a leader who "worked hand in hand with the people for whom he was fighting".
The disabled peer Lord Jack Ashley, who worked on the bill as a Labour MP, said that one of its main achievements was that it "drew attention to the subject of disability, which had hitherto been ignored completely".
Lord Corbett, the former Labour disability spokesman, who secured the debate, said the act was "the first legislation in the world to enshrine the belief that people with disabilities had rights which should be respected and enforced in law, and to set out a detailed framework of what those rights were".
Lord Morris said his act had helped more than 60 million disabled people, and had become "the model for legislation on disability in countries all over the world".
18 June 2010
Further blow to Independent Living Fund support
The Independent Living Fund (ILF) has announced that it will not accept any further new applications for the rest of the year.
An ILF spokeswoman said the decision was not connected with government funding cuts, as it had received a three per cent increase in its budget for the current financial year.
The ILF - which is funded by the government and supports disabled people with high support needs to live independently - had already announced in March that disabled people who wanted to apply for financial assistance would now have to be working at least 16 hours a week.
But that announcement led to an unexpectedly high number of new applications at the start of the new financial year.
The ILF has now decided to fund 600 of those new applicants but said it would not be able to accept any further new applications for the rest of the year.
It had budgeted to make 1,000 new awards this year but was only able to fund 600 because the new awards were at a "much higher cost" than usual. The ILF also blamed its decision on the rising costs of support.
The ILF said the measures taken would "ensure that the existing 21,000 ILF users' awards continue at their current level".
But it also said it would not be able to increase any individual's existing funding, other than providing "additional support to meet some of their employer responsibilities, and in response to certain changes in their income".
Patrick Boyle, chief executive of the ILF, said: "Our first priority is the 21,000 disabled people we currently support to achieve high quality independent lives.
"Our trustees have acted quickly in their decision to protect this group and to meet their responsibility to manage within budget.
"We are committed to continuing and developing the excellent service we deliver to our users, allowing them greater flexibility in how they choose to manage their funding."
18 June 2010
More than three guide dogs attacked every month, say researchers
New research has found that more than three guide dog every month in the UK are being attacked by other dogs.
The research, published in the magazine Veterinary Record, found that almost two-thirds of the attacks were made on dogs that were in a harness and working with their blind or visually-impaired owner or a trainer.
More than three-fifths of the attacking dogs were off their lead at the time.
The researchers identified 100 attacks between November 2006 and April 2009. Excluding cross-breeds, almost half of the attacking dogs were bulldogs, mastiffs, bull terriers, pit bulls and Staffordshire bull terriers, even though such breeds make up just six per cent of the UK dog population.
More than two-fifths of the guide dogs needed treatment by a vet, and in a fifth of cases, either the guide dog handler or a member of the public was injured.
The performance or behaviour of nearly half of the guide dogs attacked was affected, with two dogs no longer able to continue in their work.
And in only six cases did the owner of the attacking dog apologise. In eight cases, they left without saying anything, even though many of the handlers were "shocked and distressed", and unable to see if their dog needed treatment.
Most of the attacks took place in public places between 9am and 3pm.
The charity Guide Dogs said: "The numbers of dog attacks on guide dogs in the UK is concerning and we fear that many incidents go unreported.
"Certainly our research shows that owners do not usually report attacks to the police.
"Such incidents cause trauma to both the guide dog and its blind or partially sighted owner, often adversely affecting their partnership and therefore the person's mobility."
The charity said it had urged police chief constables across England and Wales to "treat all such attacks most seriously", while dangerous dogs laws in Scotland have already been strengthened.
And in Northern Ireland "there has already been a case where an attack on a guide dog was seen as an extension of an attack on its owner", the charity added.
Guide Dogs said aggressive dogs should be kept on a lead "and muzzled if necessary".
18 June 2010
Clegg says disabled children will be task force priority
The deputy prime minister has promised that supporting disabled children and their families will be one of the priorities of a new cross-government task force on childhood and families.
In a speech at an event organised by the charity Barnardo's in London, Nick Clegg said the task force would be led by the prime minister, David Cameron, and would include senior ministers from across the government.
The group will aim to "identify and prioritise" a small number of policies that would make "the biggest difference to children and families".
Clegg said the task force would "look at how we can provide greater support to disabled children", although the policies he mentioned focused on services for parents of disabled children.
He said the government had already announced it would use direct payments for carers and "better community-based care" to give families "more support", and invest an extra £20 million a year in respite care with money saved by ending the government's contribution to child trust funds.
Clegg said: "While our towering deficit means we can no longer afford these payments across the board...it is right that we make special provision for children with disabilities. For them and their families, respite care can be a lifeline."
But he failed to mention issues such as inclusion for disabled children in mainstream services, discrimination, bullying and the need for accessible leisure activities.
17 June 2010
Minister faces up to DAN's welfare reform protest
Disabled activists secured a face-to-face meeting with the new minister for disabled people, during a protest over the government's welfare-to-work policies.
About 30 members of the Disabled People's Direct Action Network (DAN) and allies chanted slogans and held placards calling for "real work for real pay" and "welfare not workfare" outside the Manchester offices of A4E, one of the private sector companies paid by the government to find work for disabled people.
Although the police were called after protesters entered the building where A4E has its offices, there were no arrests.
The protest on 16 June then moved on to Manchester town hall, where the new Conservative minister for disabled people, Maria Miller MP, was attending the annual independent living awards run by the disability organisation Breakthrough UK.
After protesters gained access to the town hall, the minister agreed to speak to them about their concerns around the government's welfare-to-work agenda.
Rebecca Young, one of the organisers of the protest, who talked to the minister, said: "We told her that the jobs that are being produced are quite often meaningless, almost always at minimum wage and occasionally below - under the auspices of 'training'.
"The whole exercise doesn't result in a real job with a real working wage. It takes people away from activities in the community such as voluntary work and sends them off to earn next to nothing doing a job that sometimes they can't actually do for physical or psychological reasons.
"Most people on benefits are on them because there are no suitable jobs for them to do.
"The minister kept referring to things like job placements, whereas most of us would hope to be referred to a job, not a placement."
Young said the minister didn't seem to understand that the reason so many disabled people were not in work was because of "systemic" problems in society around the lack of support, access, education and suitable jobs.
She added: "It's not as simple as chasing people off to interviews or into work. The government seems to believe that we just need a bit more encouraging or training to do a job, but there is so much more to it than that."
Young said the protest was "a massive success", as they had the chance to talk to Miller and "look her in the eye" and explain why it was important to engage with grassroots organisations of disabled people, rather than the big disability charities.
She added: "We told her she could expect to see us again."
17 June 2010
Freud's warm words fail to quell welfare concerns
The welfare system has made it "much easier" for disabled people to depend on benefits than on themselves, according to the new Conservative minister for welfare reform.
Speaking at a parliamentary reception on the financial independence of disabled people, Lord Freud said the current welfare system "holds back people who are capable of fulfilling work" and "forces disabled people into a life of dependency and robs them of dignity".
He gave few new details on the government's welfare reform plans, but did reveal plans to examine why only 17 per cent of working age recipients of disability living allowance (DLA) had jobs, compared with 47 per cent of all working age disabled people.
He said: "Far too many disabled people...are not in enough control of their own lives to support themselves financially.
"This is a social issue, this is not an issue of capability. We need to constantly challenge society and attitudes and perceptions towards disabled people so they are and can be really involved in society."
He said the government would "look closely" at criticisms of the work capability assessment (WCA), Labour's new test for assessing disabled people's readiness to work.
But he said that, "as the fundamental structure, the WCA is the way to go".
Lord Freud also said the government was committed to using the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as "a catalyst for achieving disability equality", and that it was "looking at how best to implement" Labour's Equality Act.
Baroness Jane Campbell, who hosted the reception, attacked the "common assumption...that disabled people are unable to work, we don't want to work, we are lazy, we are scroungers".
She said: "These are not just assumptions, they are excuses and they are inaccurate and they have no justification or underlying basis."
She appealed to the new coalition government to "help us put an end to these misconceptions".
The reception also saw the launch of RADAR's new guide for MPs on disability issues.
Many of those who heard Lord Freud's speech praised the minister's language, but said there was too little detail to judge the government's welfare reform plans.
Anne Begg, the disabled Labour MP who was last week elected chair of the influential work and pensions committee, said that "some of the rhetoric was good" but it was too early to say if the government was taking the right approach.
But she raised concerns about the huge numbers of disabled people who will have to be assessed through the WCA and how they would receive the specialist support they need to find work.
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, said the speech had contained "some very welcome language", but the reference to DLA had been "the largest alarm bell".
He said he feared Lord Freud's comments suggested the government was about to make "significant changes to DLA" and that civil servants had "got their foot in the door again" on DLA reform.
He said: "In the Conservative manifesto there was a commitment to protect DLA. We hope this commitment will not be undermined by any review and hope the government will work very closely on any review with stakeholders."
Liz Sayce, chief executive of RADAR, said: "I think it's welcome that he was talking about enabling people to feel fulfilled and not being written off. The real questions about detail are yet to come.
"We want to ensure that people get support with as much control as possible...something that is very personalised."
David Evans, vice-chair of Deafblind UK, said Lord Freud's "fine words" did not remove the "fear" and "concern" of many disabled people about the WCA.
He also pointed to concerns about the lack of training for the many new staff recruited by Jobcentre Plus to cope with the recession, and the lack of jobs available for disabled people.
17 June 2010
Disabled talent recognised in birthday honours
Some of the country's leading disabled creative, sporting, academic and campaigning talents have been recognised in the Queen's birthday honours.
One of Britain's most successful record-producers, Robin Millar, was awarded a CBE. Millar has been responsible for 150 gold, silver and platinum discs and 44 number ones, but is also a business mentor and public speaker and fundraiser for causes such as Oxfam, UNICEF and Artists Against Apartheid.
He told Disability News Service: "When we go about our daily lives most of us just get on with it. I don't think many people except outright careerists are taking a strategic view about what it all might mean later on.
"Goodness knows what it is that has prompted this award. I doubt very much if it was the nude modelling, though!"
Dr Jenny Morris, the veteran activist, academic, author and consultant, receives an OBE for services to disabled people.
Among her long list of credits, she led the independent living review for the Office for Disability Issues, was a member of the national working group on child protection and disability, and has written reports on support for disabled parents and the social exclusion faced by disabled teenagers with high support needs.
Dr Rachel Perkins, who last year carried out a well-received review for the government on helping people with mental health conditions into work, receives an OBE for services to mental health.
She is a clinical psychologist and a director at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust, and has just joined the government's advisory network of disabled people, Equality 2025.
She said: "This is a really great honour, but it does not reflect my work alone. I am deeply committed to enabling people with mental health conditions to rebuild their lives and in particular to gain jobs and pursue their careers."
But she said the award was as much due to the hard work and dedication of staff and service-users at the trust, who help more than 600 people with mental health conditions find work every year, while others study or take up volunteering opportunities.
Steve Scott, who chairs the Dwarf Athletic Association UK, receives an MBE for services to disabled people and disability sport. Scott, who says he is an "influencer" rather than a "campaigner", has been involved in disability rights for more than 15 years.
He is an external affairs executive for Remploy, but is currently on secondment with the Department for Work and Pensions, working on the government's Access to Work policy. He also works with disabled people in Manchester as a volunteer.
He said: "It is very nice to be recognised but there are lots of people that do a lot more work than I do."
He said much of his work focused on making sure barriers were removed so that disabled people could take part in employment, sport and any other activities.
He has also helped to "reposition" Remploy as a provider of mainstream - rather than segregated - employment services, and to ensure that disabled people's organisations "may not necessarily like Remploy but understand why it's there", while also feeding their views back to Remploy.
Three former Paralympic sportswomen were recognised for services to disability sport.
Carol Walton, who receives an OBE, won 10 Paralympic gold medals at seven Paralympic Games, is now a member of the executive committee of the wheelchair sports charity WheelPower, and works for ParalympicsGB.
She competed in swimming, athletics, fencing, table-tennis and basketball, and managed the British wheelchair fencing team.
Ann Wild, who also receives an OBE, played in her first senior wheelchair basketball international at the age of 13, represented Britain at five Paralympics, captained the British team for 15 years before retiring in 2009, and is a successful coach. She is now hoping to qualify for London 2012 in rowing.
Nicola Tustain, who receives an MBE, won three gold and three bronze Paralympic medals in dressage, and is also an accomplished badminton player.
Another recognised from the sporting arena is Geoff Holt, who receives an MBE. In January, he became the first quadriplegic person to sail across the Atlantic single-handed. He was honoured for services to disability sailing.
Former lawyer Olivia Giles has been awarded an OBE for her charity work. She runs the charity 500 Miles, which supports amputees and other disabled people in Malawi and Zambia.
Lisa Charlton receives an MBE for voluntary services to disabled people. She helped set up the north-east branch of Different Strokes, which provides support services to young stroke survivors and is run by stroke survivors.
Different Strokes North-East celebrates its tenth anniversary in September. She said she was "absolutely delighted" by the MBE, which was "a big shock".
Charlton is a trustee of both RNIB and Newcastle Society for Blind People, works part-time as a fundraiser for Citizens Advice, and raises funds for the other charities she volunteers for.
She said there was still a "real lack of awareness" that younger people can have strokes.
16 June 2010
Robots and avatars 'are the future of assisted living'
Robotics, internet video-calls and even virtual reality "avatars" are likely to play an increasing role in supporting disabled and older people to live independently, according to a senior government adviser.
Professor Brian Collins, chief scientific adviser to both the Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, described a series of advances in so-called "smart" technology.
He was speaking at the Smart Living conference, organised by the charity PhoneAbility, which promotes access to information and communication technology for disabled and older people.
Professor Collins said the next generation of hand-held navigation aids would allow people to pinpoint their location to about 10 cm, making it easier for blind people to navigate obstacles.
A wheelchair-user's hand-held electronic device will soon be able to tell a bus to lower its ramp - without needing to ask the driver - while Japanese scientists have developed a robot that can use chopsticks, to help people with arthritis.
Professor Collins said sensors attached to the body will soon be able to alter the immediate environment according to a person's health needs, although he said there was a "really interesting debate going on in Whitehall" about the potential loss of privacy.
He also said there was "huge potential" for the internet to deliver "information and conversation" and provide people living alone with "a sense of community".
He even suggested that "avatars" - virtual reality images of people - could soon be providing "social well-being support" in a person's home. He said: "I think that is a bit scary but it is something we do need to examine."
But he warned that "smart can turn to dumb very easily if you do not design very well-designed systems and well-designed support for those systems", and said the technology must be "very cheap" so as to make it widely available.
Peter Ball, strategic research director for BRE, which carries out research, testing and consultancy on the built environment, told the conference: "We have got to get these products into the mainstream because that will bring down the cost. It's got to be affordable."
He also pointed to examples of future use of smart technology, such as wallpaper that could be set to influence a person's mood, and motion sensors that monitor the movements of someone with a long-term health condition.
Alex Cowan, a disabled delegate to the conference, said she was both "excited and scared" by some of the technologies discussed.
Cowan, a disability equality and inclusive design consultant, said a disabled person must be able to say "no" to a smart device, while the technology must be "impact assessed" for any barriers it might create for disabled people.
She said: "It is really important to say, 'yes, this is fantastic technology, but what are the barriers, who might be the people who cannot use it and how can we include them?'"
Any alternative versions must be "on the same level" and not inferior to the original, she added.
The conference came days after the government-funded Technology Strategy Board announced a £10 million funding pot for research that would encourage investment in assisted living services and technology.
16 June 2010
Tanni's maiden speech hints at future focus in Lords
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has used her maiden speech in the House of Lords to speak of her hope that the London 20102 Olympic and Paralympic Games will lead to "significant change" and inclusion for disabled people.
The disabled peer - who won 11 Paralympic athletics gold medals - was speaking in a debate on progress towards staging the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.
Baroness Grey-Thompson, a crossbench peer, also hinted at some of the areas she might focus on in the Lords, with her speech mentioning inclusive education; increasing opportunities for girls and women; and access to physical activity for all children.
She told peers how her parents had "fought hard to get me into mainstream education - something that I strongly believe gave me the right platform on which to build my sporting career".
She said the Paralympics had two messages: one about winning and the other about "spreading inclusion and change", and pointed to how the Paralympics had improved "social provision" for disabled people in China, while sport continues to "challenge attitudes towards disabled people".
She said "unprecedented" numbers of disabled people were applying for jobs with LOCOG - the 2012 organising committee - because of "its passion for diversity and inclusion", with LOCOG now becoming "one of the most attractive employers of choice for disabled people".
She called for young people to have access to physical activity in and outside school, and for disabled children to "have the right and the opportunity to be included".
She also said that girls should be enabled to "find the right environment in which to develop their skills to allow them to compete in the wider world", and added: "We know that currently women are employed in only one in five of the top jobs in sport.
"To be a successful nation, not just in sport but in business, we should challenge that, because sport is a microcosm of society."
She added: "We all need to grasp the opportunity of the Games being on home soil to inspire our nation to think differently and to include every part of our great nation."
16 June 2010
Watchdog ignores call for more audio description
The broadcasting watchdog has ignored the views of hundreds of visually-impaired people who took part in a consultation on audio-described television.
Disabled campaigners accused Ofcom of "a total cop-out", after it decided not to recommend any of three possible options on future minimum levels of audio-described TV, but to leave the decision to the government.
Nearly all UK broadcasters currently have to provide audio description (AD) - added commentary that describes body language, expressions and movements taking place on the screen - for at least 10 per cent of their programmes.
But an Ofcom review considered three options: keeping this minimum level of AD at 10 per cent; increasing it for all channels to 20 per cent; or increasing it to 20 per cent just for public service channels.
All but one of the groups representing visually-impaired people who took part in a public consultation - and more than 550 individuals who were visually-impaired or had visually-impaired family or friends - opted for an increase to 20 per cent across the board.
They said AD gave visually-impaired people "a sense of social inclusion, equality and independence", while current levels were "inadequate".
Groups representing hearing-impaired people - and Ofcom's advisory committee on older and disabled people - backed an increase for public service channels only.
Some broadcasters argued there was not enough evidence to justify an increase, although the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky "committed voluntarily" to audio describe 20 per cent of their programmes.
Ofcom concluded that the arguments were "very finely balanced" and decided to leave the decision to Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, without making a "specific recommendation".
But Ivan Lunn, chair of South Tyneside Visually Impaired Council, which took part in the consultation, accused Ofcom of "passing the buck", "a total cop-out" and "dashing people's hopes".
He said he could not understand how Ofcom could say the arguments were "finely balanced" when visually-impaired people all wanted the levels raised.
Lunn said: "It gives visually-impaired people more choice of what they can watch on all channels.
"It gives them choice instead of sitting in a room with a group of people and when the sound goes off and other people are laughing, visually-impaired people cannot see what they are laughing at."
Ofcom also concluded that further work was needed to publicise AD and will now discuss with broadcasters "how best to secure this".
An Ofcom spokeswoman said: "Ofcom is an evidence-based regulator. Having weighed the evidence and the arguments, including the views of interested parties, Ofcom has concluded that the arguments for each option are finely balanced."
15 June 2010
Research triggers fears among autistic rights campaigners
Disabled activists have raised serious concerns about new genetic research which could lead to treatments or cures for autism.
Members of the autistic rights movement fear the research could lead to abortion clinics being seen as a "solution" to autism, as they say has happened with Down's syndrome.
They spoke out after an international consortium of scientists announced they had discovered new genetic triggers for autism.
Scientists with the Autism Genome Project said their discoveries pointed to "new avenues of scientific investigation, as well as potential targets for the development of novel treatments".
But Roderick Cobley, chair of the London Autistic Rights Movement, said the widespread media coverage of the research had failed to acknowledge that it was the "economic, social and attitudinal barriers in society that are the true disablers of autistic people, and not their condition in itself".
Cobley said the research could eventually benefit parents if it was used to give them advance notice of their child's needs.
But he said that much of the discussion in the media had focused instead on the possibilities for "treating and eliminating autism".
He said: "We are again being bombarded by references to autism in terms of disease, disorder and suffering.
"Worst of all is the raising of the possibility of genetic testing, and perhaps of pre-natal testing.
"Without in any way prejudicing the rights of women to make their own reproductive choices, the abortion clinic should not be seen by society as the solution for autism, as has happened with Down's syndrome."
Cobley called for more funding for research into how to "improve autistic people's lives in the here and now", rather than "chasing after miracle cures and treatments".
And he pointed to research in Canada which found that autism often had advantages as well as disadvantages.
14 June 2010
EHRC calls for personal stories of harassment
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is appealing to disabled people to come forward with evidence of their own experiences of disability-related intimidation and violence.
The evidence call is part of the EHRC's inquiry into what public bodies and transport providers are doing to eliminate disability-related harassment and its causes.
The EHRC is threatening to take legal action against councils, police forces, schools, and bus and train companies which are failing in their legal duties to prevent disability-related harassment.
The inquiry is looking at how disabled victims of harassment - ranging from name-calling, offensive graffiti and cyber-bullying to damage to property, financial exploitation, rape and murder - have been supported by public bodies and transport providers across England, Scotland and Wales.
It will also ask what public bodies have done to prevent such harassment, and examine its causes.
Crown Prosecution Service figures for the two years to March 2009 found on average that more than one person every working day was appearing in court charged with a disability hate crime, while EHRC evidence suggests many more incidents go unreported or are not dealt with properly by public bodies.
An EHRC spokeswoman said the 12 per cent cut in the EHRC's budget demanded by the government would not affect the inquiry.
Anne Novis, who leads on hate crime issues for the UK Disabled People's Council, said she hoped disabled people's organisations (DPOs) would influence and lead the inquiry and be its "main voice".
She said this would allow disabled people to show how little had been done to prevent harassment and "how little support we get and how hard to is to access justice services due to the barriers we face".
Novis said she hoped the EHRC would identify the guidance and support that public services need "to be proactive" but also "use their powers to penalise those who do nothing to comply with the relevant disability duties".
Mike Smith, the EHRC commissioner leading the inquiry and chair of its disability committee, said harassment was "an everyday part of life for many disabled people".
He said the inquiry would help public bodies "ensure that future tragedies are prevented and transform the way that the people of Britain value and respect disabled people".
Stephen Brookes, coordinator of the National Disability Hate Crime Network, welcomed the launch of the evidence-gathering part of the inquiry.
He said too many public bodies used data protection laws as an excuse not to share information with other agencies about disability hate crime.
Brookes added: "Too many disabled people do not report acts of hostility for the simple reason they feel they won't be believed, and our aim is to ensure that this inquiry leads to ways to stop hate crime and make all agencies start taking their responsibility to disabled people more seriously."
Maria Miller MP, the new Conservative minister for disabled people, welcomed the inquiry and urged disabled people and DPOs to submit evidence, both about incidents of harassment and with examples of "positive work being done to tackle disability hate crime".
This "first wave" of evidence will be collected until 10 September, and can be given through the EHRC website, by email or via its helpline.
There will also be evidence-gathering events around Britain over the next three months, with 13 already organised. These events will be publicised locally, and disabled people and organisations of and for disabled people will be invited.
The commission is also likely to use its legal powers to force public bodies and witnesses to give evidence, with hearings set to take place from September.
The EHRC has already written to Hinckley and Bosworth council, asking it for evidence that it is meeting its legal duties, following last year's inquest into the deaths of Fiona Pilkington and her disabled daughter Francecca.
The EHRC said it could not say what action resulted from the letter for legal reasons.
A council spokeswoman said: "All I can say at the moment is that the council is working with the EHRC to alleviate their concerns."
For information on how to give evidence to the inquiry, visit www.equalityhumanrights.com/disabilityharassmentfi
11 June 2010
News Stories from the week ending 10 June 2010
EHRC faces deep budget cuts The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has been told by the government to slash its spending this year by nearly 12 per cent.
The government has ordered the EHRC to find £7 million in savings from this year's £60 million budget, as part of efforts to reduce the public sector deficit.
The equality and human rights watchdog said it was reviewing its business plan and had implemented an immediate freeze on marketing, advertising and consultancy, and was aiming to cut the number of temporary staff.
Most recruitment has been frozen, although its search for a new chief executive will continue as planned and there could still be recruitment in "frontline and business-critical areas".
An EHRC spokesman said its priorities would remain providing advice to individuals and organisations, taking "strategic" legal cases and enforcing equality law.
He said: "The overall message is we will continue to ensure the most vulnerable people do not suffer unfairly as the country grapples with the current economic climate."
But he added: "It is going to be tough. We need to ensure it doesn't hit us too much.
"We had obviously been anticipating, like all other public bodies, that there would be cuts in the budget, whoever won the election.
"Since the beginning of the year we had been going through a process of looking at the structure of the commission as we come up to our third anniversary."
He said this "strategic review" would ensure the EHRC delivers "the best value for money", with results expected this autumn.
He also stressed that more than £14 million in grants awarded last November to community and voluntary organisations - including several disabled people's organisations (DPOs) - would be paid as planned as part of its strategic funding and legal grants programme, and added: "They will not be cut."
And he said the cuts would also not impact on the scope of its major inquiry into disability-related harassment, although it could be forced to review its spending on marketing and advertising in connection with the inquiry.
11 June 2010
Disabled MP elected to chair influential committee
A disabled MP has become the first elected chair of the influential committee that will hold the government to account over welfare reform.
The Labour MP Anne Begg said the economic climate would make her job as chair of the work and pensions select committee "challenging".
She warned that the Department for Work and Pensions - which is responsible for spending on benefits - was "bound to face a lot of cuts" as it was the largest-spending department.
She told Disability News Service: "It's not one of the sexy frontline services and nobody is saying they will protect the welfare budget.
"One of the things about welfare is that it is quite easy to save money. You just stop paying it to people: you change the criteria, or freeze or cut the benefit.
"But the consequence of that is the cost to society of those who fall through the safety net and end up homeless or on the street or in the black economy."
Begg said she was concerned that the tough messages coming out of the new coalition government on welfare reform and its new single work programme could mean that "basically what we end up with is all of the stick and none of the carrot".
As the other members of the committee have yet to be selected, she could not say which areas they would focus on.
But the committee is likely to examine the government's plans to reassess those disabled people still receiving old-style incapacity benefit (IB) through the tough new work capability assessment.
She said she was concerned about what would happen once the DWP started to reassess disabled people who have been receiving IB for up to 20 years, as the new test used to test people's readiness for work was "already too tight".
Begg said her personal experience as a disabled person would mean she was working "from a position of understanding", while the knowledge that she and other select committee chairs had been elected by fellow MPs would "strengthen our hands".
And with all committee members elected by their own parties for the first time, this might also "embolden" her committee colleagues, she said.
Begg said one of her strengths was bringing people together to "gel" as a team.
She said: "The best select committees are the ones that hunt as a pack. That's my aspiration for the work and pensions select committee."
But she warned: "Select committees are powerful but they are not that powerful."
10 June 2010
New work programme 'by next summer'
The government has announced its timetable for replacing Labour's employment schemes with one single work programme for people on out-of-work benefits, including those who are disabled.
In a ministerial statement, the Conservative employment minister Chris Grayling said the government aimed to have its programme in place across the country by next summer.
He said it would provide "personalised help for everyone who finds themselves out of work regardless of the benefit they claim".
Grayling claimed the new programme would give voluntary and private sector providers longer to work with clients and "greater freedom to decide the appropriate support for them".
He also confirmed the pledge made by the Conservatives before the election that providers would be paid more to secure jobs for those who were "harder to help", such as those disabled people who need more support to find work.
The coalition government's plans will mean existing job programmes for disabled people - including Pathways to Work and New Deal for Disabled People - will be "phased out" or "folded into the Work Programme".
Grayling said: "Once the Work Programme is implemented it will supersede much of the complicated raft of national programmes currently on offer and these will be phased out.
"The support currently provided by programmes such as the Flexible New Deal will be folded into the Work Programme as soon as possible."
But Grayling also said the government was "committed to supporting severely disabled people" and was "currently reviewing the best way of doing this".
Some welfare-to-work commentators have suggested this could mean that Work Choice, the new specialist disability employment programme that is due to replace Workstep from October, might not be scrapped.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said any comments about the future of Work Choice were "speculation" at this stage.
10 June 2010
Disabled ex-soldier enters Big Brother house
A disabled ex-soldier has been selected as one of the housemates for the final series of the TV reality show Big Brother.
Immediate impressions of Steve Gill on blogs and websites were overwhelmingly positive, both from disabled and non-disabled people, and bookmakers quickly installed him as one of the favourites to win the competition.
Gill is no stranger to the media spotlight. Earlier this year, he took part in a transatlantic yacht race with a crew of fellow amputee ex-servicemen.
He also coaches wheelchair basketball and supports the British Limbless Ex Service Men's Association (BLESMA), the national charity for serving and ex-service men and women who have lost limbs.
In a video on the BLESMA website, Gill describes how he lost an eye and his two legs in an explosion while serving with the army in Belfast in 1989.
A BLESMA spokeswoman said they thought Gill was "fantastic" and were hoping his appearance would help raise awareness of the charity's work.
Channel 4 said Gill was married with eight children and that he chooses to wear shorts to show his prosthetic limbs. He said: "I purposely walk around looking the way I do. It's better to be open about who you are."
A fellow amputee noted on the Big Brother website that some people were already commenting on the fact that Gill did not have a paid job, despite his voluntary work.
Another viewer who posted on the site warned that comments about Gill's employment status were "a taste of what's to come in the press", with a new government "softening us up for cuts".
Gill's entry into Channel 4's Big Brother house comes less than a month after the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom condemned the use of offensive, disablist language by Big Brother presenter Davina McCall and footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones on a Big Brother offshoot.
10 June 2010
Hospital's death fine highlights 'two-tier' health system
People with learning difficulties still face a "two-tier health system", two years after an independent inquiry concluded that they received less effective treatment than non-disabled people, it has been claimed.
A leading disabled activist spoke out after a hospital trust was fined £50,000 over the death of a disabled man whose head became trapped in his bed rails.
Kyle Flack, who had learning difficulties and cerebral palsy, died at Basildon University Hospital in October 2006.
Although his head had also become trapped during a stay at the hospital the previous year, no assessment of his needs was carried out, staff had no knowledge of the previous incident, and he was only monitored at irregular intervals, said the Health and Safety Executive, which prosecuted the case.
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust admitted failing to ensure the health and safety of its patients, and this week was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £40,000 costs.
But Andrew Lee, director of People First (Self Advocacy), which is run by people with learning difficulties, told Disability News Service: "How many people with learning difficulties have to die before we get good quality healthcare?"
He said people with learning difficulties still face a two-tier health system and a "lottery" on whether they were taken seriously by healthcare staff when seeking treatment for themselves or relatives.
Lee said his own experience showed little had changed since the inquiry, as he had found it "very difficult" to secure information about his wife's care when she was admitted to hospital.
There were similar problems last week when a friend was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack.
Lee said: "The new government is talking about putting more power in the hands of doctors and nurses but they are the very people that are not giving us good accessible information.
"There is a respect and dignity issue and they need to think of us as people first and not as an inconvenience."
Two years ago, Sir Jonathan Michael's inquiry into access to healthcare for people with learning difficulties found "convincing evidence" that they had "higher levels of unmet need and receive less effective treatment".
Witnesses to his inquiry had reported "appalling examples of discrimination, abuse and neglect across the range of health services".
The inquiry was set up by the government in response to Mencap's Death by Indifference report, which accused the NHS of institutional discrimination and told how six people with learning difficulties had died unnecessarily in NHS care.
10 June 2010
RADAR awards will spread the word that equality pays
A leading disabled people's organisation is hoping that its annual awards will spread the message that spending money on disability equality is a good use of public resources in tough economic times.
Liz Sayce, chief executive of RADAR, was speaking at the launch of the charity's 44th annual People of the Year awards.
Sayce said that investing in people's achievements - through schemes such as RADAR's leadership programme - was the "best use of public money", while boosting accessibility and inclusive technology ensures that "scarce resources go further".
Caroline Waters, head of employment policy for BT, which hosted this week's launch at the BT Tower in London, said the awards would help spread awareness of the best examples of companies and individuals that have promoted inclusion.
Riam Dean said winning last year's young person of the year award had injected her with "a new lease of life" after her successful high profile discrimination case against her former employer Abercrombie & Fitch had left her "crushed" and her confidence "shattered".
She told the launch event that she had been "spreading the word" on social networking websites to other young disabled people about the battle for equality in the workplace.
Dean said she had also joined forces with the charity Changing Faces to promote "face equality" in the workplace, and had spoken to many companies about the "need to ride the wave of change".
The awards will be hosted by disabled children's TV presenter and actress Cerrie Burnell on 29 November at a ceremony in London.
This year there are awards for person of the year, young person of the year, care and support, careers and leadership, factual media, fictional media , accessibility provider, technology provider, as well as two new awards, for arts personality and sports personality of the year.
To nominate an organisation or individual for an award, or for details on how to attend the awards ceremony, visit www.radar.org.uk/awards-2010 or email gareth.parker@radar.org.uk
10 June 2010
EHRC warns government over spending cuts
The equality watchdog has warned the government not to breach its international human rights obligations to disabled people when deciding how to cut public spending.
Mike Smith, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) disability committee, and an EHRC commissioner, spoke out on the first anniversary of Britain's ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Smith said the EHRC was "heartened" that the new coalition government had "pledged to tackle the stigma and prejudice that still persists towards disabled people, to reform our social care system and to promote employment opportunities".
But he said the government and public bodies should have "regard to their obligations" under the UN convention "when making the difficult spending decisions ahead".
He said: "Many disabled people rely on public services to achieve the most basic levels of human dignity and participate equally in society.
"For many, these services are an essential lifeline without which they would be unable to contribute to their families or community."
His comments came as the Treasury warned that the government's spending review - which will set spending limits for every government department until 2014-15 - would "comprehensively examine" spending on benefits.
The Treasury said "tough decisions" would need to be made in order to reduce the "unprecedented" public sector deficit, while the government was "committed to achieving the bulk of this" through cuts in spending rather than rises in taxes.
But it promised that the spending review, due to finish this autumn, would "make supporting those most in need a priority".
The Treasury's spending review framework states that the more that can be saved from reforming the welfare system and restraining public sector pay and pensions "the more the Government will be able to do to protect jobs and spending on frontline public services".
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, said: "Consistent announcements that suggest potential belt-tightening for pensions and benefits are worrying."
He said DA would be examining more detailed government proposals closely when they were announced.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat care services minister Paul Burstow promised this week that more than £1.4 billion in Department of Health (DH) adult social care grants to local councils would go ahead as planned in 2010-11.
But three days later, Eric Pickles, the Conservative communities secretary, announced that the government was removing "ring fences" from a number of disability-related annual grants. This means councils will no longer have to spend the grants in those areas.
Social care grants where the ring-fence has been removed include a £30 million DH grant to help councils introduce a personalised adult social care system, a £51 million DH grant to support the resettlement of people with learning difficulties from the old long-stay hospitals, and grants to support people with HIV and AIDS and people who have had strokes.
With Pickles also announcing details of how councils would need to make savings of £1.166 billion this year, there are fears that the removal of ring-fencing could put services in these areas at risk.
9 June 2010
Government 'steps back' from rapid reassessment programme
The new coalition government has released the first details about its timetable for "reassessing" hundreds of thousands of disabled people who claim "old-style" incapacity benefit (IB).
There were fears that the government would start to reassess large numbers of people on IB this October, despite repeated concerns about the inflexibility and unfairness of the work capability assessment (WCA), the strict new test designed to assess disabled people's work readiness.
But Lord Freud, the new Conservative welfare reform minister, told the House of Lords this week that the government planned to begin with only a "small trial" from October 2010 to allow it to "test and learn from the process".
Responding to a question from the disabled Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Celia Thomas, Lord Freud said the "national reassessment programme" of people on IB would run from spring 2011 to March 2014.
About two million people still claim IB, rather than its replacement, employment and support allowance (ESA), which was introduced for new claimants in October 2008.
By spring 2011, there are still likely to be at least 1.5 million people left on IB, which could mean up to 10,000 long-term IB claimants being reassessed every week.
Lord Freud said: "We know this is a big undertaking and are working on plans to make the change happen as smoothly as possible for all customers."
He also confirmed that the government would evaluate how the ESA was working "in order to ensure that it meets its objective of helping people back to work".
But it is not yet clear whether the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will have the results from this independent review of the WCA before the trial begins in October.
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, the disability poverty charity, said the government appeared to have changed its mind and opted for a slower-paced reassessment programme.
He welcomed Freud's statement because he said there needed to be improvements to the WCA before a national rollout.
He said: "Organisations like DA supported reform but are worried about how it has worked in practice."
He said an independent review would help ensure the WCA was "fit for purpose".
A DWP spokeswoman said coalition ministers were committed to an "independent statutory review" of the WCA every year for five years.
But she said there were no dates confirmed yet for when the first review would take place.
9 June 2010
Beds call for tough new licensing laws
Disabled campaigners have asked their local MPs to back calls for tough new laws that would prevent councils granting alcohol or entertainment licences to inaccessible venues.
The Central Beds Access Group (CBAG) wrote to its three local Bedfordshire Tory MPs - Nadine Dorries, Alistair Burt and Andrew Selous - after hearing of a new access law that could soon be introduced by the Scottish parliament.
The Scottish law would mean bars applying for new licences - as well as existing venues applying for major changes to their licences - would have to provide details of how accessible they were to disabled drinkers.
Roy Storey, CBAG's chair, welcomed the attempt to improve access in Scotland, but said he wanted the law to go further and ban councils from issuing licences to inaccessible venues.
In his email to the three MPs, Storey said the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) was "being ignored or misrepresented by those who are in a position to make a difference".
He said that only a tenth of pubs and clubs in his local village were accessible to disabled people.
Storey said: "It is totally unacceptable. It is time we bit the bullet and said we are letting down the disabled people of the UK."
He has also called on his local council to stop granting licences to inaccessible venues, arguing that doing so was a potential breach of its disability equality duty under the DDA.
But councillor David McVicar, Central Bedfordshire Council's portfolio holder for safer communities and healthier lifestyles, said the law did not allow local authorities to take access into consideration in granting licences.
He said the council took its duty to promote the DDA seriously and would be consulting with CBAG on new guidance for licence applicants, which would ensure that they paid "due consideration" to accessibility.
Roy Storey is keen to hear from disabled campaigners in other parts of the country who want to campaign for a change in the law. To contact him, visit www.centralbedsaccessgroup.co.uk or email him at roy.accessgroupmb@btopenworld.com
9 June 2010
Peers concerned over impact of more academies on disabled pupils
Several peers have raised fears about the impact on disabled pupils of a new government bill that will make it easier for schools to opt out of local authority control.
Crossbench and Labour members of the Lords raised a series of concerns during the second reading of the academies bill, mirroring concerns raised in recent weeks by disabled people's organisations such as the Alliance for Inclusive Education.
Lord Colin Low, the disabled crossbench peer, said he wanted the bill to be "disability-proofed" and made "fit for purpose to meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs (SEN)".
He called for more detail on how academies would ensure their admissions policies were fair to disabled children and those with SEN, and pledged to introduce amendments to ensure that the existing SEN framework applied to academies.
He also warned that the new legislation could weaken local education authorities and lead to the loss of their SEN expertise.
Lord Low said campaigners were concerned that the new academies would not be accountable to parents of disabled children and those with SEN, making it harder for them to ensure their children's needs were met.
Lord Brian Rix, another crossbench peer and president of Mencap, also raised concerns about the accountability of academies.
He said the government's equality impact assessment of its new bill found the proportion of pupils with SEN who achieved five good GCSEs - including English and maths - was lower in academies than the national average.
Baroness Morgan, a former Labour children's minister, warned that parents of children with autism were already reporting problems with admission to academies, while the Labour peer Baroness Massey said exclusions of children with SEN were disproportionately higher in academies.
Lord Turnbull, a crossbench peer, said academies "must accept an obligation to take their fair share of SEN children" and "must not be allowed to turn their backs and place the burden on the schools that remain with local education authorities".
Lord Hill, the Conservative junior education minister, promised that academies would have the same duties to meet the SEN code of practice as maintained schools (those funded by the local education authority).
He said local authorities would retain responsibility for SEN assessments and SEN statements, including funding and monitoring of pupils with SEN statements, and ensuring arrangements were in place for them.
He added: "Academies will have to ensure fair access and deliver provision. This is such an important area - I want to get it right."
The bill's committee stage is due to begin on 21 June.
Meanwhile, the Department for Education has refused to comment on reports that Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat children and families minister, is to announce a review of the SEN system.
The Sunday Times reported that the review was "expected to consider tightening up the criteria" for children to be identified as having SEN.
Such a review would come only months after Brian Lamb completed a 21-month inquiry into the SEN system for the Labour government.
His inquiry called last December for urgent and major reform, and an end to the "culture of low expectations" for disabled children and those with SEN.
A Department for Education spokesman said the Sunday Times report was "speculation", and added: "At the moment there has been no announcement."
8 June 2010
Social care funding bill 'within two years'
The government is hoping to introduce new laws to reform the funding of adult social care and support within two years, the Department of Health (DH) has confirmed.
The government had already said it would set up an independent commission to find a "sustainable" way to reform social care funding. But it has now made it clear how quickly it plans to move.
The DH said it hoped to publish a white paper on care and support reform in the autumn of 2011, with new legislation following in the next Queen's speech, likely to be in November 2011.
A DH spokeswoman said she could not yet say whether there would be any disabled people on the commission, only that its membership would be decided "as soon as possible".
She also confirmed that no funding options had yet been ruled out, but that the commission would be "asked to offer advice, rapidly, on a sustainable structure of funding for long-term care".
The DH also confirmed that Labour's Personal Care at Home Act (PCHA) would not come into force. The act would have provided free personal care at home to people with the highest needs.
Anne Kane, policy manager for Inclusion London, said that government talk of "painful and deep spending cuts" conflicted with the urgent need for a high quality, national system of social care that respected choice and control, and that such talk was "inevitably fuelling worry about the future".
She said ministers' emphasis on the need for a "sustainable" system implied low public spending, while Inclusion London wanted to see a system that was "available to all regardless of income and respects independence and human rights".
And she said Inclusion London "deeply regretted" that the government was scrapping the PCHA, which "would have provided some care at home for people in desperate need".
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, said implementation of any new system was unlikely before 2014, while the economic climate and government budget restrictions would mean disabled people "continue to lose support and experience isolation and exclusion to an even greater degree".
Coyle said there was widespread agreement among disabled people's organisations and other campaigners that action was "needed soon", and that the "simplest solution" would be a National Care Service funded through general taxation.
He said implementing the PCHA would have been "hugely welcome" if tied to "genuine resources", and that "not providing free personal care at home will continue to harm disabled people and their families and push many families into poverty".
8 June 2010
April News Archive
Campaigners attack government over hate crime delays
Furious campaigners have accused the government of an inexcusable and unacceptable delay in collecting and publishing national statistics on disability hate crime.
The Home Office had been due to start collecting figures from police forces this month. But the start date has now been delayed until April 2011.
Because of the election campaign, the Home Office declined to give a reason for the delay.
But Stephen Brookes, coordinator of the National Disability Hate Crime Network, said: We have been immensely let down by the inactions of the Home Office. It is totally inexcusable and unacceptable.
Tom Brake, a Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: Once again, the Home Office has proved itself incapable of carrying through with a simple promise.
It is not going to be possible for us to properly tackle these sickening hate crimes against disabled people until we have standardised recording of them.
It is unacceptable for the government to be dragging their feet on such an important issue.
Anne Novis, who leads on hate crime issues for the UK Disabled Peoples Council, said the lack of statistics would mean no strategic high level work to deal with the issue, no appropriate funding, no local initiatives ensured.
And she said it would be down to the toss of a coin whether disabled people would receive appropriate services on disability hate crime.
She added: To say we have been, yet again, let down by the Home Office does not do justice to the strength of feelings and concerns we have.
Novis pointed to the governments hate crime action plan, published last September, which stated: We will strengthen the evidence base on the nature and extent of hate crime, which will allow us to identify where we need to develop new, targeted policies to take forward our long-term vision.
This will enable us to monitor the effectiveness of our efforts to tackle hate crime.
Liz Sayce, chief executive of RADAR, said the delay was unacceptable and severely disappointing.
She said there were horrendous cases of hate crime, as well as day-to-day disability-related crimes, which were making disabled peoples lives an absolute misery.
Only last month, Jonathan Shaw, the minister for disabled people, told the all party parliamentary disability group that a Labour government would ensure a far greater focus on disability hate crime.
And this week, Catharine Arakelian, the Labour candidate for Chingford, told an election hustings event organised by Inclusion London that her own partys failure to mention disability hate crime in its manifesto was clearly wrong.
She added: I think it is probably a thing that is not recognised and without it being recognised as actually happening and affecting peoples lives, we are not dealing with it.
No-one from the Labour party was available to comment.
22 April 2010
Disabled woman secures £125,000 in landmark discrimination case
A disabled woman who secured a ground-breaking discrimination ruling from the House of Lords is to receive £125,000 in compensation.
Elizabeth Boyle, from Warrenpoint, County Down, Northern Ireland, had alleged disability and sex discrimination, victimisation and unfair selection for redundancy against her former employer, SCA Packaging.
A vital ruling in the case by the House of Lords last July also meant that more disabled people with fluctuating conditions would be protected by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).
The DDA says that someone with a condition that does not currently have a substantial effect on them but varies in severity should still be viewed as disabled if they are likely to become substantially affected again in the future.
But the Law Lords ruled that this use of likely meant could well happen, rather than the previously accepted definition of more probable than not.
Boyle had worked for SCA Packaging for 32 years.
She had developed vocal nodules, which she helped to manage by speaking quietly, limiting the use of her voice, and other measures.
But her employer decided to remove partitions near her desk, even though it meant she would have to speak more loudly and risk her condition returning.
In October 2001, she began proceedings under the DDA, alleging she was being discriminated against through her employers failure to make reasonable adjustments.
Seven months later, she was made redundant and brought further claims, including victimisation under the DDA.
The company argued Boyle was not disabled as her condition no longer had an adverse effect on her life.
But after ruling in Boyles favour last July, and finding that she was a disabled person under the DDA, the Law Lords referred the case back to an industrial tribunal.
Boyle and SCA Packaging then agreed on the financial settlement without the case needing to be heard, although the company did not admit liability.
Boyle said: This has been a nine year battle that caused so much stress to me and my family.
However, because of the ruling made in my case, other disabled people can benefit too.
Eileen Lavery, head of strategic enforcement for the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, said the case had broadened the protection to disabled people under the DDA.
She said the Lords ruling was particularly important for people with conditions that can be controlled by treatment, or fluctuating conditions that have temporarily ceased to have an effect but are likely to recur, such as arthritis, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.
22 April 2010
Channel 4s 2012 documentary will travel inside athletes bodies
A new documentary to be aired as part of Channel 4s commitment to Paralympic sport in the run-up to London 2012 will travel inside the bodies of some of Britains leading disabled athletes.
The 90-minute documentary will examine five British Paralympic athletes, using state of the art scanning equipment to create biomechanical portraits of their bodies and show how they reached the top in their sport.
The programme with the working title Inside Incredible Athletes is being made by Renegade Pictures, which used similar techniques for its series Extreme Bodies, including an examination of the bodies of conjoined twins and a person of restricted growth.
Renegade also produced The Twins Who Share A Brain, a one-off documentary about conjoined twins.
But Alison Walsh, Channel 4s disability executive, stressed that it would be an intelligent documentary that would introduce viewers to the ability, stamina and skill required to perform Paralympic sport at an elite level.
She said it would examine extraordinary athletes at the peak of their profession, combining science with stunning sporting performance sequences that will portray Paralympic sport in the best possible light.
ParalympicsGB which manages Britains Paralympians welcomed the documentary and stressed that it would not focus on the athletes impairments.
A ParalympicsGB spokeswoman admitted that they had initially had concerns when they heard about the documentary, but were completely reassured after meeting with Renegade.
She said: They will show how they are able to achieve what they are able to achieve on the sports field in a way that will portray them as high-performance athletes.
It is going to show Paralympic sport exactly how we see it, showing what incredible athletes they are. What they are not focusing on is the impairment aspect of that.
The programme was one of two new commissions announced by Channel 4, both of which will screen later this year.
The other is a weekly Saturday lunchtime series that will profile British Paralympic athletes and provide insight into Paralympic sport.
Channel 4 said the show would reveal the characters behind the competition, educate the public and raise the profile of Paralympic sports.
It will be fronted by TV presenter and former Paralympic basketball star Ade Adepitan and presenter and DJ Rick Edwards, with other reporters to include Paralympic hopeful Nathan Stevens and Paralympic swimming gold-medallist Liz Johnson.
Phil Lane, chief executive of ParalympicsGB, praised the two exciting, creative programmes and said they marked an important first step in our shared ambition to raise the profile of British Paralympic athletes and sports well before 2012.
Julian Bellamy, head of Channel 4, said: When we won the broadcast rights to the London 2012 Paralympic Games we promised wed provide the strongest pre-Games broadcast coverage ever seen on UK television and these two commissions are just the start.
Channel 4 has also launched its 2010 production trainee scheme and has reserved six places for disabled trainees as part of its commitment to develop disabled talent in the build-up to London 2012.
Applications close on 30 April. For more information, visit: http://4talent.channel4.com/extra/production-trainee-placements-2010
22 April 2010
Movement mourns loss of David Morris
The disability movement united this week to mourn the loss of David Morris, a hugely respected campaigner, artist and pioneer of the independent living movement, who died suddenly on Sunday.
The UK Disabled Peoples Council (UKDPC) said his passing left a major gap in our landscape, while other leading activists paid tribute to his passion, commitment and incredible contributions to equality and human rights.
There was a two-minute silence in his honour on Tuesday at an election hustings hosted by Inclusion London, the new pan-London Deaf and disabled peoples organisation that he helped develop.
Liz Sayce, chief executive of RADAR, said Morris had helped shape the independent living movement in the 1980s.
In 1989, he founded Independent Living Alternatives, which supports disabled people who need personal assistance. On its website, he described how disabled people have an inalienable right to independent living, but added: In essence, independent living is a misnomer: as disabled people we should be able to just think about living as anybody else.
Morris played a leading role in nearly every major development around disability equality in London over the last 10 years, including both Liberty Londons annual disability arts festival and the mayors Disability Capital event.
He had recently played a key role in the lead-up to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, as the organising committees external access and inclusion coordinator, on secondment from his job with the Greater London Authority.
Last September, he told Disability Capital that 2012 was a chance to leave a real legacy for generations to come and that London in 2012 would see the largest ever number of disabled and Deaf people in any city at one time.
Kirsten Hearn, who chaired the Inclusion London event, told the audience of disabled activists that Morris would be the most enormous loss to our community.
She worked with him after he was appointed senior disability adviser to the then mayor, Ken Livingstone, and said he helped deliver Livingstones vision around access to transport, leading to the current fleet of low-floor, talking buses.
She said: Some of the changes and differences that were made in London for disabled people were made because Dave was dogged and persistent in all that he did.
He was a quiet but vociferous man. He didnt make a lot of audible noise but he never shut up. He would simply persist. I personally will miss him hugely and I am sure that many of us will.
Some also knew Morris as a talented artist and film-maker with his own production company, who was about to complete a short film for UKDPC on the importance of disabled people working together.
The disabled artist Ju Gosling said: Although David was best known as a campaigner, he was also an artist of formidable talent.
In the last two years in particular, he created a body of arthouse film work which brought together his personal memories and philosophy with music, poetry and art.
Julie Newman, acting chair of UKDPC, said Morris was a great networker who loved the cultural and arts aspects of the disability community, thrived on diversity, and was a strong and articulate supporter who would leave a major gap in our landscape.
Tara Flood, chief executive of the Alliance for Inclusive Education, said: Dave was not a nine-to-five activist. There was no divide between his personal and professional view when it came to his passion and commitment to inclusion and equality.
And Anne Novis, another leading activist, said Morris had been a great personal support, advocate and campaigner, and added: His sense of humour and the way he was really interested in disabled peoples experiences made him easy to work with and share about personal issues.
Sue Bott, director of the National Centre for Independent Living, said Morris had been a powerful advocate for all disabled Londoners but would be best remembered for his untiring commitment to independent living.
Liz Sayce, speaking for the Equality and Human Rights Commissions disability committee, paid tribute to his incredible contributions to independent living, human rights and the disability movement.
She said he had also made a major contribution to persuading the government to agree that there should be portability of support for disabled people.
Sayce remembered how Morris had told a meeting of the all party parliamentary disability group how he could not move from one London borough to another for fear of losing his essential social care package, noting wryly that his human rights were being sacrificed on the altar of local discretion.
Morris was also a vocal campaigner against the legalisation of assisted suicide, and Sayce said he had spoken out quietly and powerfully on the equal value of disabled and non-disabled peoples lives and the risk that legalising assisted suicide would re-enforce unequal value.
He also challenged disabled people to be more serious in addressing accessibility issues for people with neuro-diverse and mental health conditions.
Sayce said Morris had the courage to press for change, the thoughtfulness to do so effectively, the humour to engage people positively, and added: David was astute, reflective, humane and also hugely supportive to many friends and colleagues who will miss his intelligence and his spark.
We are the poorer for his passing but so much the richer for his contributions to equality and human rights in this country.
Several other activists who paid tribute to Morris were also his friends.
Tara Flood first met him when he was director of Hammersmith and Fulham Action on Disability and said he became a friend, great source of advice and support and an excellent drinking partner!
Ju Gosling described how Morris would host regular salons in his apartment in Limehouse, bringing together other musicians, artists and poets.
She said: He was also an experimental and innovative cook, and loved to hold dinner parties looking out over the Docklands skyline that appears in much of his visual art.
She had been working with him on a joint project to bring together disabled artists and athletes around 2012.
But she said her abiding memory of him would be singing Beatles songs together on a weekend away at Holton Lee, Dorset. David made it clear to the whole world that love is all you really need.
Julie Newman added: As a friend, I cant imagine passing Limehouse without remembering times that we spent together.
Eating splendid food that he had cooked with thought and love. Watching films and talking about art. Listening to poetry and meeting wonderfully talented people. Singing songs that were reminiscent of times gone by and laughing at silliness. Talking politics and dreaming of idealised worlds. Reconnecting with the fire of activism.
Just chilling out, drinking beer and watching the sun set on the rich panorama of London skyscapes. As my partner says, at this moment in time, the music has stopped.
21 April 2010
Hotlines will help disabled people facing election-day barriers
Telephone helplines staffed by voting rights experts will help disabled people who risk losing their right to vote at the general election.
Staff working on the Electoral Commissions national helplines on election day will be ready to help disabled people who are blocked from voting because of access barriers at their local polling station.
Since the last general election in 2005, new laws say local authorities should make sure their polling stations do not put disabled people at a disadvantage.
The disability charity Scope through its Polls Apart campaign has worked with the Electoral Commission to draw up an online guide to disabled peoples voting rights.
The guide includes information on the legal rights to request assistance to mark the ballot paper, view a large-print version of the ballot paper and gain assistance if they cannot enter the polling station.
It advises anyone who has problems voting on election day to contact their local authority. But if that doesnt work, staff on the helpline will try to enable them to make their vote count.
Abigail Lock, Scopes head of advocacy and campaigns, said she hoped the helpline would raise confidence among disabled people preparing to vote.
She said: It is something a number of disabled people have said they have wanted in the past, an extra avenue of support, and support gives confidence. Thats why I think it will be really important.
But she added: We are hoping that improved access will mean few people will need to resort to calling the helpline.
Local authorities are more aware now because they have to review their polling stations for access and because of the awareness we have raised through Polls Apart.
Scope is hoping disabled people will post their views about their voting experiences on the Polls Apart website, and fill out a Polls Apart survey form.
Lock added: Its really important that as many disabled people as possible fill out the survey so we can get a clearer picture of what has happened since the last general election.
We do need to identify those local authorities that are breaching their duties. If we have to name and shame, thats what we will do.
To download the guide or fill out the survey form, visit: www.pollsapart.org.uk/pages/voters.php
The Electoral Commission helplines are: 020 7271 0592 and 020 7271 0728.
20 April 2010
Crows Resistance receives US seal of approval
A British disabled film-makers acclaimed installation exploring the horrors of the targeted killing of disabled people in Nazi Germany is to be exhibited at one of Americas most renowned cultural venues.
Liz Crows Resistance: which way the future? is to be shown at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, even though Crow has yet to find a venue willing to exhibit it in London.
This week, the film installation was brought to Mansfield, where Crow was hoping it would receive similar acclaim as at its launch at DaDa Fest in Liverpool last November.
Crow said it was hugely exciting that Resistance would be exhibited by the Smithsonian, but she said she was frustrated at how difficult it had been to find exhibition spaces willing to host the installation in the UK.
She said: It seems to really connect with people and really get them thinking. My fear is that it will never realise that potential. It would be such a waste if it doesnt get out there.
The Aktion T4 programme is believed to have led to the targeted killing of as many as 200,000 disabled people in Germany, and possibly many thousands more, and became the blueprint for the Final Solution, through which the Nazis hoped to wipe out Jews, gay people and other minority groups.
Crows installation features a short drama about T4, a filmed conversation between three of the actors from the drama, and a series of voices of disabled people talking about their present-day, sharp end experiences of both discrimination and inclusion.
It explores the values that permitted the T4 programme to take place but also reveals how people found the courage to resist.
Crow said she tries to draw visitors out of the historical hopelessness of T4 into exploring how they as individuals could prevent the kind of oppression that surfaced in Nazi Germany.
She said: This is an episode of history that is virtually hidden, yet the values that underpinned it still echo through disabled peoples lives today.
Disablist hate crime, the campaign to legalise assisted suicide and pre-natal screening and abortion all challenge the worth of disabled peoples lives and even their right to exist, she said.
She added: The campaigns that were needed, the resistance that was needed during the Nazi regime, are still needed now. We still need to create change on the same kind of issues.
Disabled people who have visited the installation tended to be struck by its historical elements, she said, while non-disabled visitors tended to be affected most by the realisation that such oppression was still taking place today.
In the absence of such issues being debated during the election campaign, she said she hoped a tour of Resistance could become a platform for such issues to be discussed.
She said: I dont feel like this is a project of mine. I would love it if people took it and used it to create change.
Resistance is at The Old Library, Leeming Street, Mansfield, from Tuesday 20 April to Saturday 1 May, with public access from Monday to Friday, noon-2pm, and on Saturdays, from 11am-3pm.
For further information about the installation, visit www.roaring-girl.com
19 April 2010
Campaigners welcome historic contaminated blood ruling
Campaigners have won an historic legal challenge over the compensation paid by the government to disabled people affected by the NHS contaminated blood disaster.
A high court judge has told the government to reconsider its decision not to provide more generous compensation to those affected.
The ruling has been welcomed by people with haemophilia who were infected with contaminated NHS blood and blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, and have campaigned for fair compensation.
Nearly 2,000 people with haemophilia have so far died as a result of being infected with hepatitis C and HIV.
The judicial review was brought by Andrew March, a member of TaintedBlood, the user-led group that campaigns for justice for those affected.
His lawyers argued that the government should have accepted the recommendation of an independent inquiry into the scandal, led by Lord Archer of Sandwell, that compensation should be at least as generous as that paid by the Irish government.
The UK government argued that the Irish government only paid higher levels of compensation because it accepted it had been at fault.
But, allowing the claim for judicial review, Mr Justice Holman concluded that the UK government was wrong and that the Irish compensation payments had been made on compassionate grounds.
He said the UK government might have reached a different decision if it had correctly focussed on, and grappled with, the compassionate basis of Irish payments.
But he warned campaigners of false optimism, as the allocation of resources was entirely a matter for the government and they have said, in effect, that they cannot afford to pay more.
A TaintedBlood spokeswoman welcomed the ruling and said the government would now have to reconsider their original decision and re-make it based on a lawful and factual basis.
She added: This time we would ask that they refrain from taking such a cavalier attitude to such a crucial question.
Lord Alf Morris, president of the Haemophilia Society, said it was a historic decision and most warmly welcomed by the haemophilia community.
And Matt Gregory, vice-chair of the Haemophilia Society, said: This decision means that the governments justification for its total failure to live up to the standards set by Ireland is now in tatters.
A fair settlement for everyone affected by the disaster has been brought significantly closer today.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: The department is aware of the decision reached in the judicial review, and will now consider the position.
19 April 2010
March News Archive
Guide Dogs secures shared streets court victory
A disability charity has won a high court victory in its battle to stop a development in
Londons tourist heartland that puts the safety of blind and partially-sighted people at risk.
The development of Exhibition Road by Kensington and Chelsea council is only the latest in a series of shared street schemes introduced by local authorities across the country.
Such designs usually remove kerbs so motorists and pedestrians can share the space, so they then have to make eye contact to establish who has the right of way.
The charity Guide Dogs says this and the absence of kerbs, which people with guide dogs and long canes use to navigate, risks the safety of blind and partially-sighted pedestrians.
Guide Dogs yesterday (Thursday) won the right in the high court to challenge the councils plans through a judicial review.
The charity whose campaign against shared streets is backed by nearly 40 organisations, including the UK Disabled Peoples Council, RADAR, Deafblind UK and Transport for All has been raising concerns about the plans for more than five years.
Exhibition Road is used by an estimated 19 million pedestrians a year and runs from Hyde Park past the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Tom Pey, director of external affairs for Guide Dogs, said: We have been seeking a solution which works for all users of the area around Exhibition Road, with a particular focus on the needs of blind and partially-sighted people.
As already proved by several misguided schemes in other cities, the lack of boundaries makes these streets extremely difficult to navigate, and therefore very frightening.
He said the council had been unreasonable in its refusal to take the concerns seriously.
A Kensington and Chelsea council spokesman said it was disappointed with the courts decision.
He said the council took the safety of all road users extremely seriously and had been working with Guide Dogs and other disability organisations since 2004 to ensure their needs were incorporated in the scheme.
He said Exhibition Road was in urgent need of development due to overcrowded pavements and dangerous road crossings, and the new scheme would include clear visual and tactile delineators and would improve the experience for all who use the area, particularly wheelchair users, the elderly and those with pushchairs who will enjoy increased pedestrian space, the single surface and traffic reduced to less than 20mph.
4 March 2010
Scooter users could be forced to take test and buy insurance
The government could be set to force users of mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs to undergo training, take a test and buy insurance, following renewed safety concerns.
Transport minister Sadiq Khan has announced a three-month consultation on reforms aimed at modernising laws on mobility vehicles, which include both powered wheelchairs and scooters.
He said: Mobility vehicles are a vital lifeline for many people and we want to ensure that everyone who needs one is able to use them safely and securely.
The consultation document points to a growing concern about safety particularly with scooters although it says evidence suggests a very low number of injuries.
Up to 330,000 people use a mobility vehicle, while hospital figures suggest fewer than 40 people a year are severely injured by scooters, with around 95 per cent of injuries to the drivers.
The consultation asks how to reduce the number of injuries caused to pedestrians, and whether laws should be different for mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs.
Other questions include whether mobility vehicle-users should have to take out third party insurance, undergo compulsory training and pass a safety assessment.
The consultation also asks whether class three vehicles those that travel at up to eight mph should be allowed to go faster when used on roads, and whether the government should introduce new criminal offences of careless or dangerous driving of a mobility vehicle.
Other possibilities include lowering the minimum age for using a class three vehicle below 14, and allowing design changes so that a user could legally carry a baby or small child on their mobility vehicle.
And the consultation asks whether there should be stricter enforcement of the legal duty to register class three vehicles. Registration is currently free, but vehicles must display a tax disc. The registration scheme could also be extended to class two vehicles.
Helen Smith, director of policy and campaigns for the charity Mobilise, said she believed there should be changes in the law because of the increasing number of scooter-users and the minority of people who should not be riding them the way they do.
She said: I think compulsory training is a good idea. People that can drive safely have nothing to fear.
Our members would like regulation because they feel that a small minority give them a bad name.
And she said compulsory third party insurance was just common sense.
The Department for Transport consultation ends on 28 May.
4 March 2010
Campaigners say government must release work test figures
Frustrated campaigners have called on the government to release crucial statistics about its controversial new work capability test.
They spoke out after new research for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed that both benefits staff and disabled people who have undergone the test had major concerns about the work capability assessment (WCA).
The WCA was introduced in October 2008 to test applicants for employment and support allowance (ESA), the governments new out-of-work disability benefit.
But disability organisations and other campaigners have repeatedly raised concerns about the number of disabled people being found fit for work after taking the tough and inflexible WCA.
The researchers talked to staff working on the ESA, and ESA applicants, between May and July last year.
Staff expressed concerns at the stringency and lack of flexibility of the WCA and that many people who were told they were fit for work-related activity had unexpectedly severe health problems.
The research also reported concerns about a large backlog of appeals against WCA results.
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, said the research backed up what campaigners had been telling the government.
He said the government was refusing to provide statistics showing how disabled people with different impairments were being treated under the new system.
He and other campaigners say the WCA is too inflexible to cope with fluctuating conditions such as mental ill-health, ME or MS.
Coyle said: Disability organisations cannot assist the government in improving the WCA or ESA without more information about what the barriers are within the system. It is going to cost a fortune in appeals unless the WCA is improved.
Coyle said some disabled people were being assessed as fit for work and not eligible for ESA and told to apply instead for jobseekers allowance but after winning appeals were placed in the ESA support group for those who are too disabled to undertake any work-related activity.
Jonathan Shaw, the minister for disabled people, said: This research was carried out some time ago soon after the benefit was introduced and we have made considerable improvements since then.
We continue to see where improvements and changes are needed to ensure that ESA is working as it should be.
A DWP spokesman said they were currently unable to provide the data that Disability Alliance has called for as it was not held centrally and we are not confident at this stage that it is robust enough to consider publication.
He added: We are working on collating and quality assuring the data and will consider publication in due course.
Meanwhile, Shaw has announced new targets that aim to help more people with mental health conditions and learning difficulties to stay in work through the access to work (ATW) scheme.
From next month, 2,000 people with learning difficulties and up to 1,500 people with mental health conditions will be guaranteed ATW funding.
Shaw said a disappointingly low number of people with severe mental health conditions or learning disabilities were receiving ATW funding, and the government recognised it needed to do more to help them find and stay in work.
Last year, more than 32,000 disabled people received ATW funding to provide support in the workplace, but the latest figures show that fewer than one per cent gave mental health as their main impairment.
The government has promised to double the ATW budget to £138 million by 2013/14.
Shaw announced the targets at a House of Commons exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act.
4 March 2010
New improvements to equality bill, but concerns remain
New legal duties to provide accessible information should be a major step forward for blind and partially-sighted people and others with print disabilities, according to a disabled peer.
Lord Colin Low was speaking after the government introduced a new amendment to its equality bill, as the bill completed its report stage in the House of Lords.
The new duty makes it clear that businesses and public bodies would have to take reasonable steps to provide information in an accessible format so as to avoid disabled people being placed at a substantial disadvantage.
Baroness Thornton, for the government, said: It is important that all kinds of organisations consider the information they provide to their audiences and what steps they may need to take to bring themselves into line with the duty.
She said the amendment could be a turning point for people with information disabilities.
Lord Low said the move was potentially a major step forward for anyone with a print disability of any kind and provides a much more solid basis for robust enforcement action by regulators, advocacy organisations and disabled people themselves.
He said that businesses and public sector bodies would now need to think carefully about what they need to do to comply with this duty and promptly take action, as I expect this duty to be vigorously enforced.
The government also accepted two other amendments that should strengthen disabled peoples protection from discrimination.
One set of amendments, introduced by Baroness Wilkins, would strengthen the duty to provide reasonable adjustments in education making it clear that the duty is anticipatory, so schools would have to predict the adjustments that future disabled pupils might need, rather than just reacting to a request from an individual pupil.
The other amendment defines the term substantial disadvantage when dealing with the duty to make reasonable adjustments as more than minor or trivial.
Caroline Ellis, joint deputy chief executive of RADAR, welcomed the three changes and said there had been major progress on the bill in recent weeks.
But she said there were still major concerns around the bills public sector duties to promote equality, which were currently vague and unenforceable and would lead to legal challenges if not tightened by the government.
She said there was a very real risk that the duties would be weaker than the current disability equality duty.
Meanwhile, the governments personal care at home bill completed its committee stage in the Lords. Its report stage is due on 17 March.
4 March 2010
Autism strategy savaged by campaigners over weak language
The first national strategy on autism has been savaged by leading campaigners with autism for its failure to demand real change from councils and health trusts.
The new government strategy, which aims to help adults with autism in England live independently in a society that understands them, was promised as part of last Novembers Autism Act.
But there will be little new government money just £500,000 to help develop autism awareness training with the strategy focusing instead on how to make existing policies work better.
A plan describing how improvements will be delivered in its first year will be published later this month, with statutory guidance for health and social care bodies due in December.
The strategy calls for a fundamental change in which a diagnosis of autism leads to a person-centred assessment of need which will be the key to unlocking care services throughout a persons lifetime, including an offer of personal budgets and direct payments.
And it reminds public bodies of their duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Disability Discrimination Act to improve access to services in areas such as education, healthcare and public transport.
Several measures around mental health and employment announced by the government last December will also apply to adults with autism, including access to internships, and more flexibility with access to work payments.
A national autism programme board, co-chaired by Phil Hope, the care services minister, will oversee progress on the strategy and include at least one person with autism. The government has also promised to review progress on the strategy in 2013.
The Autistic Rights Movement UK (ARM UK), which is run by people with autism, welcomed the publication of an autism strategy, and the new programme board, but said the strategy was unlikely to deliver real change.
It said it was not only bitterly disappointed but frankly baffled by the language used in the strategy, with words such as may and might instead of must and will.
ARM UK said that a strategy as weak and equivocal as this one makes the Autism Act meaningless, although it added: It might be that the delivery plan is the missing part without which the part that we have fails to make sense. We certainly hope so.
It also criticised the derisory funding of £500,000, even though last summers National Audit Office report said investing in services for people with autism could end up saving tens of millions of pounds.
And ARM UK called for people with autism to have far more involvement in shaping the changes that are so urgently needed to achieve true equality, and said the strategy should be subject to a proper public consultation.
It also called for comprehensive and fully funded structures at local, regional and national levels, such as a national forum for autistic people, regional autism forums and local autism partnership boards, similar to those that came out of the Valuing People learning difficulties white paper.
Anya Ustaszewski, who has autism and is vice-chair of the strategys external reference group, described the strategy as an exciting milestone but said it was important that the delivery plan contains clear measures for local authorities and support from the Department of Health to deliver them.
Meanwhile, the National Autistic Society Scotland and other campaigners and organisations took part in an event at the Scottish parliament calling for a national autism strategy for Scotland, backed up by a Scottish autism bill.
4 March 2010
Disabled protesters march on Ofcom over offensive hate language
People with learning difficulties have marched on the offices of the communications watchdog Ofcom in protest at its failure to condemn the use of offensive, disablist language on a Channel 4 show.
Footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones caused outrage when he joked on Big Brothers Big Mouth that presenter Davina McCall walked like a retard, with McCall laughing and replying: I do not walk like a retard.
Channel 4 eventually apologised after receiving complaints about the incident in late January.
But campaigners were shocked when Ofcom failed to uphold their subsequent complaint.
In its decision, Ofcom said the use of the word was part of light hearted banter and not directed at someone with a mental or physical disability and so was not used with the intention to describe or offend members of society with learning difficulties.
It also said the use of the word was not entirely at odds with the established nature of this programme, which is known for its lively and outspoken content.
Ofcom merely advised Channel 4 that the repetition of the word by McCall was unfortunate and it would have been more appropriate to move on rapidly instead of discussing it further.
Furious at the decision, disabled protesters backed by the charities Respond and The Elfrida Society this week delivered letters to the chair and chief executive of Ofcom.
The letters were signed by nine people with learning difficulties, eight of whom are involved in running Londons successful Wild Bunch club nights. Most of them took part in the protest.
Their letter says: We feel let down by Ofcom, which is perpetuating a negative image of disabled people, by not condemning guests and presenters who use hate speech on TV thereby signaling to viewers that this is acceptable.
The letter says Joness walk mirrored the actions of the young thugs who persecuted Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca. Pilkington killed herself and Francecca, who had learning difficulties, after they were the victims of a sustained hate campaign.
Jackie Ryan, one of the protesters, said they were really annoyed with Ofcoms decision not to uphold the complaint.
She said: I think its out of order. Ofcom should do something about it.
We were extremely cross. They need to look at themselves in the mirror and see how they feel.
And she said Vinnie Jones and Davina McCall should be forced to apologise on television.
Ofcom said it was now reviewing its decision.
Channel 4 said it regretted that McCall had not admonished Jones for his comment and apologised to viewers at the time.
And she said the comments had been removed from the video-on-demand version of the programme.
4 March 2010
Set-up of EHRC was flawed and inefficient
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was not ready for business and should have delayed its launch in 2007 because of a flawed and inefficient set-up process, according to a report by a committee of MPs.
The public accounts committee report says only 10 of 25 directors were appointed by the time the EHRC launched in October 2007, the management team lacked the right balance of skills, and its business plan had not been finalised.
And the report criticises EHRC chair Trevor Phillips for failing to ensure his board reviewed and scrutinised progress in setting up the commission more closely.
The committee also said they were surprised and concerned that it cost nearly £39 million to set up the commission.
Their report which follows similar criticisms by the National Audit Office (NAO) last year says the government made serious errors in setting up the commission, with the EHRC having no control over which staff left the Disability Rights Commission and the two other legacy commissions.
This early exit scheme, which cost about £11 million, led to a large loss of staff with valuable skills and left the EHRC 140 people short and with skills gaps in key areas.
The EHRC then took on seven former staff from the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) as consultants, even though they had taken compensation under this scheme.
They were paid £630,000 for their CRE severance packages and nearly £340,000 to be rehired as EHRC consultants at up to £822 per day without the necessary approval from the Treasury.
The committee said Phillips recognised his personal share of responsibility and that the board did not exercise the level of scrutiny it might have done, despite clearly visible early warning signs.
Edward Leigh MP, the Conservative chairman of the committee, said there were still weaknesses in the EHRCs control over staff costs and that this was not the way this committee expects public bodies to be run.
An EHRC spokeswoman said the committee and the NAO had acknowledged the extreme pressures it was under to launch on 1 October, 2007.
She said: Under these circumstances, the commission made mistakes for example not making an adequate case for re-engaging several former members of staff.
We have accepted these criticisms from the PAC and as the NAO has recognised we are taking steps to improve our financial and performance reporting, and strengthen our governance arrangements and other control systems.
4 March 2010
ELECTION 2010: Lib Dems come up empty-handed on disability
The Liberal Democrat shadow minister for disabled people has failed to lay out any of his partys disability policies in a puzzling performance in front of a packed meeting of campaigners, activists and fellow politicians.
John Barrett MP was speaking at a meeting of the all party parliamentary disability group, where he and his opposite numbers in the Conservative and Labour parties were given a platform to lay out some of their disability policies.
The trio were told that disabled people had suggested more than 80 policies that would help the next government to achieve disability equality, following a request from Baroness Jane Campbell and Labour MP Roger Berry, the groups co-chairs.
The policies suggested by disabled people covered independent living, inclusion, an end to disability poverty, access and the need for enforceable rights to equality.
But when given seven minutes to lay out his partys disability policies, Barrett who is stepping down at the next election said he genuinely believed that no one party has all the good people and all the good ideas.
He said the country was still in the dark ages when it comes to disability and there needed to be a major step change with government departments, the benefits system, local authorities, employers and society, while life should not be a battle day in day out.
He added: Independent living is absolutely vital being able to have control of ones own life is the key to a fair society.
He also said disability would run through his partys policies on housing, health, education, work and pensions, with equality and fairness at the heart of the manifesto.
But he failed to outline a single specific disability policy, although in response to a question later in the meeting, he appeared to suggest a Liberal Democrat government would review the complexity of the benefits system and ensure that people could access the information they needed to receive the support they were entitled to.
He said: I think that politicians have got to make sure people get what they are entitled to as quickly as possible.
No-one from Barretts party was available to comment afterwards on why he had been unable to describe any Liberal Democrat disability policies at the meeting.
4 March 2010
ELECTION 2010: Tory shadow says new work support is key policy
The Conservative shadow minister for disabled people has said that one of his key election policies will be how to get more disabled people into work.
Mark Harper MP was speaking to a meeting of the all party parliamentary disability group, before an audience that included leading disabled campaigners and charity representatives.
Harper said his party would only make election promises it knew it could deliver, and focused strongly on Conservative plans to use projected benefits savings to provide support to find jobs for a significant number of disabled people who are unemployed but able to work.
He said his party would pay private and voluntary sector providers of employment support by results - according to whether they found disabled people sustainable jobs that lasted at least a year.
Harper also said a Conservative government would ensure that care and support services offered to disabled people were properly personalised and fitted to the needs of the individual.
He said: Too many times, disabled people are expected to fit their lives around the care and support they get.
And he said his party very much support government moves towards individual budgets and direct payments, but that they wanted to see that go much further and faster.
His party would also retain disability living allowance (DLA) and attendance allowance (AA), following suggestions that the government could scrap DLA and AA for those over 65 and use the savings to help pay for local authority social care services.
Harper said a Conservative government would also simplify the benefits system to make sure it is simple for people to use.
It would also repeal section 141 of the Mental Health Act, which states that MPs who are sectioned for at least six months must lose their seats.
But when asked by Simone Aspis, from the Alliance for Inclusive Education, how his party would secure disabled peoples rights to access mainstream education following his partys manifesto commitment to end the bias towards the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream schools Harper said his party believed parents should have the option to choose a special or mainstream school for their child.
3 March 2010
ELECTION 2010: Minister says roadmap is key to Labours disability policies
The minister for disabled people has said that disabled people have shaped Labours disability policies for the next election.
Jonathan Shaw MP was speaking to a meeting of the all party parliamentary disability group that was packed with disabled campaigners and representatives of disability charities.
Shaw said a Labour government would focus on the 14 areas such as discrimination, independent living, social care and transport that were outlined in the Office for Disability Issues Roadmap last December.
The Roadmap details how the government plans to work towards disability equality by 2025 and Shaw said the 14 strands had been chosen by disabled people.
He also said the government had announced the eight trailblazer councils that would pilot the new right to control, which would be central to improving independent living.
Right to control will put money from funding sources such as community care services, disabled facilities grants and independent living funds into single pots of money for disabled people to use as they wish.
Shaw also said the government would need to find sustainable ways to ensure user-led organisations could provide vital advocacy and support for disabled people.
And he said a Labour government would ensure a far greater focus on disability hate crime.
He said the government would also work to ensure disabled people took part as paid staff and as volunteers in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012.
He added: That has an enormous opportunity to impact on attitudes, and changing attitudes changes behaviour.
He told the meeting that disabled people should judge us on our record and our ambition, as laid out in priorities not chosen by the Labour Party but chosen by disabled people.
But when asked by Simone Aspis, from the Alliance for Inclusive Education, how his party would secure disabled peoples rights to access mainstream education, Shaw said he agreed with his Conservative opposite number Mark Harper that parents should have the choice of whether their child attended a special or mainstream school.
3 March 2010
Debenhams puts disabled model in the picture
A leading department store says it has become the first high street retailer to use pictures of a disabled model in a fashion advertising campaign.
Debenhams is using shots of wheelchair-user Shannon Murray online and in window displays in its Glasgow, Guildford, Oxford Street (London) and Nottingham branches, and plans to roll them out across all its stores.
The idea of using a disabled model came from two disabled presenters who took part in Channel 4s fashion makeover show How to Look Good Naked.
Journalist Nikki Fox and actress and writer Natasha Wood launched a campaign for disabled people to be represented on the high street, as part of the shows three-part special on disabled women earlier this year.
Murray has joined three non-disabled models in images to promote the Principles by Ben de Lisi fashion range in Debenhams.
Michael Sharp, deputy chief executive of Debenhams, said: We cater for women of all shapes and sizes, young and old, non-disabled and disabled, so we wanted our windows to reflect this choice.
When Nikki and Natasha approached us with the idea, we didnt have to think twice.
We are proud to be the first high street retailer to deliver this. We only wished we had done it sooner.
Fox praised the store for using Murray in its campaign, and said: Its a really big deal. If seeing Shannon helps another disabled person, then weve done well.
Murray said she was proud to be part of such a big move towards positive representation of disability in high street fashion.
And Sophie Morgan, a disabled model and campaigner, said the Debenhams campaign was fantastic and an exciting development.
She said she hoped the retailer would continue to use disabled models, and she believed the campaign would have a positive impact on both disabled and non-disabled people.
She said: Definitely it helps the disabled community with style tips and inspiration and it is quite encouraging to know that even if you are in a wheelchair you can still be beautiful and a model.
And its great for the non-disabled community to know that there are beautiful disabled women out there who can model.
Debenhams said it was committed to using disabled models in other photographs, and was planning a second photo shoot this summer, with images again being used instore and online.
2 March 2010
February News Archive
Equality bill amendment 'will boost number of accessible taxis'
Delighted campaigners have welcomed proposed new laws that will force many local authorities to allow more wheelchair-accessible taxis onto the streets.
The new amendment to the government's equality bill was proposed by the disabled peer Baroness Wilkins and backed by a string of fellow peers - and accepted by the government - during the bill's committee stage.
The amendment will mean that local authorities that have introduced policies to control taxi numbers will not be able to refuse a licence for a wheelchair-accessible vehicle if the area does not have enough accessible taxis.
Baroness Wilkins, a wheelchair-user herself, said provision of accessible transport was "essential for equality of opportunity" but councils with "quantity-control policies" and relatively few or no accessible taxis can refuse licence applications for wheelchair-accessible vehicles.
She said this can leave wheelchair-users who travel to such areas by train "stranded" once they arrive.
She added: "One must also think what it means for those living in the area when they need to get to an urgent appointment or visit friends and have a social life."
For the government, Baroness Thornton said: "It is unacceptable that a licensing authority which controls taxi numbers can routinely refuse applications for wheelchair-accessible taxis when it has very few wheelchair-accessible taxis in the district or, indeed, none at all.
"This new clause provides an ideal means of enhancing accessible taxi provision in these areas."
She said the government would consult before deciding on the minimum proportion of taxis in a local authority area that should be wheelchair-accessible.
Geraldine Des Moulins, chief officer of Brighton and Hove Federation of Disabled People, welcomed the amendment and said it should make it easier for wheelchair-users to find taxis.
She said researchers had found that a wheelchair-user in Brighton waits four times as long as a non-disabled person for a taxi.
Her organisation persuaded Brighton and Hove City Council to announce a review of taxi services for disabled people last month.
Des Moulins said: "We have disabled people who will not go out because they do not know if they will get a taxi to get home again."
She said the new laws would help, but there also needed to be a "culture shift within the taxi trade", with drivers often refusing to pick up wheelchair-users.
The equality bill has now completed its committee stage in the Lords, with the report stage due to begin on 2 March.
11 February 2010
Government research follows 'increasing concerns' on forced marriage
The government is funding new research into disabled people who are victims of forced marriages, following increasing concerns about the scale of the problem.
News of the research emerged after a man was jailed for trying to sell his disabled sister, who has learning difficulties, into a forced marriage.
Michael Wright, 22, from Swindon, was arrested by officers from the UK Border Agency as he arrived with his sister for the ceremony at Reading Register Office with would-be groom Ligang Qiao last August.
Wright had agreed to let Qiao marry his sister - in exchange for £8,000 - to aid his application to stay in the UK once his visa ran out.
Wright pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to assisting unlawful entry into the UK, and perjury, and was jailed this week for four years. Qiao and two other Chinese nationals were jailed for between 15 months and two years each, and will be deported at the end of their sentences.
Detective Inspector Andy Cummins, of the UK Border Agency, said it was a "despicable crime" and Wright had "attempted to exploit a member of his own family for his own financial gain", while the other gang members "sought to take advantage of a vulnerable woman".
A Foreign Office spokesman said its Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) - run jointly with the Home Office -had seen "a number" of cases where disabled people were forced into marriage, either by families trying to provide a disabled relative with a long-term carer or for visa reasons.
He said: "Accurate statistics for forced marriage are very difficult to compile, given its often-clandestine nature, but the incidence among people with disabilities has been the subject of increasing concern over recent years.
"The FMU are funding research to look into this area, and to compare best practice in responses. The findings will inform the unit's future work."
Meanwhile, the Equality and Human Rights Commission is preparing to investigate the problem of disabled women who are forced into marriage.
The EHRC's disability committee will look at the issue as part of the commission's Violence Against Women programme.
Anyone who is worried that they might be forced into marriage or is worried about a friend or relative can call the Forced Marriage Unit in confidence on 020 7008 0151.
10 February 2010
Government adds confusion to Eagle's reserved posts comments
The Government Equalities Office has added to the confusion caused by a government minister who told MPs that it was illegal to reserve jobs solely for disabled people.
Maria Eagle, an equalities minister and former minister for disabled people, told the communities and local government committee two weeks ago that it was illegal to reserve posts under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and would remain so under the equality bill.
She has now been forced to write to the committee, after it wrote to her "seeking clarification" of her comments.
During questioning from the committee about the equality bill, Eagle said that "positive action" - favouring the disabled person when faced with two equally qualified job candidates - was legal and would stay legal under the bill.
But she also said that only allowing disabled applicants to apply for a particular job was illegal and would remain so in the new bill.
Reserving posts for disabled people is a widespread practice, both by disabled people's organisations and across the disability sector, and campaigners were left bemused by her comments.
A Government Equalities Office spokeswoman said: "Everybody has the right to be treated fairly and employers are not allowed to discriminate when hiring staff.
"However, there is an exemption where a particular characteristic is a requirement of the job - for example, an organisation providing counselling services for young deaf people might require its counsellors to be deaf in order to share life experiences and use British Sign Language with their clients.
"This is the case under the DDA and the equality bill will not change this. Maria Eagle has written to the select committee to make this clear."
But the spokeswoman declined to comment when asked whether Eagle was admitting she had made a mistake, or whether she stood by her evidence.
11 February 2010
Councils fail information test on personal budgets
Local authorities are failing to provide disabled people with accurate information on personal budgets, according to a national disability charity.
Livability, which provides services such as care homes and supported living, reviewed more than 100 local authorities across England and found nearly half of their websites contained no information on personal budgets - which allow people to take control of their own social care funding.
Almost half of telephone enquiries about personal budgets were misdirected and almost a quarter of the councils could not provide any information on personal budgets at all.
Fewer than one in 30 local authorities were able to recommend additional sources of information.
Only two councils, the City of London and Portsmouth City Council, scored ten out of ten for the information they provided.
Meanwhile, a survey commissioned by Livability of more than 500 disabled young adults found nearly nine in ten had never heard of personal budgets.
A Livability spokeswoman said councils themselves seemed to be confused about terminology, and often confused personal budgets, individual budgets (another form of self-directed support piloted by the government, which included different funding streams besides adult social care) and direct payments.
Mary Bishop, chief executive of Livability, said the results were "extremely worrying".
She said: "Personal budgets have the potential to transform the lives of disabled people by giving them choice and control and yet awareness of them is woefully inadequate."
Mark Harper, the Conservative shadow minister for disabled people, said it was clear there was "still a great deal more to do to ensure that disabled people up and down the country can take advantage of personal budgets".
He said the government should "show more leadership" and "impress upon local authorities the importance of making these opportunities available for disabled people".
Livability called on the government to run a national awareness-raising campaign aimed at disabled people.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Personal budgets offer people choice and control over their care and support.
"Councils have been running local pilots and 30 have already started rolling out personal budgets across their areas.
"We expect the others to follow over the next six months. We are supporting councils to achieve this transformation by offering guidance and a £500 million investment over three years.
"We expect councils to provide information and advice on personal budgets as the roll-out takes place."
10 February 2010
Care watchdog praises improvements but demands radical change
The care regulator has called for a "fundamental cultural shift" away from a "one-size-fits-all approach" and towards the personalisation of services.
The call from the Care Quality Commission came in its first annual report to parliament on the state of health and adult social care in England.
The report says there have been steady improvements in social care and health, despite "pockets of poor practice".
But the CQC is concerned that disabled people's needs in many areas have to be "substantial" before they can receive social care support from the council.
The proportion of adult social care services rated as good or excellent rose from 69 per cent in 2008 to 77 per cent in 2009, but there was still "unacceptable variation", with a small number of providers failing to meet minimum standards of safety and quality.
And although spending on direct payments in 2008/09 increased by nearly a third on the previous year, this was still only four per cent of councils' overall spending on care.
The report also calls for a "real acceleration in joining up health and social care and centring it on people's needs".
And it points to three particular areas of concern, with performance on safety, safeguarding and staff training varying widely across both social care and health care, "despite overall improvement in recent years".
Dame Jo Williams, CQC's acting chair, warned that "trends such as increasing demand and rising expectations will be exacerbated by pressure on finances".
This meant a need for "radical changes" in organisation and delivery of services, "shifting the culture away from a one-size-fits-all approach to care that puts the needs of individuals and carers at the centre of everything".
Care services minister Phil Hope said the report "recognises the major improvements that have been made across health and social care services".
He pointed to government plans to bring in new laws on safeguarding adults, and he said the government would "shortly" publish its care and support white paper, with plans for a "simple, fair and more affordable" national care service, while its personal care at home bill would help those with the highest needs.
The CQC has also released a new five-year strategy.
Its five priorities will be: ensuring care is centred on people's needs and protects their rights; "championing" joined up care; "acting swiftly" to help eliminate poor quality care; promoting high quality care; and effective regulation.
10 February 2010
Scotland's ten-year plan to 'mainstream' personalisation
The Scottish government has launched a draft ten-year strategy it hopes will lead to personalised, "self-directed" services becoming the "mainstream" way for disabled people to access the social care support they need.
The draft strategy on self-directed support says those who use care and support services should be seen "as equal citizens with rights and responsibilities".
The strategy aims to address barriers to greater take-up of direct payments, including "assumptions and attitudes" about those who might benefit, limitations on the use of the money they are given, and "a vested interest in the status quo" by some professionals.
The document says there is "significant scope" to increase the number of people receiving direct payments, which should be "available to all but imposed on no-one".
But it warns that guidance on eligibility for free personal care in Scotland had found evidence of reduced services to those with lower-level needs, and suggests a review of the use of eligibility criteria.
The Scottish government will also work with social care and health training and qualification bodies to integrate teaching of self-directed support into their courses, according to the strategy.
And it will meet with Department for Work and Pensions officials to find ways to fit the strategy and the benefits system together.
It will also discuss how to include disabled students' allowance and other education funds in self-directed support packages.
The Scottish government will consult this year on the need for a self-directed support bill to "address some of the gaps in eligibility".
The draft strategy says that by 2015 there should be a better quality of life for individuals, a "radical increase" in uptake of self-directed support, and a shift away from more traditional services.
Jim Elder-Woodward, convenor of Independent Living in Scotland (ILiS), an organisation of disabled people set up to develop the independent living movement in Scotland, said it was too early to give a "definitive" response.
But he said he was "hopeful" the movement would welcome the proposals, such as making self-directed support "the default position within social care provision".
And he said there was a "great need" to make the principles and practices of independent living - and not just self-directed care - a fundamental part of education in social administration and social work.
ILiS will host a conference on 5 March to help it and other disabled people's organisations prepare their responses to the draft strategy.
A consultation on the strategy lasts until 7 May. For more information, visit: www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations
10 February 2010
Dame Tanni to fight for rights in the Lords
Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson has spoken of her desire to join the fight for improved rights for disabled people when she becomes one of four new crossbench peers in the House of Lords this spring.
Dame Tanni said she was "very proud" and "very excited" by the "enormous challenge" ahead of her, following the announcement of her peerage by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
When asked which areas she will focus on in the Lords, she named three: sport, disability rights and the health service.
She said: "Something that is very important to me is getting an appropriate level of service (in the NHS)."
And she said there was still "so much to do in terms of achieving equality for disabled people".
She appeared keen to work on disability rights issues in the Lords with other disabled peers such as Baroness Campbell, Lord Low and Baroness Masham, who all come from "incredibly different backgrounds".
She added: "I think we are quite fortunate that there are a significant number of disabled people in the Lords."
She is likely to be "introduced" to the Lords in April. As a crossbench peer, she said she was looking forward to being able to form her own opinions, rather than being forced to vote on party lines.
She already looks set to position herself alongside three other disabled peers, Baroness Campbell, Baroness Masham and Baroness Wilkins, in opposing continued efforts to weaken the law on assisted suicide.
Dame Tanni made it clear that she had "huge concerns" about the campaign to legalise assisted suicide and the "emotive" portrayal of disability in the media around the issue.
She said that such campaigns "reinforce the view that being a disabled person is so bad that you might want to kill yourself".
She admits that she was not approved by the appointments commission when first interviewed in 2008, as its members felt then that she "wasn't ready" to join the Lords.
She said: "I think I was really nervous the first time and it gave me the opportunity to think if it was something I would like to do if I had the opportunity."
Following that first interview, she joined Transport for London's board and now chairs its corporate governance committee, and also became a member of the Youth Citizenship Commission.
Even before those appointments, she was never "just an athlete", and sat on both the Sports Council for Wales and UK Sport during her stellar career as a professional athlete, in which she won 12 Paralympic gold medals and broke 30 world records.
She is also a board member of UK Athletics and led its review of anti-doping policy in sport, and is vice-chair of the athletes committee of the organising committee for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.
She studied politics at university and said she has always been fascinated by the machinery of government and parliament and "ow things work", even though she "always joked at university that I would never get involved in politics".
But before Dame Tanni takes her place in the Lords, she has to decide on her title. She said she was "very proud" of her Welsh roots but is conscious that she has not lived in Wales for many years.
She said: "I feel quite a lot of pressure on that from people who have literally stopped me in the street. There is more expectation about what I am going to be called then what I am going to do."
9 February 2010
MPs raise concerns over decisions on disability benefits
The government should investigate allegations of poor treatment by the company that carries out medical assessments of disabled people who apply for disability benefits, according to a committee of MPs.
A new work and pensions committee report says the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should also investigate complaints about the computerised assessment process used by the company, ATOS Healthcare.
The committee "received many complaints about the medical assessment process", along with "widespread concerns" that those making benefits decisions in the DWP "appear to give excessive weight" to the medical assessments over other evidence provided by claimants.
The report, Decision-Making and Appeals in the Benefits System, calls on the government to set up a welfare commission to examine how to make a "fair but simpler" benefits system.
Citizens Advice told the committee that decisions become "increasingly complex" for disability benefits such as incapacity benefit (IB), employment and support allowance (ESA) and disability living allowance (DLA).
And Dr Mark Baker, head of social research and policy at RNID, told the committee that many people found the 58-page DLA claim form "utterly mystifying".
The report says that the quality of decision-making on claims for DLA and attendance allowance is "a cause for concern" because of this complexity.
It also raises concerns about cuts in welfare rights advice in some parts of the country.
Campaigners also told the committee of their concerns about the work capability assessment (WCA), the test for those claiming ESA, the new out-of-work disability benefit. The report calls on DWP to say when it will publish its internal review of the assessment.
And it says DWP should ensure terminally-ill ESA claimants are no longer forced to undertake work-focused interviews.
It concludes that an "increased focus on the quality of decision-making" to match the DWP's "successful focus on fraud" could have a "very significant effect" in reducing the cost of benefits appeals.
A DWP spokesman said it would give its full response to the report "in due course", but added: "We're pleased that the committee has recognised that every day the vast, vast majority of our claimants are getting the right benefits on time.
"But we know there is more to do and we are making strides to simplify the benefits system."
And he said the government would publish its review of the WCA once it had considered its recommendations.
9 February 2010
Handbook is guide to 'unique' relationship with PAs
A new guide provides disabled people with everything they need to deal with the "unique" challenges they face as employers of personal assistants (PAs).
The Handbook for Disabled Employers and their Personal Assistants is published by Being the Boss, a company set up by Anne Pridmore, who has campaigned for nearly 20 years on independent living and personalisation.
The guide is based on her 19 years' experience of employing people in her own home and includes a computer disc with templates for all the forms a disabled employer of PAs might need, such as time sheets, holiday rotas or wages forms.
It also includes advice on issues such as how to interview potential PAs, setting employment terms and conditions, and disciplinary and grievance procedures.
The handbook's publication has been supported by the social entrepreneurship charity UnLtd, the learning difficulties charity Choice Support and Nottinghamshire County Council.
Pridmore said: "It includes anything any employer needs to employ someone, but with a particular slant on disabled employers who employ their own PAs."
She said the relationship between disabled people and the PAs they employ to work in their own homes is "unique".
A lot of disabled people are "frightened" by the thought of starting a disciplinary procedure against a PA "when in the next breath you might need to ask them to do some personal care for you", she added.
The guide also discusses the importance of regular supervision of staff, so issues can be tackled before they escalate, with Pridmore keen to persuade more local authorities to fund such supervision, so they do not "set disabled people up to fail" when employing their own PAs.
Standard print and easy-read copies of the guide are available from www.beingtheboss.co.uk at £10 each.
8 February 2010
News stories from the week-ending 7 January 2010
Minister attacks care reform 'scaremongers'
Health secretary Andy Burnham has hit out at "scaremongering" campaigns that have attacked the government's plans to abolish key disability benefits.
Burnham made clear that the government would scrap both attendance allowance (AA) and disability living allowance (DLA) for all those over 65 as part of its plans to reform the social care funding system.
The government's care and support green paper in July suggested that the money saved would be used to fund means-tested council care services.
But Burnham - giving evidence to the Commons health committee as part of its inquiry into the future of social care - pledged again that no-one receiving DLA or AA at the time of reform "would receive any less cash support, nor would they lose any control" over how they spent that money.
He said that some "very vulnerable people" had been "frightened" by "scaremongering" campaigns and that a Conservative campaign against scrapping AA and DLA had "misrepresented" government plans.
Burnham again ruled out scrapping DLA for those under the age of 65.
He said he wanted to publish a white paper on social care funding before this year's general election, and "create unstoppable momentum" for legislation after the election.
He also dismissed criticism of the government's personal care at home bill, which would offer free personal care at home to disabled people with the highest needs.
Campaigners have warned it could lead to a squeeze on services for those with lower needs.
But Burnham said the bill was "building the vision" laid out in the green paper, and would help "the most vulnerable people, who at the moment face a lottery".
And he again squashed hopes that the government would opt for funding free personal care for all disabled people from taxation.
He said: "I think that the principle that the individual should make a contribution is the right one and it should not be just funded through general taxation."
His evidence came as the Alzheimer's Society called for parties' election manifestos to address "serious failings in dementia care", and include pledges not to scrap AA.
Its research found "overwhelming opposition" to scrapping AA and using the money to pay for care services.
A survey of nearly 1,500 carers and people with dementia also found less than a quarter were having all their care needs met.
A separate survey of 150 MPs found four in five believed a long-term solution to funding social care should be a high priority for their party.
7 January 2010
Government set to act on scooter safety
The government is set to attempt to improve mobility scooter safety, after new concerns were raised in parliament.
Mobility campaigners have backed calls for action, with estimates suggesting as many as 330,000 scooters are now in use.
Labour MP Jeff Ennis told the Commons how a constituent's two-year-old daughter was injured after being dragged underneath a scooter.
Ennis said he was concerned that there was no compulsory training for scooter-users, and praised Norfolk police, which has introduced short, voluntary training courses for scooter-users in Great Yarmouth.
He called for a new criminal offence of "riding a mobility scooter in a dangerous way", and said: "The crux of the problem is how we can ensure that mobility scooter users are proficient at riding their machines and are safe for themselves and other road-users."
Another Labour MP, Hugh Bayley, said one of his constituents was seriously injured after being hit by a scooter in 2008 but received no compensation as the driver had no insurance.
Transport minister Sadiq Khan suggested that the government would soon launch a consultation on possible new legislation.
He told MPs it would be important "to balance the rights of people with disabilities with the rights of other people to feel safe", but stressed that injuries were "rare and mostly minor" and scooters were "reasonably safe" when compared with other transport.
Hospital data suggests fewer than 40 people a year are severely injured by scooters, with around 95 per cent of injuries to the drivers.
The debate came as the Commons transport committee launched an inquiry into mobility scooters.
Helen Smith, director of policy and campaigns for the mobility charity Mobilise, which will submit evidence to the inquiry, said they had been urging the government to examine the insurance issue.
She said: "I think it's overdue. The numbers of scooters has grown enormously and we have phone calls from people saying, 'I can't drive anymore because of my eyesight, and I have just bought myself a scooter.'
"There's nothing to stop people driving in an inappropriate way. Nobody really has insurance.
"There have been accidents, there have been injuries and I am sure there have been a lot more that have not been reported."
But she added: "We wouldn't want people's mobility being restricted through unnecessary legislation."
And she said action could possibly be taken to ensure safer design of scooters, many of which are "just hard lumps of metal".
7 January 2010
China faces embassy protest over execution
China is facing further protests over its execution of a British man with bipolar disorder.
Protesters appalled at the execution of Akmal Shaikh on 29 December are due to hold a peaceful demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in London on Sunday (10 January).
Members of Shaikh's family have also written to foreign secretary David Miliband, demanding an inquest into his death.
His brother Akbar said in the letter: "My family is suffering incredible grief and torment over the many unanswered questions surrounding Akmal's death.
"We have begged the Chinese for answers ...but none have been forthcoming."
He said an inquest would help answer some of the family's questions so that the "terrible mysteries surrounding my brother's apparent death, 7,000 miles from his family and all alone, can be resolved for us".
Much of the anger of relatives and campaigners has been directed at the Chinese authorities' refusal to carry out an assessment of Shaikh's mental health, despite overwhelming evidence that he had bipolar disorder.
Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, which supports prisoners facing the death penalty and campaigned on Shaikh's behalf, said: "An inquest would give this grieving family a crucial insight into Akmal's final hours, his mental state and the extent to which he suffered before he died.
"Only then can they begin to recover from the trauma of Akmal's lonely and senseless death."
Shaikh, who was originally from Kentish Town, north London, was arrested in 2007 at an airport in northwest China and found to be carrying four kilogrammes of heroin in a suitcase.
Reprieve says he was taken advantage of by drug smugglers who knew about his mental health condition and befriended him after he moved to Poland.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed that they had received Akbar Shaikh's letter, and were considering the request for an inquest.
7 January 2010
Police force reviews hate crime policy after family's five-year ordeal
A Welsh police force is reviewing how it deals with disability hate crime, after a disabled woman complained of a five-year campaign of harassment at the hands of local thugs.
Irene Miles, a wheelchair-user from Newport, Gwent, revealed in a BBC Wales documentary how she and her daughter had called police 60 times in five years.
Bricks were thrown at her adapted car, creosote was poured over it, and paint was thrown over their back yard.
None of these incidents was treated as a disability hate crime.
The documentary showed CCTV footage of the latest incident, on 2 November last year, in which a hooded man smashed every window of her car.
Miles said she was convinced she was targeted because she was disabled, and compared her case with that of Fiona Pilkington, who was driven to kill herself and her disabled daughter after years of disablist harassment by local thugs.
Another disabled person interviewed for the documentary was Peter Wood, who spent weeks in hospital after an arson attack on his home in Barry, south Wales.
He became reclusive after years of abuse and name-calling by local thugs. After leaving hospital he moved to Devon to escape the harassment.
The programme was presented by Simon Green, a wheelchair-user from Bridgend, who used undercover filming to show the disablist name-calling and threats he receives on nights out.
Chief superintendent Paul Symes, head of neighbourhood policing for Gwent police, said: "We are currently reviewing the way we have dealt with the Miles family and their neighbours over a considerable period of time, to see if any lessons can be learnt.
"We have also redesigned our daily management meeting to give hate crime greater scrutiny."
A force spokesman added: "Our hate crime policy is being reviewed and any lessons from the review of the handling of this case will be built in."
He said the damage to the car on 2 November was not immediately viewed as a hate crime, but was reclassified as a disability hate crime several days later after contact from Victim Support.
No-one from South Wales police was available to comment on the arson attack in Barry.
6 January 2010
Government launches 'urgent review' of Pathways to Work
The government has admitted that its Pathways to Work programme to help disabled people into work is "less effective" than it first thought, and has launched an urgent review.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the programme - first piloted in 2003 - had not helped as many disabled people into work as it had hoped.
An independent study into Pathways to Work pilots had found that disabled people in Pathways areas were about 25 per cent more likely to be in work after 18 months than those in non-Pathways areas.
But a report published last October found that when Pathways - which can offer work-focused interviews, help applying for jobs and managing a health condition, and financial assistance - was rolled out to other Jobcentre Plus areas it had no effect on employment rates, compared with non-Pathways areas.
Now the government has launched an "evidence-gathering review" of the back-to-work support provided by Pathways to people on incapacity benefit and the new employment and support allowance.
It aims to publish proposals on the future of Pathways this spring, but says it wants to move to a "simpler, stronger, more personalised model of support", with a focus on "rights and responsibilities" and value for money.
Adrian Whyatt, chair of the user group Neurodiversity International, said the government had awarded Pathways contracts to large organisations which failed to involve or understand disabled people, while disabled people's organisations were too small to bid for contracts.
The contracts failed to ensure providers set up boards of disabled people to control the programmes, so there was a "lack of expertise" at "every stage of the process", he added.
A DWP spokesman said Pathways had helped more than 173,000 people into work, and helped to "significantly" narrow the gap between the overall employment rate and that of disabled people.
But he said more needed to be done, which was why the government was reviewing Pathways "to explore how we can further support those who can work fulfil that goal".
He said the government believed that "organisations of all sizes, small and large, from the public, private and voluntary sectors, have an important role to play in helping people back to work".
He added: "We work continuously with providers to help them find ways to improve and enhance the service they provide to this customer group, actively encouraging prime contractors to engage with niche providers who have the specialist knowledge necessary."
6 January 2010
Seminars will help disabled people become NHS leaders
Disabled people who would like to take up senior roles within their local NHS are being urged to sign up for a seminar to help them make successful applications.
The seminars in Manchester and London are being run by the disability charity RADAR and the Appointments Commission, the independent body that helps government departments and NHS trusts appoint their board members.
Those who attend will be told how to apply for roles as non-executive directors in primary care trusts, ambulance service trusts, acute or foundation NHS trusts, or strategic health authorities, and what their duties would involve if successful.
Government figures show that only one in 20 appointees to the boards of the UK's 1,200 public bodies is disabled or has a long-term health condition.
The government aims to increase this to nearly one in seven new appointments (14 per cent) by March 2011.
Those who attend the free seminars will meet recruitment consultants and disabled people who have secured senior NHS positions, as well as the chief executives of RADAR and the Appointments Commission.
There are up to 20 places available at each seminar, all for people living with ill-health, injury or disability.
Mark Shrimpton, RADAR's joint deputy chief executive, said: "These free of charge events are fantastic opportunities for people affected by ill health, injury or disability to prime themselves to make successful applications to help run their local NHS services in a paid capacity.
"Delegates will get a whole day's access to the CEOs of both RADAR and the Appointments Commission, as well as other key movers and shakers."
The Appointments Commission will also provide support in pursuing an appointment after the event for delegates with the right skills and experience.
The all-day seminars take place in London on 11 February and in Manchester on 1 March.
For more information, contact Nisha Patel at nisha.patel@radar.org.ukThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or tel: 020 7503 6177.
6 January 2010
Disabled duo set to fight again in court for direct payments
Two disabled people will challenge the government in court this month over its refusal to allow them to use direct payments to manage their own long-term healthcare.
They will argue that the decision discriminates against them and breaches their human rights.
The government is fighting the case despite passing new legislation in November that will allow the NHS to use direct payments. It is now preparing to pilot their use in some primary care trusts (PCTs).
Valerie Garnham, who has a progressive neuromuscular condition, was one of the first residents of Islington in London to receive direct payments for care services, but a serious illness seven years ago meant she needed a permanent tracheotomy and ventilator.
She became eligible for NHS continuing care and began receiving direct payments for her health needs from Islington PCT, paid through her council.
But two years ago, the PCT told her she would have to receive her healthcare through an agency, because of new government guidance.
Garnham lost a court battle to challenge this decision last year, but won an interim injunction forcing the PCT to allow her to continue receiving direct payments until her appeal was over.
Now lawyers for her and Steven Harrison, from Yorkshire - who is also fighting for the right to healthcare direct payments - will argue their case at the court of appeal.
They will say the Department of Health (DH) has the power to allow direct payments to be paid to service-users, and by denying them to those receiving healthcare services, it is discriminating against disabled people and breaching their right to a private and family life, under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Garnham said it could cost three times as much to provide agency nurses than her current arrangement, her quality of life would suffer, and she would feel less secure than she does with the trusted staff she has helped train herself.
She said: "It would remove my control. It would be impossible to match the flexibility that we have at the moment."
Her solicitor, Frances Lipman, from the Disability Law Service, said: "This is a very important case.
"What is the difference between someone on NHS and someone on social care?
"It goes to the heart of disabled people's lives and how they manage their care."
The DH said it could not comment because of the pending appeal.
5 January 2010
Thalidomide survivors to win government apology after 50 years
Survivors of the drug Thalidomide have hailed a new £20 million package of support, and the promise of a long-awaited government apology.
The prime minister is expected to deliver a "statement of regret" in the Commons early in the new year.
Guy Tweedy, a leading campaigner, said the announcement was "wonderful news".
Tweedy, deputy chair of the Thalidomide Trust's national advisory council (NAC), an elected committee representing those with impairments caused by Thalidomide, said an apology would be just as important as the new funding.
He said: "It is just as important to the parents as it is to the Thalidomiders themselves.
"For a lot of people it has been a trauma for 50 years. They have battled against social services, the drug companies and the government.
"This drug could have been avoided. It was avoided in America. It was a (UK) government agency that said it was a great drug and should be used.
"This will be a recognition that mistakes were made and they recognise it and they will say sorry. It will make a difference to a lot of people."
Tweedy is one of about 460 people in the UK born with impairments caused by their mothers taking Thalidomide while pregnant in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
He said he regretted that 18 others who have died since he began campaigning in 2002 would not hear the apology.
The funding will provide more personalised support for those with Thalidomide impairments, and will be paid over three years from April 2010.
Tweedy said it would fund their "unmet needs", such as paying for adaptations to homes and buying adapted cars and electric wheelchairs.
Many survivors have found it increasingly difficult to survive on the compensation they receive from the company that marketed the drug in the UK, because of equipment costs and deteriorating health.
The announcement followed lengthy discussions between the Department of Health (DH), the Thalidomide Trust - which administers the compensation - and the NAC.
The DH will hand the funding to the trust, which will distribute money to Thalidomide survivors, all now aged between 47 and 50, to give them "more control over their long-term health needs".
The DH said the scheme would be evaluated to "explore how the health needs of Thalidomiders can be best met in the longer term" and it would examine how this approach of working through an expert national body might be used with other small groups of people with "specialised needs".
29 December 2009
Outrage after China executes disabled Briton
Campaigners and politicians have reacted with horror and outrage after China refused pleas for clemency and executed a British man with bipolar disorder.
Despite repeated appeals from the prime minister, Gordon Brown, and the foreign secretary, David Miliband, Akmal Shaikh was executed on the morning of 29 December in Urumqi, north-west China.
Much of the anger has been directed at the Chinese authorities' refusal to carry out an assessment of Shaikh's mental health, despite overwhelming evidence that he had bipolar disorder.
The prime minister, Gordon Brown, condemned the execution and said he was "appalled and disappointed" that the government's "persistent requests for clemency" had not been granted.
He added: "I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken."
Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis described the failure to carry out an assessment as "reprehensible" and added: "There is absolutely no doubt that this man had mental health problems.
"The Chinese had all of this information and they made a point not to undergo this medical assessment and that cannot be right in a civilised world."
Two of Shaikh's cousins had flown to China to appeal for clemency and visited him in the secure hospital where he was being kept.
Shaikh's family also wrote to the Chinese president, and relatives joined a peaceful vigil outside the Chinese embassy in London in the hours before the execution.
Nearly 6,500 people joined a Facebook group calling on China to halt the execution, the first of a European in China for more than 50 years.
The UK charity Reprieve, which supports prisoners facing the death penalty and campaigned on Shaikh's behalf, said it had given the Chinese authorities six new witness statements that clearly showed his mental health condition.
Reprieve said it was "appalled" that no mercy had been shown to a man who clearly had a mental health condition and "disgusted" that China had refused to allow a proper medical evaluation.
Shaikh, who was married with five children and was originally from Kentish Town, north London, was arrested in 2007 at an airport in northwest China and found to be carrying four kilogrammes of heroin in a suitcase.
Reprieve says he was taken advantage of by drug smugglers who knew about his mental health condition and befriended him after he moved to Poland.
29 December 2009
News stories from the week-ending 27th November 2009
Sports bodies launch last hunt for athletes with Paralympic X factor
Three major UK sports bodies have launched one final search for disabled potential medal-winners, with just 1,000 days to go until the start of the London 2012 Paralympics.
Talent2012: Paralympic Potential is a nationwide talent drive being run by ParalympicsGB, UK Sport and The English Institute of Sport.
Their message, as they launched the scheme on 3 December - the International Day of Disabled People - was that there was still time for athletes currently outside the elite training programmes to win medals in 2012.
They said such a campaign - less than three years from the start of the Games - was "unprecedented".
And they said that, although it can take athletes up to eight years to reach an Olympics, research has shown that potential participants for a Paralympic Games can reach elite level far quicker.
At the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, a third of British medallists had been part of an elite sporting programme for less than two years, with 15 of the 42 British gold medals won by first-time Paralympians.
Phil Lane, ParalympicsGB's chief executive, said: "Whilst we have come second in the medal table at the past four Games, there are many events that we simply haven't been able to field an athlete in.
"With the competition getting tougher all the time it is vital that we have explored all avenues to recruit new athletes."
Dave Smith, who only began training 12 months ago after switching from the GB bobsleigh team, has already become a world champion in adaptive rowing.
He joined a ParalympicsGB initiative on the advice of a coach and was spotted by rowing coaches.
He now hopes to compete for Britain in London in 2012, and said: "I think my story demonstrates that with the right coaching and determination anything is possible.
"I hope other athletes in a similar position to me will grab their 2012 opportunity."
The campaign is open to athletes aged between 15 and 35. To register your interest, visit www.uksport.gov.uk/talent before 11 January 2010.
3 December 2009
Jobs measure in bill could help stop discrimination by employers
A new measure in the equality bill should provide greater protection from discrimination for disabled people looking for jobs.
The government amendment to the bill aims to tackle the problem of employers who use questionnaires that include health and disability-related questions to discriminate against job applicants with hidden impairments.
It was added to the bill - which will streamline existing equality laws and introduce new measures around disability discrimination - as it completed its progress through the Commons.
Vera Baird, the solicitor general, told the Commons that MPs had heard "compelling evidence" from disability organisations that many disabled people were having job applications rejected once employers became aware of their impairments.
Pre-employment inquiries can also deter some disabled people from applying for jobs, she said.
RADAR told MPs at an earlier stage of the bill's progress that restricting the use of pre-employment inquiries was "probably the single biggest difference and improvement that could be made through the equality bill in relation to the employment of disabled people".
Baird said the new amendment would deter employers from asking health and disability-related questions and then using the information "for discriminatory purposes".
There are some situations where employers will be able to ask such questions before they short-list a candidate after a job interview, such as to allow them to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process.
But there have been concerns over the way the amendment has been phrased, with some campaigners apparently saying it is too complicated.
The Conservative MP John Penrose told the Commons that both Rethink and the Terrence Higgins Trust had expressed concerns, although he said parliament was "making steady progress in the right direction".
The government also introduced two other amendments to the bill that aim to tighten up protection from disability discrimination.
One amendment aims to make it clear that disabled people can legally be treated more favourably in order to address the barriers they face.
Another aims to clarify how disabled people are protected from being discriminated against because of issues arising from their impairment.
It is so far unclear how disabled people's organisations will react to these two amendments.
3 December 2009
Independent living strategy is probably on course, say experts
The government's five-year independent living strategy is probably "on course", according to the first report of a committee set up to scrutinise its progress.
The independent living scrutiny group (ILSG), chaired by Baroness (Jane) Campbell and only set up in June, concluded that it was too early to draw "meaningful conclusions" about progress as they were still awaiting much of the relevant data.
But she said that "overall...we are satisfied that, at this early stage, progress on the ILS can be considered to be on course".
And she pointed to "signs of positive developments" since the cross-government strategy was launched in March 2008.
These include employment rates for disabled people rising from 47.8 per cent in 2007 to 48.5 per cent in 2009.
The report also welcomes participation rates in informal volunteering rising from 33 per cent in 2007/08 to 36 per cent in 2008/09, and the percentage of buses with low floor wheelchair access increasing regularly since 2001/02.
But Baroness Campbell says in the report that the group - whose members include some of the country's leading disabled experts on independent living - were "concerned" that 23 per cent of disabled people say they do not frequently have choice and control over their lives.
She said the committee would be "looking for a significant reduction in this figure in the coming years".
3 December 2009
Goal of equality by 2025 is closer, says government
The minister for disabled people has said the government is "moving closer" to its target of achieving equality for disabled people by 2025.
The comment from Jonathan Shaw MP came as the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) published its annual report on the government's progress towards its goal of equality by 2025.
The report says the government has made "significant progress" during 2009 and now has a "clear map for the road ahead".
In Roadmap 2025, published alongside the annual report, the ODI lays out a series of measures taken by the government since its Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People report in 2005 set out the vision of equality by 2025.
The Roadmap says the employment rate of disabled people increased from 44.5 per cent in 2005 to 48.4 per cent in 2008.
It also points to the government's independent living strategy, co-produced with disabled people, and its transforming adult social care strategy, which aims to give people more choice and control over services.
And it says it is investing £370 million in improving access to train stations between 2006 and 2015.
The Roadmap also points to the Aiming High for Disabled Children strategy, which aims to improve services for disabled children and their families.
The Roadmap also lays out the latest steps the government is taking to achieve equality, including spending £370 million to support short breaks for families with disabled children; its new equality bill; its hate crime action plan, published in September; and its pledge to double the access to work budget by 2013.
It also says that hosting a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012 will promote inclusion, positive attitudes and the active participation of disabled people.
The Roadmap also highlights the reform of the blue badge parking system for disabled motorists.
But, more controversially, it says that beginning the transfer of disabled people on incapacity benefit to the new employment and support allowance (ESA) from next year - with "increased work-related support" - will also help achieve equality.
Campaigners have repeatedly warned that only a small proportion of those applying for ESA - currently only available to new claimants - are "passing" the strict new test.
They have raised concerns that too many disabled people are not accessing ESA and are ending up on jobseeker's allowance, where they do not get tailored support and receive a lower level of benefit.
3 December 2009
CQC finds improvements in care, but concerns remain
The care regulator has welcomed improvements in the quality of adult social care, but has raised a number of concerns about areas such as personalisation and eligibility for services.
In its first report on adult social care since its launch in April as the regulator for adult social care and health services in England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found 140 of 148 councils (95 per cent) were performing well or excellently in commissioning adult social care.
The report says 27 councils have improved since last year, while 11 have deteriorated.
And for the sixth year running, no councils have been assessed as performing poorly overall.
But the number of councils performing excellently at increasing choice and control for adults using social care fell to 26 (from 32 in 2008), with nearly a quarter only performing adequately.
Although the CQC said this may partly be because its assessment in this area had "sharpened up", it highlighted this as a "priority" for improvement.
The CQC also said that nearly two in five councils needed improvement to increase the number of adults using self-directed support and individual budgets.
And about a third of councils are only performing adequately in maintaining the dignity and respect of service-users, about the same level as last year.
Three councils restrict eligibility for care-managed services to those with "critical" needs, while 103 set their threshold at "substantial" needs, 39 at moderate and three low. Three have raised their criteria and three have lowered them since 2008.
The CQC said it was "encouraged" that eligibility thresholds remained "largely unchanged" since last year, despite the recession, but it said it was still "concerned" that some councils could have to raise eligibility criteria further as public spending is squeezed in future years.
The quality of care homes and domiciliary services has also improved - over the year, the proportion of services rated as good or excellent increased from just over two-thirds (69 per cent) to just over three-quarters (77 per cent).
The CQC highlighted eight councils where improvements in adult social care were a priority, with a further 16 selected for in-depth inspections.
Cynthia Bower, the CQC's chief executive, welcomed the "steady improvements" but said she was concerned that many care homes and agencies "have more to do to deliver the quality of care expected of them".
She added: "There are also serious issues for councils to address in areas such as giving people more control over their care, treating people with dignity, and ensuring commissioning is as effective as possible."
3 December 2009
Equality watchdog to launch inquiry into violence and harassment
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has announced a major inquiry that aims to discover the true extent of the harassment and violence experienced by disabled people in England and Wales.
The commission announced in April that it would review how public bodies - such as local authorities and social landlords - were meeting their duties under the Disability Discrimination Act to take action to address violence and hostility targeted at disabled people.
But it has become so concerned by evidence it has heard since then of incidents of violence and harassment across the country that it has decided to hold a formal inquiry.
After the inquiry ends, the EHRC could decide to take legal action to force public authorities to comply with their duties.
The commission has pledged to put disabled people and their organisations at the heart of the inquiry, and there are likely to be public sessions around the country at which they can give evidence.
Neil Crowther, the EHRC's disability programme director, said: "At its heart there needs to be a very strong involvement of disabled people and public authorities in a conversation about what needs to change."
And he said there would probably be parts of the country where disabled people were at greater risk of harassment and violence than others.
Disabled anti-hate crime campaigners have welcomed the inquiry.
Anne Novis, who leads on hate crime issues for the United Kingdom's Disabled People's Council, said it was long overdue, and hoped the EHRC would work closely with disabled people and their organisations, which have been raising concerns around hate crime for "many years".
And Stephen Brookes, coordinator of the National Disability Hate Crime Network, said the inquiry was a "good first step" in tackling the problem.
The inquiry's results are likely to feed into a major EHRC report, due in 2011, in which it will analyse the UK government's progress on implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The announcement follows a string of high-profile cases of targeted violence and harassment against disabled people, including the death of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca following a sustained hate campaign by a local gang.
Mike Smith, the EHRC's new disabled commissioner, said: "There have been many well-documented cases where targeted hostility, bullying and antisocial behaviour has escalated into more serious violence, murder or the death of disabled people."
He said the Pilkington tragedy showed the importance of early intervention and preventative action, and warned that disabled people experiencing harassment can become "conditioned to hostile treatment", are told to ignore it, or go to "enormous lengths" to avoid putting themselves at risk.
Draft terms of reference are expected early in the new year, with the inquiry likely to begin in early February and report within a year.
3 December 2009
Business award provides extras reward for Pickup
An amputee whose company provides extras to the film and television industry has won an annual award for disabled entrepreneurs - and a cheque for £50,000.
John Pickup began Amputees in Action in 2004, and has supplied amputee extras - often for action scenes - to Hollywood movies such as Atonement and 28 Weeks Later, as well as to television productions and "casualty simulations".
Pickup has now won the 2009 Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs, an award programme run by Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) in partnership with easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
Pickup said the prize would help his company invest in a project to develop a recognised qualification system that would allow amputees to perform film stunts as well as working as extras.
He said: "I believe that a positive approach is the way to overcome the fear, prejudice and misconception that often stand in the way of disabled people."
Sir Stelios, who funds the award and will arrange business mentoring for Pickup and two runners-up, said it was vital to remove the barriers disabled people face in business.
But he added: "Self-employment is a more viable option for many disabled people as it offers flexibility and helps bypass much of the prejudice that unfortunately still exists amongst employers."
Sophie Down, LCD's corporate partnerships officer, said: "Our partnership with Sir Stelios is helping the charity highlight the barriers disabled people face in the workplace and recognise the outstanding achievement of disabled entrepreneurs."
2 December 2009
Civil Service seeks disabled students for internship scheme
The Civil Service is seeking talented disabled students for a summer internship scheme that will provide new skills and work experience at the heart of government.
Although the 2010 Fast Stream summer placement scheme does not offer permanent jobs, it is seen as a stepping stone for those seeking a career in the Civil Service.
Successful interns will work in a government department on tasks such as research, helping to prepare policy documents, shadowing senior civil servants, and attending meetings with senior advisors.
Placements last up to nine weeks, and usually start in late June, with interns given a training allowance of £350 per week if based in London or £300 if outside London.
The skills and experience gained could lead to a career in the Civil Service and possible entry to the Fast Stream graduate programme, aimed at those with the potential to become senior civil servants.
The disability charity Scope is helping the Cabinet Office on the scheme, helping to recruit disabled people, providing support for disabled interns, and offering advice on reasonable adjustments and disability equality training for line managers.
Rhonda Calder, head of Fast Stream marketing and outreach diversity at the Cabinet Office, said: "Organisations that seek to include talent from as wide a range of people as possible ultimately benefit in the long term.
"This scheme will help these students make their first step on the career ladder and gain the skills and experience that could potentially lead to a career in the Civil Service."
Applicants must be in the final or penultimate year of their degree, considered disabled under the Disability Discrimination Act, and expect to gain at least a 2:2 degree.
The closing date for applications is 4 January 2010. For further information, visit: www.civilservice.gov.uk/summerdiversity
2 December 2009
Home secretary attacked by MPs over McKinnon extradition
MPs and campaigners have attacked the home secretary's latest refusal to halt the extradition of disabled computer hacker Gary McKinnon to the United States.
Alan Johnson MP had been considering new evidence relating to McKinnon's mental health, which suggested that he was highly likely to try to kill himself if extradited.
McKinnon's lawyers have now been given until 10 December to lodge papers seeking a judicial review of Johnson's decision. If that fails, they could also appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
McKinnon, from north London, who has Asperger's syndrome, faces a trial for allegedly hacking into US defense department computer systems, and a possible prison sentence of 60 years if convicted.
During an emergency debate in the Commons, McKinnon's MP, David Burrowes, accused Johnson and the government of being "spineless" and said the new medical evidence showed that "suicide is now a real probability and will be an almost certain inevitability should he experience extradition".
He said: "Putting it more bluntly, how ill and vulnerable does Gary McKinnon need to be not to be extradited to the United States?"
A string of other MPs from across the political spectrum attacked the home secretary's failure to halt the extradition.
But Johnson told MPs he had "looked at every single word submitted by Gary McKinnon's lawyers on the evidence of his medical condition" and his decision was that extraditing McKinnon would not breach his rights under the European Convention of Human Rights.
He added: "There are legitimate concerns about Mr McKinnon's health, and the United States authorities have provided assurances, which were before the high court in July, that his needs will be met."
And he said it was "clear" there was "no real risk" that McKinnon would serve any of his sentence in a "supermax" prison, if convicted.
He added: "Should Mr McKinnon be extradited, charged and convicted in the US and seek repatriation to the UK to serve his sentence in this country, the government will progress his application at the very earliest opportunity."
The Royal Association for Disability Rights (RADAR) condemned the home secretary's decision and said many disabled people had expressed their "outrage" at a decision that "flies in the face of justice and human rights".
The National Autistic Society, which has provided emergency care for McKinnon - detailed in the new evidence - said it was "bitterly disappointed" by the home secretary's decision.
2 December 2009
HIV stigma 'still a significant challenge'
More than a fifth of people living with HIV in the UK have been verbally assaulted, threatened or harassed in the last year because of their HIV status, according to a new report.
And more than ten per cent of those questioned in a survey for the report said they had been physically harassed because of their HIV status.
The report, Give Stigma the Index Finger!, is based on research developed by people living with HIV and was funded by the M.A.C AIDS Fund, and is part of an international initiative, The People Living with HIV Stigma Index.
The new research found that about one in six of the 867 people questioned had been denied health services because of their HIV status at least once in the previous year.
And about the same number said they were convinced their medical records were not being kept confidential.
But the research also found that people living with HIV were leading efforts to overcome stigma.
Nearly half those questioned had personally confronted, challenged or educated people who were stigmatizing them, while 84 per cent had supported other people living with HIV.
The report concludes that stigma remains a "significant challenge" in the UK, and affects access to health, legal, care and support services and the self-esteem and quality of life of people living with HIV.
Health secretary Andy Burnham welcomed the report and said the government would "carefully consider" its findings.
He said the government had worked with voluntary organisations and funded schemes to tackle stigma as part of its national strategy for sexual health and HIV.
He said: "Effective treatments have transformed the lives of people with HIV and today many more people with HIV can plan for their future with more certainty.
"But even in the UK, individuals and families affected by HIV can experience stigma and discrimination."
The People Living with HIV Stigma Index - which had initial start-up funding from the UK's Department for International Development - is part of a global initiative between the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the UN's HIV/AIDS programme and two international networks of people living with HIV, the Global Network of People living with HIV/AIDS and the International Community of Women with HIV/AIDS.
1 December 2009
DPOs recognised in awards ceremony
Two disabled activists have won prestigious awards that recognise their work with pioneering disabled people's organisations.
Mike Adams, chief executive of Essex Coalition of Disabled People (ECDP), said he was "honoured" to win RADAR's person of the year award.
Adams has helped create a "beacon" user-led organisation that empowers disabled people to influence local services.
ECDP also provides high quality services to disabled people across Essex, and increasingly influences policy, both locally and nationally.
Since he took the post in 2007, Adams has overseen an increase in ECDP's funding by 53 per cent, staffing by over 25 per cent and membership from 80 to nearly 1,500.
He said: "Our challenge is to make it the business of disabled people and disabled people's organisations everywhere to lead the change required to enhance the everyday lives of disabled people in Essex and beyond."
RADAR's lifetime achievement award was won by Julie Jaye Charles, who has built up Equalities National Council (ENC), a national movement for black and minority ethnic (BME) disabled people and carers, since founding it in 2000.
Charles has helped develop advocacy, promote the take-up of direct payments in BME communities and helped tackle race discrimination in mental health services.
She said she was "still in shock" and "very humbled" by the award and hoped it would push the needs of BME disabled people higher up the agenda.
She said: "My pride comes from the amount of service-users that actually want to be part of ENC, who continue to knock on our door, just to be part of something that recognises their needs."
The disabled young person of the year award was won by Riam Dean, who triumphed in a high-profile discrimination case after taking on the might of the American clothing giant Abercrombie & Fitch.
Other winners at the annual People of the Year Awards included the Association of Disabled Professionals, which won the careers award for its work in providing advice, peer support and networking opportunities for disabled people in professional and managerial positions.
And the efforts of a group of people with learning difficulties to encourage other disabled people to register to vote for the first time was recognised with RADAR's access award.
Members of Promote the Vote, run by Cambridgeshire-based Speaking Up, have led 50 workshops explaining to other people with learning difficulties why they should vote, and have set up an accessible website to spread the message.
1 December 2009
Call for action on adult communication
A disability charity has called on the government to carry out a national audit to find out how many disabled adults in the UK have speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).
Scope also wants the National Audit Office to discover what services are available, and how many adults are not receiving the support they need.
The recommendations are included in the final report from Scope's No Voice, No Choice campaign, which says that everyone who can benefit from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) - such as high-tech communication aids, sign systems and symbols - should receive the equipment and support they need to communicate.
The charity says "radical" improvements are needed to services providing communication-related equipment and support, and has called for a network of regional centres of AAC expertise to support local services.
The report criticises the "fragmented approach" to provision of AAC services and the "lack of specialist expertise", and calls for a guarantee of lifelong provision and ongoing support for those who use AAC, as well as improvements to the AAC workforce.
Labour MP Roger Berry has tabled a Commons early day motion backing calls for an audit.
In 2007, Scope estimated that as many as 600,000 people in the UK could benefit from AAC, but it believes the real level of need could be much higher.
The campaign has secured a government commitment to improving services for children with communication impairments, but it wants this extended to adults.
Martin Pistorius spent 14 years unable to communicate before he met someone who introduced him to AAC.
He said: "I had no real way to communicate and even when I did make attempts to communicate, nobody understood me.
"In fact, they didn't even see it as an attempt to communicate."
He can now communicate by using an infra-red head-mouse, an alphabet board and hand signs.
Ruth Scott, Scope's director of policy and campaigns, said: "The government has made good progress on improved communication-based support for children.
"It now needs to turn its attention to tackling the woeful situation for adults with communication impairments.
"Without knowing the true picture of how many disabled adults have communication needs, little can be done to ensure they are provided with the right support."
The Department of Health was unable to comment.
1 December 2009
News stories from the week-ending 27th November 2009
Personal care bill 'will squeeze services'
Government proposals to offer free personal care at home to disabled people with the highest needs will probably lead to a squeeze on services for those with lower needs, say campaigners.
Deep concerns emerged after the government published its new personal care at home bill, which would provide free care for the estimated 280,000 disabled people in England with "critical" needs.
But £250 million of the estimated £670 million a year costs of the bill - which will also provide intensive "re-ablement" support for around 130,000 people who need home care for the first time - are intended to come from local government "efficiency savings".
But both the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services have raised doubts over whether these savings are achievable.
Caroline Ellis, joint deputy chief executive of the disability charity RADAR, said the assumption that councils would "do the right thing" and could make the necessary efficiency savings was "a joke".
She said: "They will take the money from somewhere else and the somewhere else as likely as not will be other disabled people who are not on the critical list."
She said she was already deeply concerned about the number of disabled people who were having their care packages "slashed" by councils, putting the jobs of many working age people at risk.
Neil Coyle, director of policy for Disability Alliance, the disability poverty charity, said he welcomed any bill that provides free care for disabled people.
But he said that if local government did not receive the necessary funding from central government, councils might start reassessing disabled people with critical needs as having "substantial" needs - the next level down - and so not eligible for free care.
Councils might also increase care charges, and cut services such as welfare rights advice.
Coyle said: "Our worry is that some disabled people will be significantly adversely affected by this policy when it should be extremely positive."
The bill comes, he said, after the government ruled out free personal care for all disabled people - funded by taxation - in July's care and support green paper, despite public backing for such a policy.
Meanwhile, Lord (Jack) Ashley has introduced his own health and social care (independent living) bill in the Lords.
His bill - backed by a number of disabled people's organisations, including RADAR - would provide a legal right to independent living, clear rights to independent advocacy, and enforceable entitlements to enough care and support to enable disabled people to live in dignity and contribute widely to society.
26 November 2009
Bank loses appeal over 'landmark' access ruling
A bank will have to install a lift at a city centre branch after a disabled customer won an appeal court victory in a landmark discrimination case.
The Royal Bank of Scotland will have to carry out the building work - at an estimated cost of £200,000 - in order to make its Sheffield city centre branch accessible to wheelchair-users.
The case was brought by teenager David Allen, an electric wheelchair-user, who could not access the branch because the entrance was at the top of four steps.
Allen was forced to discuss personal details about his account in the street outside the branch.
Lord Justice Wall, one of the three court of appeal judges, said there were "reasonable steps" the bank could have taken to make the branch accessible.
He added: "The bank did not take those steps, giving as its reason, not the disproportionate cost of carrying out the work, but simply the fact that it would lose the use of an interview room."
The bank had appealed against a decision by Sheffield county court in January that it had breached the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) - the first time an injunction had been granted ordering work to be carried out to make business premises accessible.
The county court had rejected the argument that Allen should use internet banking instead, ruling that it was not the same service.
Sheffield Law Centre, which helped Allen bring the case, with funding from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the appeal court judgement stressed that services for disabled people must be as close as possible to those provided to the general public.
Allen's compensation of £6,500 was the highest awarded for a failure to make reasonable adjustments under part three of the DDA, which relates to goods and services.
Allen was awarded an extra £3,000 compensation for ongoing discrimination, as the lift will not be installed until August 2010 - the total award of £9,500 is now the largest by a court under part three of the DDA.
After the judgement, Allen said: "I'm glad the bank finally had to apologise in court and acknowledge they treated me badly."
But he added: "They just failed to understand anything about the need for privacy and dignity."
Douglas Johnson, of Sheffield Law Centre, said the judgement would "make it easier and simpler" for courts to deal with complaints of disability discrimination.
He added: "The real access issue is about people and attitudes, not ramps and steps."
23 November 2009
Lifting of ban means athletes with learning difficulties will compete at 2012
Athletes with learning difficulties will be able to compete at the London 2012 Paralympics, after a ban was finally lifted by the world governing body.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) imposed the ban after the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, when nearly all the gold medal-winning Spanish basketball team were found not to have learning difficulties (or intellectual disabilities (ID), as they are categorised by the IPC).
The ban was lifted after the IPC and the International Federation for Sport for Athletes with an Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) agreed on a strict new testing regime.
Athletes with ID will now fight for medals in four sports at London 2012: athletics, swimming, rowing and table-tennis.
Athletes who want to compete in IPC events - including the Paralympics - will have to submit information including an intelligence test and medical evidence to INAS-FID.
Eligible athletes will then undergo "on-site testing", which will focus on "sports intelligence" and include tests relevant to that sport.
These on-site tests are not expected to be ready until mid-2010, but eligible athletes can compete until then at the discretion of individual sports federations.
ID swimmers have already competed in the IPC European championships in October in Iceland - their first big competition since Sydney. Seven British swimmers won a total of 12 medals.
One of them was Craig Rodgie, from Fife in Scotland, who won gold in the S14 100m backstroke.
He said "words can't describe" how he and other ID athletes felt when they realised they would be able to compete at London 2012.
He said: "We have been waiting so long for the inclusion. Just getting the opportunity to be at one of the biggest events in the world, it's just unbelievable."
Although he is keen to focus on "one step at a time", with his next objective next year's world championships in Eindhoven, he said London 2012 was "where I want to be".
Tim Reddish, chairman of ParalympicsGB, said: "We have lobbied hard for the re-inclusion of athletes with a learning disability, subject to a robust classification system, and are delighted that IPC and INAS-FID have got us to that point.
"The Paralympic Games represent the pinnacle of high performance sport, so any athletes with a learning disability will have to meet the same exacting performance and qualification standards as all other GB athletes - we will now work hard with the sports to ensure that these athletes are best prepared."
24 November 2009
Disabled artists praise dancer's avant-garde epilepsy experiment
A dancer with epilepsy who will try to induce a seizure in front of an audience has won praise from other disabled artists for bringing the condition "out of the closet".
Award-winning dancer and choreographer Rita Marcalo will spend 24 hours trying to induce a seizure as part of Involuntary Dances, a "24-hour event" at Bradford Playhouse on 11 and 12 December.
Marcalo has stopped taking medication and, during the performance, will try to induce a seizure, for example by drinking alcohol, eating dark chocolate and using strobe lights and "specially designed computer programmes".
If she has a seizure, a "loud alarm will sound" and cameras will start recording, with the audience also encouraged to take pictures.
The Bradford event is the first in a planned trilogy by Marcalo - who has a background in physics - examining the relationships between dance, epilepsy and drug research, in collaboration with neuroscientists from Leeds University.
The 24-hour event will be a one-off, but will also be used as the basis for a film installation.
Poet Peter Street, who has epilepsy, described the performance as "a major, major move forward", as epilepsy-based art was "probably one of the last avant-garde art forms to be brought out".
He said Marcalo was "taking control" of her condition, and added: "It is all about us coming out of the closet and this is really going to bring it out with a big bang, and good luck to her."
Philip Lee, chief executive of Epilepsy Action, said his charity had received "several complaints" about Marcalo's planned performance, which he said was "potentially very dangerous".
He added: "At the very least, the performance should carry a health warning advising people that they should not attempt this themselves under any circumstances."
But a spokeswoman for Arts Council England, which is part-funding the work, said there would be a "full personal and public risk assessment", with "appropriate medical support" during the performance.
She added: "She is an important artist whose work deserves to be seen, and Arts Council both respects the creative decisions she makes in her work and supports her right as a disabled person to be heard."
Allan Sutherland, a writer with epilepsy, criticised opposition from "old-fashioned and paternalistic" epilepsy charities.
He said: "It seems to me that she is doing a carefully thought-out piece of work which I think is very interesting."
He said epilepsy was still "demonised" but usually not visible, so people with the condition do not tend to meet each other and the themes explored by Marcalo are not debated.
Sutherland said Marcalo's control over her own performance would contrast with intrusive films of seizures that are taken without permission and placed on YouTube.
Peter Street's fifth collection of poems, Thumbing from Lipik to Pakrac, was published earlier this year by Waterloo Press
24 November 2009
MPs and peers highlight discrimination faced by disabled children
A report by an influential group of MPs and peers has highlighted some of the discrimination experienced by disabled children in the UK.
The report on children's rights by the joint committee on human rights includes evidence of discriminatory attitudes towards disabled children by medical professionals and the "high incidence" of "bullying" of children with learning difficulties.
The committee was also told of disabled children whose chances of having children themselves when they were older was damaged by non-essential medical treatment.
And it heard evidence of 16 and 17-year-olds who find it difficult to access mental health services because they fall between child and adult services.
The report calls on the government to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law, a call backed by all four of the UK's children's commissioners.
The report also calls on the government to "review and explain" why there are so many children with autism in the criminal justice system, as well as those from other marginalised groups, such as Gypsies and Travellers, and why existing strategies to deal with this "appear to be failing".
It adds: "Such children, who are already likely to have experienced significant disadvantage and even discrimination in their early lives, require specific and targeted measures and support, outside of the criminal justice system."
The report also says that children with mental health conditions and learning difficulties are over-represented in youth custody, and instead need targeted support outside the criminal justice system.
Witnesses who gave evidence to the committee also raised concerns around education, such as the lack of a national strategy for including all disabled pupils in mainstream schools.
The report concludes that there have been many positive developments in the UK in the 20 years since the UN adopted the convention.
But is says there is "still much more for the UK to do, particularly for those children who live on the margins of society or who come from groups which do not always command popular public support".
No-one from the Department for Children, Schools and Families was available to comment.
Meanwhile, Baroness Walmsley, a Liberal Democrat children, schools and families spokeswoman, has introduced a children's rights bill into the Lords.
The private members' bill, which would incorporate the UN convention into UK law, was drafted with the support of members of the Rights of the Child UK (ROCK) coalition, whose members include the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education and Scope.
25 November 2009
EastEnders scoops mental health media award
The TV soap EastEnders has been recognised at an annual awards ceremony for its commitment to tackling mental health storylines realistically and sensitively.
The award was one of six won by the BBC in the Mind Mental Health Media Awards, which mark the best radio and TV treatments of mental distress over the year.
The Making a Difference award was collected by EastEnders actors Gillian Wright and Lacey Turner, who play mother and daughter Jean Slater and Stacy Branning, who both have bipolar disorder.
Following the episode earlier this year when Stacy's condition was revealed, nearly 7,000 people in five days visited a website set up to provide information about bipolar disorder.
EastEnders scriptwriters had interviewed members of the user-led charity MDF The Bipolar Organisation, and scripts were approved and revised by MDF patron Neil Tinning.
The BBC also picked up the award for best radio drama, for Radio 4's Do's and Don'ts for the Mentally Interesting, based on a blog about her life and condition by Seaneen Molloy, who has bipolar disorder.
Another award was collected for the BBC Two documentary Cracking Up, in which former Downing Street communications director Alastair Campbell reflected on his own mental health experiences.
And Tom Perry, Alastair Rolfe and Mark Payge, who were contributors to the Channel 4 documentary Chosen, won the Speaking Out award for talking about the impact of being abused as children at an English prep school.
Paul Farmer, Mind's chief executive, said: "The quality of entries has been incredibly high this year and demonstrates that positive and authentic portrayals of mental health are compatible with the kind of original, creative and groundbreaking programming we have seen this evening."
25 November 2009
Amendment to bill 'could lead to more disabled MPs'
Political parties should be required by law to publish information on how many disabled people - and other under-represented groups - are selected to fight parliamentary seats, according to a Commons committee.
The recommendation came in an interim report by the historic Speaker's Conference, which aims to find ways to increase the number of disabled, female and minority ethnic MPs.
The conference will introduce an amendment to the government's equality bill which would force registered political parties to report every six months on the diversity of their candidate selection process, and publish the reports online.
The report says such a move "may help, over time, to secure a House of Commons which is more effective, more representative of our society and in which the public feels better able to place its confidence".
Disabled people, women and those from minority ethnic groups who put themselves forward for selection as a parliamentary candidate are less likely to be selected than white men, and less likely to be selected for a seat the party thinks it can win, according to the report.
The disabled MP Anne Begg, the vice-chair of the conference, said: "Unless the performance of the different parties can be compared with each other, or with the performance of parties throughout the world, there is likely to be insufficient pressure for the political parties to pursue the cultural change which is needed from them before we can have a House of Commons fit for the 21st century."
The interim report follows evidence to the conference given by the leaders of the three main political parties in which they each admitted they needed to improve the diversity of representation within their parties.
They also agreed in principle to publish future reports on the results of candidate selections.
A Government Equalities Office spokeswoman said they were "carefully considering the content of the report".
The equality bill is due to begin its Commons report stage on 2 December.
26 November 2009
Mystery over appointment of equality watchdog commissioners
The government has been unable to explain why it has performed a U-turn on cutting the number of commissioners appointed to the board of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
Last week, the Government Equalities Office (GEO) announced the names of eight new commissioners, and two reappointed commissioners.
They will join five other EHRC board members who did not have to seek re-appointment, including the chair, Trevor Phillips.
But in July, the GEO said the number of commissioners would be cut from 15 to a maximum of 10 to "reflect a more streamlined and cost-effective board focused on delivering the equality bill".
This week, a GEO spokesman insisted the U-turn was due to the "strong and impressive" field of more than 600 applicants.
He said: "In the summer we said that the board would be restructured with a new focus on delivery, and to ensure the commission has the right mix of skills for the next phase.
"Our priority was to ensure the recruitment of the best possible field of commissioners, bearing in mind our stated need for the board to be more tightly focused on delivery, with the right mix of skills, covering all the equality strands and more business expertise."
But he said the strength of applicants allowed the GEO to appoint a "very strong board" who would "join the existing commissioners to create a stronger team to take forward the EHRC and help put the flesh on the bones of the equality bill".
Meanwhile, the EHRC has announced the names of 61 community and voluntary organisations that will receive nearly £10 million in grants, as part of its strategic funding programme.
Several disabled people's organisations secured large grants to develop advice, guidance and advocacy services.
They include Breakthrough UK, which secur