DLA reform: Government concessions ‘are victory for activists’

January 26, 2012 – 9:00 am

The disabled activists behind a ground-breaking report that accused the government of misleading parliament over its welfare reforms say major concessions agreed by a coalition minister are a victory for disabled people.

As peers prepared again to consider plans to scrap disability living allowance (DLA) for working-age people and replace it with a new personal independence payment (PIP), they were swamped with letters and emails from disabled people begging them to think again.

Meanwhile, more than 100 disabled people sent their stories to the Spartacus-Stories blog describing how important DLA was to them.

It was all part of a continuing campaign around last week’s Responsible Reform report – otherwise known as the Spartacus Report – which was researched, funded and published by disabled people.

The authors of the report were behind an amendment to the welfare reform bill, proposed by the disabled peer Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson.

Her amendment – defeated by just 16 votes – called on the government to delay its plans to scrap DLA, and carry out an independent review of the new PIP assessment, including a full trial, before it was introduced.

Baroness Grey-Thompson said the government had only published details of the planned eligibility thresholds for PIP the previous day (16 January) and so had not given peers time to examine how disabled people would lose out.

She demanded a vote on the amendment because of “the social cost… to the lives of disabled people”.

Her fellow disabled crossbench peer Lord [Colin] Low said the current proposals for the PIP assessment “could cost as much in long-term NHS social care and tribunal costs as they save, to say nothing of the distress and hardship that certainly will be caused to individuals”.

The previous day, the Conservative welfare reform minister Lord Freud had written to peers dismissing the Responsible Reform report, failing to respond to its key points, and claiming that it “grossly misrepresents the way the DWP has been conducting disability reform thus far”.

But just 24 hours later, in order to avoid another embarrassing defeat over his bill – this time on the amendment drafted by the report’s authors – he was forced to make a number of humiliating concessions.

He promised that all of the details around PIP and its eligibility criteria – which will be added through regulations over the coming months – will have to be agreed in full by both the Commons and the Lords through what is known as an “affirmative procedure”.

Lord Freud also agreed to limit the number of new claimants to “a few thousand per month” for the first few months of PIP’s implementation, while he said the government would not start reassessing existing DLA claimants until about six months later, from the autumn of 2013.

He said: “As well as getting the whole development process right, I recognise the value in moving away from a big-bang approach to implementation which would see both new claims and reassessments beginning in April 2013.”

In yet another concession, he agreed to increase the number of independent reviews of PIP, now pledging to have two within its first four years, with a third after that if needed, rather than just the one previously promised.

Lord Freud said this entire process essentially amounted to a trial of the new PIP system.

But he claimed the cost of accepting the amendment in full – and delaying the reforms – would reach £1.4 billion.

Despite the lengthy list of concessions, the government still won the vote on the amendment by just 16 votes, with only two Liberal Democrat peers voting against the coalition.

In her blog the following day, Sue Marsh – one of the disabled activists behind Responsible Reform – said the concessions were the result of the “truly extraordinary” pressure that disabled people had exerted on the government and peers.

She said that although PIP was not halted in its tracks, the government was forced to make “very considerable compromises to avoid another embarrassing defeat” and would certainly have lost the vote if it hadn’t made those concessions.

Marsh said Lord Freud’s agreement to use the affirmative procedure was “a huge concession” and “means the government cannot sneak unfit plans through without the agreement of parliament”.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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London 2012 criticised over opening ceremony volunteer call

January 25, 2012 – 9:00 am

The London 2012 organising committee’s appeal for volunteers to take part in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympics has been criticised by leading disabled artists and performers.

The organising committee, LOCOG, announced this week that it was seeking 5,000 disabled and non-disabled volunteers to fill roles as dancers, actors, percussionists and all-round performers.

LOCOG said it was looking for anyone with “a positive attitude, huge amounts of energy and a willingness to perform in front of a stadium audience and to millions of people around the world”.

But Dr Ju Gosling aka Ju90 said she believed the “vast majority of disabled people” would be put off by a demand for volunteers with “huge amounts of energy”.

Gosling, an artist who trained as a dancer and is a former member of the Rhinestone Rollers wheelchair dance group, added: “I haven’t worked with anyone in the Rollers who would fit this definition, nor indeed many other professional disabled performers, including myself.”

The actor and broadcaster Mik Scarlet said the phrase could easily put many disabled people off applying to be volunteers.

He said: “Those words will put some people off and they will think, ‘I don’t know if I could have the capability of being energetic for three weeks solid.’”

He added: “I hope it doesn’t put people off because I can’t imagine that the people involved in the opening ceremonies would make such a massive mistake as to exclude all the people within the disabled community who wouldn’t describe themselves as energetic.

“My advice would be to go along [to the audition] and if you feel you are being excluded, then sue them.”

Gosling also criticised LOCOG’s decision to call for both disabled and non-disabled volunteers, rather than just seeking disabled people, which she said was a “massive missed opportunity to explode many myths about disability to the world”.

And she questioned whether LOCOG would cover the extra support and travel costs of disabled volunteers, an issue that was not mentioned in its appeal.

A LOCOG spokesman said: “We are looking to put on a show and if people want to be part of a cast of a show I do not think it is particularly unfair to say they will need energy.

“We want people who are committed and want to be involved. There is not a way to get around that. It is what is required to put on a show to a global audience.

“These people need to have an expectation of what is required of them so they do not drop out when they realise it is going to be quite demanding. They must have a pretty good level of enthusiasm and energy.”

He said the volunteers would also need to make a substantial time commitment, while they were looking for at least 8,000 people to audition for the 5,000 roles.

He added: “The Olympics ceremonies are open to disabled performers and the Paralympics ceremonies to non-disabled performers. We are trying not to exclude anybody.”

But LOCOG has so far been unable to say whether it would fund the extra travel and support costs of disabled volunteers.

Volunteers will have to take part in up to three rehearsal sessions a week of up to four hours each from June, and a series of all-day rehearsals in the three weeks leading up to each ceremony.

The deadline for applications is 13 February, and applicants must be 18 years or older on 1 March 2012.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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DLA reform: DPOs could boycott government consultations

January 24, 2012 – 9:00 am

Leading figures in the disability movement say they could stop cooperating with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) if the government’s welfare reform bill becomes law.

Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) are becoming increasingly angry at the government’s failure to listen to their views, despite its frequent references to how it is “co-producing” its reforms with disabled people.

This week’s events in the House of Lords, with peers again approving plans to scrap disability living allowance (DLA) and replace it with a new personal independence payment (PIP) – despite some government concessions – have increased frustration among DPOs.

Mark Harrison, chief executive of Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People (NCDP), said the disability movement needed to get together “urgently” to discuss whether to stop co-operating with DWP.

He said the government was using “tokenistic consultation” to misrepresent disabled people’s views on welfare reform in a “cynical and nasty” way.

He added: “Therefore I think the whole of the disability movement and allies need to discuss a strategy and review their involvement completely.”

He said the position of NCDP’s trustees currently was to fight the government’s cuts and its decision to scrap DLA, but also to work with the DWP on “improving and mitigating the negative effects of what they are trying to implement”.

But he said this position could be reviewed when the welfare reform bill becomes law.

Tracey Lazard, chief executive of Inclusion London, said she believed there was “a crunch point coming” when the issue of DPOs’ engagement with the government would become “unignorable” and would have to be examined by the disability movement.

She said: “Ultimately it will be an objective exercise about what we have gained from this and where is the evidence that we are being listened to.

“We are absolutely up for having that conversation and I think we could do it in quite an objective way.”

She added: “We use every opportunity we can to get access and be heard because it doesn’t happen very often but I think there is an increasing unease about doing so with a government that looks like it says it wants to engage but then just carries on regardless.”

She said that last week’s Responsible Reform report – which showed that the views of DPOs that took part in the DLA consultation were not reflected in how the government reported back to parliament – “adds to the unease of DPOs”.

She said: “The evidence that the government has listened to us is pretty thin on the ground.”

Sue Bott, director of development at Disability Rights UK, backed calls for discussions with other parts of the disability movement.

She said: “I think there is still some scope for trying to have some influence on how PIP is going to be implemented, but I am also well aware that the government have used talking to DPOs for their own purposes.”

Paul Swann, policy officer for independent living for Disability Wales (DW), was one of the first to float the idea this week that the time might have come for DPOs to end their engagement with DWP.

He attended his first meeting of DWP’s PIP development group this week, and said: “Stepping into DWP was like going back 30 years. There was a very dogmatic approach and an unwillingness to hear the concerns that were being expressed.”

He added: “It seemed to me that in reality there is very limited scope for disability charities to persuade DWP officials to change anything at all.”

Swann is particularly angry that the PIP assessment will be based not on the social model of disability but on the so-called “biopsychosocial model”, which places a heavy emphasis on psychological explanations for impairments and has been heavily promoted by the insurance industry.

The disabled crossbench peer Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson this week proposed an amendment to the bill that would have ensured the PIP assessment took a more “social model” approach.

The disabled Labour peer Baroness [Rosalie] Wilkins, who backed the amendment, said she feared the government were “reneging on their commitment to the social model of disability” and risked undoing “decades of campaigning for and progress towards a better and more equal society”.

Lord Freud, the Conservative welfare reform minister, admitted that it would not be a “full social model assessment” but instead would follow the biopsychosocial model, which recognised the impact of a range of biological, psychological and social factors.

He said Baroness Grey-Thompson’s amendment would delay the introduction of PIP by at least a year and add £1.4 billion to government costs.

Although Baroness Grey-Thompson withdrew her amendment, she said: “It is obvious to me that if the minister were truly committed to helping disabled people, the full social model would be used.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Government gagging clauses ‘are threatening independent voices’

January 23, 2012 – 9:00 am

The former head of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has warned that the independent voices of disability organisations could be under threat because of gagging clauses attached to government contracts.

Sir Bert Massie, who chaired the DRC throughout its seven years, said it was “worrying” that the government was “gagging” organisations that have signed contracts to provide services.

He pointed to the “superb” Responsible Reform report – published this week by disabled activists – which accused the government of misleading parliament over disability living allowance reform, as a demonstration of why the voluntary sector’s independence was so important.

He said that any charity that decided it was unable to produce such a report because of the risk of annoying the government had immediately been “compromised” by signing a contract to provide services.

He said: “People need to be conscious of this. Independence is very precious. It disappears incrementally.”

Sir Bert said that smaller disabled people’s organisations needed to be just as aware of the threat as the larger national disability charities.

He was speaking as the Panel on the Independence of the Voluntary Sector, of which he is a member, produced the first of five annual reports.

The panel said there were “real and present” risks to the independence of the voluntary sector, with the threat heightened as a result of public spending cuts and changes in the way contracts are awarded, while local voluntary organisations “may lack the resources and capacity to assert their independence” in such situations.

They also warned of a “blurring of boundaries” between the public, private and voluntary sectors, which could “dilute” the independence of charities, and lead to some of them becoming “fearful of using their voice”.

Sir Bert pointed to the drift towards charities being funded by contracts for service-provision, rather than by government grants, and warned of the “temptation to dilute your principles to ensure survival”.

He said: “It seemed to us that quite clearly there is a risk to independence of some of the activities that these charities are engaging in.”

He accused the government of forcing charities that signed such contracts to promise not to criticise government policy.

He said: “First of all, it is not the government’s money. You should be quite free to criticise the government because that is part of the democratic process.”

He added: “It is worrying that the government believe it is their money which can only be used to promote their policies and the price is to gag the organisation. People should be free to speak. A strong government should not be afraid of being criticised.”

The panel closely examined arrangements under the government’s Work Programme, in which it said voluntary organisations have ended up as sub-contractors to private sector companies, with limited influence over the “quantity or quality of their work”.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Responsible Reform: Government ‘misled parliament’ over DLA

January 22, 2012 – 9:00 am

The government misled parliament and the public about the scale of opposition to its reform of disability living allowance (DLA), according to a ground-breaking new report researched, written and funded by disabled people.

Responsible Reform is based on the first independent analysis of the responses to a government consultation on its DLA reforms, which ended last year.

The researchers used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the 523 responses to the consultation that had been submitted by disabled people’s organisations, disability charities and other groups.

They concluded that there was “overwhelming” opposition to replacing DLA with a new personal independence payment (PIP) for working-age claimants, with only seven per cent fully in favour.

The new report also shows that the government has consistently used inaccurate figures – as revealed last year by Disability News Service – to exaggerate the rise in the number of DLA claimants as a justification for its reforms and cuts to working-age DLA spending.

But it also reveals that nearly all of the real increase in working-age claimants of DLA has been associated with people with mental health conditions and learning difficulties.

Between 2002 and 2010, the number of working-age DLA claimants – excluding those with mental health conditions and learning difficulties – remained remarkably stable, says the report.

In all, 98 per cent of groups that responded to the consultation objected to plans to increase the qualifying period from three months (under DLA) to six months (under PIP); 99 per cent objected to DLA no longer being used as a “passport” to other benefits; and 92 per cent were opposed to government plans to remove the lowest rate of support for those with care needs (currently, the lower rate care component).

Nine in ten groups were opposed to plans for a new assessment, which disabled people fear will be far too similar to the much-criticised work capability assessment that is used to test eligibility for employment and support allowance.

But in the government’s response to the consultation last April, there was no suggestion that the vast majority of organisations were opposed to moving from three to two rates of the care component, or that 99 per cent of groups wanted DLA to continue to be used as a passport to other benefits.

And the government said that “many organisations” were opposed to the move from three to six months, when the true figure was a massive 98 per cent.

The government response also failed to point out that a huge majority of groups and organisations were opposed to plans for a new assessment.

The report was published as peers prepared to continue debating the report stage of the government’s welfare reform bill, which includes the DLA proposals.

Campaigners hope to use their new report to persuade peers to call for a delay of at least six months to the reforms, while the PIP plans are reconsidered.

Sue Marsh, the disabled blogger and activist who led the research, alongside Dr Sarah Campbell, said it was not too late for peers to halt the “deeply damaging reforms”.

Another contributor, disabled activist Kaliya Franklin, said: “Cutting spending on DLA will increase the burden on local authorities, the NHS and community services at the very time they are seeking to find savings by reducing eligibility, particularly for social care support.”

The report has been welcomed by disability charities including Disability Alliance, Mind, Papworth Trust and Scope, and by Sir Bert Massie, former chair of the Disability Rights Commission.

Disability Alliance said the government’s “mis-portrayal” of the responses to the DLA consultation was “truly shocking” and “could represent a betrayal of the process of consultation and engagement with disabled people”.

A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokeswoman described DLA as “an outdated benefit” and said that the reforms would “make sure support is going to those who need it most”.

She said the DWP did not believe there should be a six-month pause while its DLA reforms were reconsidered.

But DWP avoided answering a series of crucial questions based on key parts of the report, submitted by Disability News Service, instead claiming that it was “working closely” with disabled people on the introduction of PIP and had “listened to their views”.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Responsible Reform: Disabled campaigners reveal Boris’s criticism of Tory DLA cuts

January 22, 2012 – 9:00 am

London’s Conservative mayor has heavily criticised the government’s planned cuts and reforms to disability living allowance (DLA).

Boris Johnson’s opposition to many of the government’s proposals, which are contained in its welfare reform bill, emerged this week thanks to the work of disabled researchers.

They used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the responses of more than 500 groups and organisations that took part in a government consultation on the reforms, including one submitted by Johnson.

The mayor said in his response that he opposed the government’s plans to extend the qualifying period for the benefit from three months (under DLA) to six months.

And he warned that if the reforms were intended solely to save money, they “may fail to ensure that the needs of disabled people are adequately met” and that many would “suffer additional hardship and isolation”.

Johnson also attacked plans to remove the lowest of the three care components of DLA, warning that this “will financially disadvantage disabled people and push them further into poverty”.

Johnson’s criticisms are among those analysed in Responsible Reform, a report researched, written and funded by disabled people and published as the House of Lords prepared to resume discussion of the bill.

The bill contains proposals to replace DLA with a new personal independence payment (PIP) and cut spending by 20 per cent.

A spokesman for Johnson said in a statement. “The mayor has made his views known in a thoughtful and comprehensive submission to the government. His focus is always to ensure that vulnerable Londoners are protected in any fiscal and legislative change.”

But he declined to comment further.

A Conservative party spokeswoman initially sent Disability News Service a copy of a Department for Work and Pensions statement, which claimed the government had developed its proposals “significantly” since the consultation, which ended early last year.

The statement said the government had “listened” to the views of disabled people and disability organisations on the introduction of PIP, but that DLA was an “outdated benefit” which “fails to target support at those who need it most”.

The Conservative spokeswoman later accepted that Johnson was a key figure in her party, but when asked why she could not comment on his criticism of the government’s DLA reforms, she said: “I don’t know. I think that might be convoluted: what we think about what he thinks about what we think.”

She declined to comment further.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Responsible Reform: Frustration after media snubs ground-breaking report

January 21, 2012 – 9:00 am

Disabled activists who spent months preparing a hard-hitting report that reveals how the government misled parliament over its disability living allowance (DLA) reforms say they are mystified and frustrated by the media’s failure to cover the story.

Despite huge interest in the Responsible Reform report across social media – with the report “trending” on Twitter at number one and two for much of the launch day – there was almost no mainstream coverage on television or in national newspapers.

Sue Marsh, one of the disabled bloggers and activists who led the research, said the reaction to the campaigning report on Twitter “went beyond our wildest dreams”, and there was initial media interest in a report that had been researched, written and funded by disabled people themselves.

The report itself was backed by a string of disability charities and other organisations, and leading Twitter-using celebrities including Stephen Fry, comedian Mark Thomas, presenters Sue Perkins and Hardeep Singh Kohli, and Alastair Campbell, the former Labour Downing Street communications director.

But late on the day before the report was due to be published, the mainstream media interest began to evaporate, despite the campaign’s “very clear objectives” and “clear costed solutions”.

Marsh said: “It just seems to me that there is a red line, and journalists have decided that these welfare changes have to go through and they are not going to rock the boat. They all seem to think that the government has to be allowed to do this.”

The disabled peer Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson was one of those who commented on Twitter, questioning why the report wasn’t being covered on television news bulletins.

Sir Bert Massie, former chair of the Disability Rights Commission, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” at the lack of media coverage.

He said the kind of “counter-blast” delivered by Responsible Reform was so important because the government was undermining public confidence in the benefits system, for example by encouraging newspapers like the Daily Mail to run stories about “benefit scroungers”.

He said the government’s “gung-ho dogma” on welfare reform would “cause a lot of heartbreak and leave us with a worse system”.

Marsh said the failure of the mainstream media to cover the report – also known as the “Spartacus Report” – only reinforced the importance of social media to disabled campaigners and left the rest of the media looking “out of touch and behind the curve”.

She said: “We have been ignored by the media and politicians. We should be showing we have power and a voice of our own.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Disability charities evade questions over support for assisted suicide

January 21, 2012 – 9:00 am

Organisations providing services to disabled people – including disability charities and a hospice – have evaded questions about their links with a commission that has called for assisted suicide to be legalised.

The Commission on Assisted Dying concluded last week that assisted suicide could “safely” be offered to people who are terminally-ill, if they are believed to have less than a year to live, are over 18, and satisfy certain other “eligibility criteria”.

The report was described by horrified disabled activists as a “major attack on disabled people”.

Only one of the 11 commissioners refused to back the report’s conclusions, while several others – who all backed legalisation – have close links with organisations providing services to disabled people.

These include Dr Carole Dacombe, medical director of St Peter’s Hospice in Bristol; Baroness [Barbara] Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK; and Professor Sam Ahmedzai, a professor of palliative medicine at the University of Sheffield and head of the academic unit of supportive care at its School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Others include Baroness [Elaine] Murphy, a vice-president of the Alzheimer’s Society; and Dame Denise Platt, chair of the National AIDS Trust (NAT).

St Peter’s Hospice declined to comment on whether it was comfortable with its medical director publicly backing the legalisation of assisted suicide.

A hospice spokeswoman said: “We do not want to make a comment about it. I do not need to explain why we will not be making a comment.”

A spokesman for Diabetes UK refused to comment on whether it was comfortable with its chief executive publicly backing the legalisation of assisted suicide.

Instead, he said the charity did not believe there was a conflict of interest with Baroness Young taking part in the commission.

A University of Sheffield spokesman said Professor Ahmedzai joined the commission “in his own right as an expert in palliative care and care in the last months of life, not as a representative of the university”.

But he was unable to say whether the university was comfortable with Professor Ahmedzai backing the legalisation of assisted suicide.

The Alzheimer’s Society said Baroness Murphy’s position as a vice-president was an “honorary” role, and she was not a spokeswoman for the charity and was “entitled to viewpoints independent from those of the society”.

She added: “Alzheimer’s Society does not support a change in the law on euthanasia or assisted dying.

“However, we welcome a debate on all end-of-life issues and consult our members on an ongoing basis to ensure our position reflects their views on this important matter.”

A National AIDS Trust (NAT) spokeswoman said the charity was comfortable with the position Dame Denise had taken.

Deborah Jack, NAT’s chief executive, had earlier said in a statement that the charity had “no position” on Dame Denise’s membership of the commission because it had “not so far been relevant to our work as an HIV policy and campaigning organisation, nor has it been brought to our attention by people living with HIV, or organisations supporting them”.

But Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick, the former Disability Rights Commission’s commissioner with responsibility for Wales, and a spokesman for Not Dead Yet UK – the campaigning network of disabled people opposed to legalisation – said these organisations linked to the commission would be “understandably embarrassed” and disabled people would now avoid them “like the plague”.

He added: “The last thing you want is a doctor coming to your bedside who you know has already spoken out in favour of assisted suicide.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Activists launch bid for funds to fight threat of assisted suicide

January 20, 2012 – 9:00 am

Disabled campaigners fighting to ward off the threat of legalised assisted suicide have been forced to launch a fundraising appeal to try to counteract the huge financial resources of their opponents.

Not Dead Yet UK – the campaigning network of disabled people opposed to legalisation – is run by volunteers, and has almost no funding to continue its battle.

The network decided to launch an urgent appeal for funds following last week’s report from The Commission on Assisted Dying, which was bankrolled by euthanasia supporters and set up by the pro-assisted suicide charity Dignity in Dying.

The commission’s work was funded by two pro-euthanasia multi-millionaires, the author Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimer’s disease, and Bernard Lewis, founder of the retail chain River Island.

The thinktank Demos, which hosted the year-long commission, declined to say how much it had cost, and told Disability News Service that it was “not allowed to give out details of the cost of projects”.

Responding to reports that it had cost £500,000, a Demos spokeswoman said: “I cannot verify that. I would be very wary of using that.”

Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick, the former Disability Rights Commission’s commissioner with responsibility for Wales, and a spokesman for Not Dead Yet UK, said the network wanted to build a “grassroots response” to the commission’s proposals and “find a way to support the work that we are doing”.

He said: “We are doing this with a heavy heart and we really do not want anybody who cannot afford it to give anything at all. For those people, we would just be happy with their name and support.”

He said Not Dead Yet UK was hoping for a large number of people to sign up to giving as little as £2 a month to support its work, through its website.

He said: “In order for the public to be informed it has to hear both sides of the story equally.

“The problem is that because they have all the resources, their side is being promoted much more highly than ours.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Government ignores disability in £1 billion youth sport strategy

January 19, 2012 – 9:00 am

The government has failed to explain why its new youth sport strategy contains almost no references to disabled young people.

The £1 billion, five-year Creating a Sporting Habit for Life strategy was launched this week by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt as part of efforts to ensure a “legacy” of mass participation in sport from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The document says about £450 million will be awarded to sports governing bodies for their “whole sport plans” – their four-year strategies – to ensure they are focused on ensuring a “sporting habit for life”, with about 60 per cent of this money aimed at young people from 14 to 25.

It also includes £50 million plans for every secondary school in England to host a community sports club, with another £50 million to boost sports provision at further education colleges and universities.

And there will be £10 million to allow school sports facilities to be opened up to wider public use.

But – with the exception of a section on the new School Games, which were launched last October – the strategy mentions disabled young people just once, demanding an increased participation by disabled people as one of the outcomes required from sport governing bodies in return for their funding.

A Department for Culture Media and Sport spokesman said there would be “disability elements” in the contracts drawn up by Sport England – which is delivering the strategy – with individual sport governing bodies such as the Football Association and Lawn Tennis Association.

He said these governing bodies would receive £450 million and “will have to invest some of that into disability”.

He said: “The details are still to be worked out on a sport-by-sport basis. They will be very much part of the contractual agreement with the national governing bodies. The devil is going to be in the detail.

“Disability is very much a part of it. There will be stretching targets for sports to engage with disabled people and bring more disabled people into sport.”

He stressed that Hunt was “absolutely crystal clear” that disability “needs to be at every level” of the School Games.

But the spokesman was unable to explain why there was so little mention of disability in the strategy itself.

A spokeswoman for the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS), the strategic lead for sport and physical activity for disabled people, declined to comment on the strategy’s failure to say more about disabled young people.

But she said EFDS would “support Sport England by working with our partners to ensure disabled young people are engaged in every aspect of this strategy”.

EFDS welcomed the strategy’s emphasis on encouraging all young people to take part in sport between the ages of 14 and 25, the new inclusive School Games, and the need for governing bodies to increase participation rates of disabled people in sport.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Report finds ‘serious inaccuracies’ in fitness for work tests

January 18, 2012 – 9:00 am

A new report has revealed “serious inaccuracies” in the assessments of disabled people’s “fitness for work” carried out by the private company Atos Healthcare on behalf of the government.

The charity Citizens Advice analysed 37 reports written by Atos “healthcare professionals” (HCPs) who had tested disabled people using the much-criticised work capability assessment (WCA).

Citizens Advice’s (CA) Right First Time report shows a “serious level of inaccuracy” in 16 of the 37 WCA reports, with a “medium” level of inaccuracy in a further 10.

The report calls on DWP to impose financial penalties on Atos for every inaccurate report it produces, and for the government to introduce independent monitoring of the accuracy of WCA reports.

The report also warns that WCA reports were increasingly being used to help determine eligibility for disability living allowance (DLA), which meant their accuracy was even more important.

The report says that some Atos assessors reported that claimants had performed actions they were not able to carry out, or performed them unaided when they had needed help to do so.

The most common complaint was the “general inaccuracy” of assessors in recording what claimants had said.

The WCA was introduced in 2008 to test eligibility for employment and support allowance (ESA), the replacement for incapacity benefit.

CA said it had particular concerns about cases in which ESA had been awarded but an inaccurate report had subsequently been used to help determine eligibility for DLA.

Such claimants would probably not have requested copies of their WCA report and so would not have been aware of the potential impact of its inaccuracy on their DLA claim.

A DWP spokeswoman said the CA report was based on only 37 WCAs, compared with the 564,500 completed in the year to February 2011, and “relies solely on CA’s interpretation of the HCP’s report, and does not allow the HCP the opportunity to explain the reasoning behind what was recorded”.

She added: “Many improvements to the WCA have been made since the CA survey began and [it] does not acknowledge several of the changes which have now been implemented.”

She said all HCPs were “registered with an appropriate professional body” and trained in “disability assessment medicine”, while their work was “subjected to stringent quality audit”.

An Atos spokeswoman said the company would be “carefully considering” the report.

She said that fewer than nine per cent of all decisions made were overturned on appeal, although Atos hoped to work with CA “to drive further improvements”.

She said DWP already audited its assessments, and Atos was “measured against criteria set by the DWP which it consistently meets, while financial penalties were applied if it failed to meet “agreed service levels”.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Trio of ESA victories soured by Freud’s ‘disgraceful’ ploy

January 17, 2012 – 9:00 am

Opposition and independent peers have secured three key victories over the government in the battle to reverse its planned cuts to out-of-work disability benefits.

Crossbench and Labour peers combined with a small number of Liberal Democrat rebels –although a larger number of Liberal Democrat peers abstained – to win votes on three key amendments to the coalition’s welfare reform bill.

Each of the amendments overturned government proposals to cut spending on employment and support allowance (ESA).

Despite the large margin of victory on all three amendments, the government made it clear that it would try to overturn the defeats when the bill returns to the House of Commons.

But there was also anger among peers after Lord Freud, the Conservative welfare reform minister, managed to reverse one of the victories by demanding a late-night vote on a government amendment, when most opposition and crossbench peers had already left the chamber for the day.

Lord McKenzie, Labour’s work and pensions spokesman, described Freud’s move as “quite disgraceful”.

The first of the three successful amendments overturned government plans to remove the contributory form of ESA from disabled young people with the highest support needs, who can currently claim the benefit from the age of 16 without being means-tested.

Some young disabled people who are ineligible for income-related ESA support were set to lose almost £100 a week.

But Lord Freud’s late amendment then reversed this success.

The second amendment doubled the government’s planned 12-month time-limit on disabled people in the “work-related activity group” – those with limited capability for work – receiving the “contributory” form of ESA.

Government figures show that 94 per cent of people with limited capability for work need ESA for longer than 12 months in order to find a job.

The disabled peer Lord [Colin] Low, who backed the amendment, said that because of problems with the government’s new Work Programme it would be “not only unfair but downright cruel to time-limit contributory ESA to one year”.

But the disabled Liberal Democrat peer Baroness [Celia] Thomas claimed that voting for the amendment would just be a “cynical” move, as it would probably be overturned in the Commons because of its financial implications.

Members of her party voted to oppose any time-limit on contributory ESA at their annual conference last September.

Lord Freud said extending the time-limit to two years would cost £1.6 billion over five years.

The third amendment removed all time-limits for contributory ESA for claimants receiving treatment for cancer or with a cancer diagnosis.

Labour peers are now believed to be seeking clarification on what Lord Freud’s late amendment will mean when the bill comes to third reading, the final stage before it returns to the Commons.

Baroness [Rosalie] Wilkins, the disabled Labour peer, described Lord Freud’s late vote as an “ambush”, but said the three earlier victories were “wonderful”.

But she warned that these amendments would be overturned when the bill returned to the Commons unless Liberal Democrat MPs voted against their own government.

Many campaigners have attributed the size of victory in the Lords to the Responsible Reform report, which was published by disabled activists on Monday and distributed the same day – just two days before the ESA votes – to peers and MPs.

Sue Marsh, the disabled blogger and campaigner who led the research, said she believed their report had had an impact on peers.

Although the report focused on reform of disability living allowance (DLA), she said that the message – that the government misled parliament and the public about the scale of opposition to those reforms – must have influenced this week’s votes on ESA.

Attention has now turned to next week’s crucial votes on DLA reform.

Marsh said she was “fairly confident” that the same coalition of crossbench and Labour peers would combine again to vote through amendments to the government’s DLA measures.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Disabled people ‘must play part’ in fighting blue badge abuse

January 16, 2012 – 9:00 am

Disabled people must play a part in efforts to cut the misuse and abuse of blue parking badges, according to leading activists.

New measures to cut abuse of the disabled people’s blue badge parking scheme came into force on 1 January, with the introduction of an electronically-produced badge, which is harder to forge or copy than the previous handwritten, cardboard version.

To pay for improvements to the scheme, the maximum fee that local authorities in England can charge for a badge has risen from £2 to £10, the first increase for 30 years.

And a new central database – another measure campaigners have been demanding for years – will allow checks on the badges to be made from anywhere in the country.

But disabled people’s details will only be added to the database – which is being run by a private company – as they are issued with one of the new badges over the next three years.

The government hopes changes to the scheme will cut its running costs by up to £20 million a year.

Another measure, to be introduced from April, will see councils forced to use more independent mobility assessments – instead of asking GPs to carry them out – of applicants who do not qualify automatically for a badge.

Helen Dolphin, director of policy and campaigns for Disabled Motoring UK, welcomed the changes, which she said would make the scheme “fit for the 21st century”, and would make it easier for traffic wardens to detect forged badges, and genuine badges that were being misused.

But she said: “This is only going to work if disabled people themselves start taking more responsibility for their own badges.”

She said enforcement and awareness-raising of how the badges should be used were key to cutting abuse, while councils must ensure their parking attendants checked badges and took legal action against those guilty of fraud and misuse.

Last August, Disabled Motoring UK released the results of a survey which showed that many local authorities were doing nothing to combat blue badge fraud and misuse.

The survey found that, across the 79 local authorities in England and Wales that provided answers to a Freedom of Information Act request, the average annual number of prosecutions for fraud and misuse of blue badges was just 2.9 in 2009-10, and 4.5 in 2010-11. Most councils carried out no prosecutions at all.

Dolphin added: “The charity’s policy is that the badge should be free. However, it has been £2 since the 1980s and if this increased charge means the badges are much more secure and disabled people can park more easily, it is a burden we are going to have to bear.”

Mary Grace, chair of The Blue Badge Network, which represents blue badge-holders, also welcomed many of the improvements.

But she said she was concerned about the introduction of the new mobility assessments.

She said: “I think there will be a lot of people who should be getting the badge who will just be turned down flat.

“We will be asking our members to let us have their thoughts as they go through the system over the next three years.”

She agreed with Dolphin that badge-holders needed to take more responsibility for how their badges were used, and added: “Blue badge-holders ourselves can abuse the system.”

Other improvements to the scheme mean disabled people in England and Scotland can now apply for and renew their badges online, using the government’s Directgov website, while those in Wales will be able to apply online from April.

Badge-holders in England can also use a new national helpline number, 0844 463 0213, and will be able to report lost and stolen badges through the website from April.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat transport minister, said he believed the new badge would be “as secure as a banknote”.

He added: “Motorists who pretend to be disabled to get some free parking are frankly disgraceful.

“They prevent real blue badge-holders from using parking bays designed for those genuinely in need and they cheat the vast majority of road-users who play fair when they park their cars.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Politicians and DWP combine to block answers on Unum links

January 15, 2012 – 9:00 am

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the three main political parties are refusing to say how often ministers have met with an insurance company set to make huge financial gains from incapacity benefit reform.

Disability News Service (DNS) submitted a request to the DWP under the Freedom of Information Act to ask how many meetings there had been between executives of Unum and government ministers since 2001.

But DWP officials claim there is no “central database” of such meetings and therefore it would be too expensive to find out how often coalition and Labour ministers had met with Unum over the last 10 years.

They say that producing such information would mean contacting “approximately 100,000 officials who are employed by the Department of Work and Pensions, as well as all ministers and special advisers, to find details of meetings that could relate to your enquiry”.

Records of ministerial meetings with outside organisations have only been published on the DWP website since October 2009.

Last October, Unum, the UK’s largest provider of “income protection insurance” (IPI), denied that it had attempted to influence government policy on welfare reform.

Campaigners believe that tougher welfare rules – particularly those that replaced incapacity benefit (IB) with the new employment and support allowance (ESA) – will persuade more people to take out IPI, and so boost Unum’s profits.

Anger over IB reform has grown over the last 18 months, with claims that the coalition’s changes – which are even harsher than those introduced by the Labour government – are merely a cover for cuts to welfare spending and are plunging tens of thousands of disabled people further into poverty and distress.

The disabled activist who has done most to raise concerns about the suitability of Unum to be advising the government and its influence within the DWP is Mo Stewart, a retired healthcare professional and veteran of the Women’s Royal Air Force.

She said: “Given the diabolical reputation of this company in America, it is a huge concern that the UK government would take advice from such a discredited insurance company as Unum, and someone should surely be asking why this corporate giant has had such an influence within the DWP since 1994.”

Unum admits there has been widespread criticism of its past actions in the US – mainly over its refusal to pay out on genuine insurance claims by disabled people – but claims that in the UK it takes its “obligations and duties for treating customers very, very seriously”.

Stewart said the government’s “resistance” to providing the information requested by DNS was “nothing but an excuse” and that DWP clearly “cannot risk confirming information that’s already widely known, that they willingly consult with this discredited market leader in IPI”.

Unum has denied that it stands to gain from the reforms, even though it launched a major media campaign last year just as the coalition government began a three-year programme to reassess about 1.5 million existing IB claimants through a new, stricter test, the work capability assessment.

But a detailed memo later emerged, which was submitted to the Commons work and pensions committee in 2002 and was written by Joanne Hindle, Unum’s corporate services director.

In the memo, Unum called for fundamental reform of the welfare system, while it said the government “must ensure both that work always pays more than benefits, and more importantly that it is clearly seen to do so”.

The memo included proposals with a strong resemblance to reforms introduced several years later by the Labour government, when it replaced IB with ESA, and it stated that Unum was “actively engaged” with the government on sharing best practice in returning disabled people to work.

Unum has denied working “to influence the government to reduce welfare benefits” or “on the design of the reforms to the welfare state”.

This week, a Unum spokesman said: “Thank you for contacting us with your question, however we have nothing to add to our last statement.”

A Conservative spokeswoman declined to comment, as did the Liberal Democrats.

A Labour spokeswoman said: “A register of minister’s meetings kept by the DWP is a matter for that department. Labour policy on welfare reform now, as it was in government, is driven by a belief in a fair welfare system that makes work pay.”

A DWP spokeswoman declined to comment on its refusal to provide information about ministerial meetings with Unum.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Report uncovers scores more NHS ‘discrimination deaths’

January 14, 2012 – 9:00 am

A new investigation has uncovered evidence that NHS failings have caused or contributed to the deaths of more than 70 people with learning difficulties.

The charity Mencap, which collaborated with the investigation by the Guardian newspaper, said the cases highlighted the “continued discrimination” within the NHS.

As well as 74 deaths, there were another 17 “serious incidents”, with families alleging that the incidents were caused by “hospital blunders, poorly trained staff and indifference”.

The new investigation comes more than four years after the publication of Mencap’s Death by Indifference report, which revealed evidence that people with learning difficulties were dying unnecessarily due to “institutional discrimination” within the NHS.

In 2008, 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”.

The Labour government finally set up a confidential inquiry into “premature and avoidable” deaths of people with learning difficulties in 2010, 10 years after it first noted concerns in its Valuing People white paper.

Of the cases highlighted this week by the Guardian, 59 happened within the last five years.

Andrew Lee, director of People First Self Advocacy, which is run by people with learning difficulties, said he was “not surprised” by the report.

He said: “It is something that society has tried to sweep under the carpet. The training that health professionals get is non-existent when it comes to working with patients with learning difficulties.

“They don’t meet and talk with people with learning difficulties and the health professional bodies have only within the last couple of years started thinking about doing some training and involving people. Our whole health system needs a big reality shock.”

He said he was particularly concerned about the issue of “do not resuscitate” orders being “slapped on” the files of patients with learning difficulties.

He said: “The problem is around their assumption that our quality of life is less than people without learning difficulties.”

David Congdon, Mencap’s head of campaigns and policy, said the cases were an “appalling catalogue of neglect and indignity” and showed that health professionals were “still making the same errors that we highlighted in our Death by Indifference report”, with advice from families ignored and serious illnesses not diagnosed.

Some health professionals were “failing to recognise pain and distress” and to provide basic nursing care, with some leaving patients dehydrated and without food.

He added: “If attitudes and training aren’t overhauled across the board, people will continue to die needlessly.”

Among its recommendations, Mencap wants training for all health professionals on their duties under the Equality Act and the Mental Capacity Act.

It wants regulatory bodies, such as the General Medical Council, to conduct “rigorous investigations and deliver appropriate sanctions” if health professionals have clearly failed in their obligations to patients with learning difficulties.

Mencap is also calling on all hospitals to sign up to its Getting it Right charter, which spells out what healthcare professionals should do to ensure equal access to health.

Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care services minister, said the government shared Mencap’s concerns that some people with learning difficulties were “not receiving the high quality health care that they should expect”.

He said the Department of Health had extended the contract for the inquiry into premature and avoidable deaths and was funding a “public health observatory”, which was focussing on improving health care for people with learning difficulties.

Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS in England, said: “One of the measures of a civilised society is how well it looks after the most vulnerable members of its society.

“So I take very seriously any evidence that this is not reflected in our NHS. I look forward to seeing the Mencap report.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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New Year Honours: Activist pledges to use OBE to fight cuts

January 13, 2012 – 9:00 am

A leading disabled activist recognised with an OBE in the New Year Honours is to use the award to campaign against government cuts to disability benefits.

Jim Elder-Woodward, convenor of Independent Living in Scotland, a disabled people’s organisation set up to develop Scotland’s independent living movement, was awarded the OBE for services to disabled people’s equality and human rights.

Elder-Woodward has spoken out frequently on cuts to disability benefits and to care and support, and in a speech last February warned that the “forthcoming cuts to our welfare will devastate our quality of life and deny our human rights as never before”.

He said then: “Never in the history of welfare reform will the lives of so many in need be so ravaged by so much, to meet the political agenda of so few in power.”

Elder-Woodward is a former social worker, and has worked for central and local government, the health service, the voluntary sector and universities, and written extensively on disability and independent living, and is chair of Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living and a director of Inclusion Scotland.

After his OBE was announced, Elder-Woodward said: “Aristotle once said that honours should go to those who could make best use of them.

“I intend to use this honour to bring greater gravitas and grit to the voice of disabled people, particularly at a time when their equality and citizenship are being undermined by reductions to their income and support services.”

He also pointed to increases in hostile press stories about disabled people, the rise in disability hate crime and continuing calls for assisted suicide to be legalised.

He said he decided to accept the award because his family “felt my work to promote the equality and human rights of disabled people should be recognised”.

He added: “I am most grateful to them, and indeed to West Dunbartonshire Council, because without their continual support, my wife and I could not even function within the community, let alone actively participate within it.”

Other disabled people recognised for their campaigning and voluntary work include Brian Mister, a founding member and former chair of ecdp (formerly Essex Coalition of Disabled People), who still supports younger disabled people through ecdp’s mentoring programme, and chairs other voluntary groups in Essex.

Mister, who was a sales and marketing director before he became disabled, said the MBE was a tribute to the work of ecdp, which he said was “where I earned my spurs in the disability field”, and to the disability movement and the importance of the social model of disability.

He said: “The principles of independent living and the social model, they are what has driven me and still do. I always try to keep them in my heart.”

Steve Carey, ecdp’s current chair, said the MBE was “a well-deserved honour for someone who has worked tirelessly and for many years to strengthen the rights of disabled people in Essex.  He has boundless energy and is always willing to get involved and create positive change.”

Another disabled person rewarded for his public service is Vidar Hjardeng, who receives an MBE for services to visually-impaired people and broadcasting.

Hjardeng spent more than 20 years working on regional programmes for ITV and is now diversity manager for ITV news and regions, has written for publications such as the Financial Times and the magazine Art Disability Culture, and is a trustee of several disability organisations.

University student Kirsty Ashton receives her MBE at the age of just 21, for services to children and families.

She has raised £90,000 for the When you Wish Upon a Star charity, which grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.

She has also written a book about living with neurofibromatosis and scoliosis, and runs her own website providing support to other people with those conditions.

She said: “To me, what I do is a hobby. It’s my interest.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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New Year Honours: Awards recognise 2012 trio

January 12, 2012 – 9:00 am

Three disabled people who could play significant – but contrasting – roles in this year’s London 2012 Paralympics have been recognised in the New Year Honours.

Joyce Cook, chair of Level Playing Field, the user-led charity representing disabled sports fans, receives an OBE for services to disability sports.

As a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s built environment access panel, she advised on the accessibility of London 2012’s new venues and athletes’ facilities, and has also advised the 2012 organising committee LOCOG.

She said she hoped London 2012 would “open up a lot of opportunities for disabled people”, particularly for “the average disabled person” who wants to participate in sport, and that it would highlight the continuing struggle to secure “fair and equal access for disabled sports fans”.

Cook said she believed access at the new, purpose-built 2012 venues would be “tremendous”, with facilities for disabled sports fans “second to none”.

She is also managing director of the Centre for Access to Football in Europe (CAFE) – which she set up with funding from UEFA, European football’s governing body – and is on the board of several football-related diversity groups.

Another disabled person recognised is Neil Robinson, the former Paralympic table-tennis gold medallist, who retired after the Beijing games in 2008 and is now a national GB disability table-tennis coach.

Robinson, who receives an MBE, said he hoped to be part of the ParalympicsGB coaching team for London 2012, but added: “My ambition is to be one of the coaches, but that is certainly not confirmed yet.

“Irrespective of that, I will certainly be helping the squad prepare for London. The team are training very, very hard. There is a lot of talent within the squad.”

Robinson first represented GB in 1981 and competed at six Paralympic games, winning seven medals, including a team gold in the 1992 games in Barcelona, and is a former world number one and European champion.

He said he hoped his MBE would help raise the profile of table-tennis in the run-up to London 2012, and inspire more disabled people to become involved in sport.

John Lambert, who receives an MBE for services to disabled people in Weymouth and Portland, Dorset, has already made an important contribution to the success of London 2012.

For more than 10 years, the former RAF and airline pilot has chaired Weymouth and Portland Access Group, which has played a major part in improving access for disabled people in the area, which is hosting the Olympic and Paralympic sailing events.

He said he had “never seen a place so well set up for disabled people” as the 2012 sailing facilities on the Isle of Portland, while access in the town of Weymouth itself “should be pretty good for disabled people”.

He said: “Weymouth being a relatively flat coastal town, a lot of the restaurants are now accessible. Pubs are not so [good], as a lot of them unfortunately are listed buildings.”

For more than 20 years, he produced and secured funding for his own newsletter, which was distributed by social services to disabled people across Dorset.

Among his current voluntary positions, he chairs the board of the Dorset training organisation Abilities, which helps disabled and other long-term unemployed people into work.

Another sporting talent recognised was Umesh Valjee, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) disability cricketer of the year, who captained England’s Deaf cricketers to victory in Australia last winter, scoring three centuries in the first four games of the tour.

Valjee, who receives an MBE, made his international debut in 1992 and has played 56 times for England, 43 as captain.

Ian Martin, the ECB’s national disability manager, said: “He has been the outstanding performer in international Deaf cricket for many, many years and his reputation both as a player and as a gentleman extends far beyond our shores.

“In disability cricket, a talent like his comes along once in a generation and those who have played alongside him or watched him play have been fortunate to do so.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Politicians given New Year rebuke over care funding reform

January 11, 2012 – 9:00 am

Four leading disabled figures have backed a call for politicians to “seize” the latest opportunity to reform the funding of adult social care.

The crossbench peers Baroness [Jane] Campbell and Lord [Colin] Low, and Liz Sayce and Sue Bott from Disability Rights UK, were among more than 60 leading figures from the disability, social care and health fields to sign the letter, published this week in the Daily Telegraph.

The letter pleads with the coalition and the Labour party to work together to meet the “unavoidable challenge” of “how to support the increasing number of people who need care”.

They say the failure to meet this challenge is resulting in “terrible examples of abuse and neglect in parts of the care system”, with disabled people “unable to get the support they need to live their lives independently and be part of society”.

As the letter was published, a spokesman for the prime minister said David Cameron had written to Labour leader Ed Miliband “restating his commitment to constructive and open discussions” on social care reform.

Andrew Lansley, the Conservative health secretary, and Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care services minister, will lead the talks for the government.

Andy Burnham, Labour’s shadow health secretary, welcomed Cameron’s move but said it had taken more than six months for the government to accept Miliband’s offer of cross-party talks.

Following the publication last summer of the recommendations of the Dilnot commission on the funding of care and support, the government is due to publish a social care white paper this spring.

Disability News Service has been raising concerns since last summer that the white paper will exclude any proposals on funding, because of fears over the cost of implementing Dilnot’s report.

Burnham said Labour would “play a full part in talks on the Dilnot proposals” and would “push for them to be implemented in full as a first step”.

Last week, Labour released a survey of care charges, which showed the average annual cost for a disabled or older person who pays for 10 hours of home care a week was now £7,015, or £8,271 a year for those also receiving meals on wheels every day.

The survey also highlighted the huge variations among different local authorities, with home care that was free in Tower Hamlets costing £20.34 an hour in Cheshire East, while the weekly cap on costs imposed by some councils ranged from £105 in Hackney to £900 per week in Brighton and Hove.

The Telegraph letter came as the Department of Health (DH) announced an extra one-off sum of £150 million for local authorities to help people leave hospital more quickly and receive care at home.

DH said the money would “help to get the services in place that people sometimes need to live independently at home”.

DH also announced a £20 million one-off payment to local authorities to boost funding of disabled facilities grants (DFG).

But such funding is no longer “ring-fenced” – following a coalition decision in 2010 – so local authorities will have no obligation to spend the new money on DFGs, which are used to pay for adaptations such as installing ramps or stair-lifts or providing a downstairs bathroom.

Government funding for DFGs in 2011-12 was £180 million.

Meanwhile, social care staff and employers now have access to a government-funded, confidential whistle-blowing helpline for the first time.

The helpline was formerly available only to NHS staff and run by the charity Public Concern at Work, but the new service is operated by the disability charity Mencap.

From 1 January 2012, social care and NHS staff in need of independent and confidential whistle-blowing advice about abuse or patient and service-user safety can call free on 08000 724 725.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Assisted suicide report is ‘attack on disabled people’

January 10, 2012 – 9:00 am

Disabled activists have condemned a new report – funded by pro-euthanasia campaigners – that suggests assisted suicide could and should be legalised in England and Wales.

Leading campaigners have described the report, published by The Commission on Assisted Dying, as an attack on disabled people.

The report concludes that assisted suicide could “safely” be offered to people who are terminally-ill, if they are believed to have less than a year to live, are over 18, and satisfy certain other “eligibility criteria”.

Under a framework proposed by the commission, a dying person who met the criteria would be able to ask their doctor to prescribe a dose of medication to end their life, which they would have to take themselves.

But disabled activist Alice Maynard, who gave evidence to the commission, described the report as “a major attack on disabled people”, particularly when taken alongside the government’s assault on disability benefits and an increase in public hostility towards disabled people.

She said the fact that disabled people were having their “social infrastructure” and support “systematically destroyed” made the report “a huge threat”.

Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick, the Disability Rights Commission’s commissioner with responsibility for Wales throughout its seven-year existence, and a member of Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK), the campaigning network of disabled people opposed to legalisation, added: “I fear this is the worst attack on the safety of disabled people I’ve ever known when we see also the swingeing cuts to welfare, health and social care, support we rely on for our very lives.”

The report’s conclusion has disappointed but not surprised disabled activists, as the commission was chaired by the former Labour minister Lord Falconer and part-funded by the author Terry Pratchett, who have both campaigned for legalisation.

The commission was set up by the pro-assisted suicide charity Dignity in Dying, while its other funder was Bernard Lewis, founder of the retail chain River Island, who has also spoken out in favour of legalisation.

The 11-strong commission itself was packed with supporters of legalisation. Disability News Service revealed in December 2010 that at least eight of the commissioners had previously supported a change in the law to allow some kind of assisted suicide.

One of the 11 commissioners, the Rev Canon Dr James Woodward, canon of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, opposed the report’s conclusions.

Baroness [Jane] Campbell, NDY UK’s convenor, said the biased membership of the commission left a “big question mark” over its validity.

She said the “biggest reason given for wanting to die early” was “being a burden on families and others”, which “must be addressed and resolved” before considering any legislation.

She added: “We believe there is much evidence in the commission’s findings to show how difficult it is for people to receive a good level of palliative care and social care across the country.”

She said the NHS was not in a position to allow people to have “a proper choice”, with many “left without dignity or pain relief, which therefore demonstrates clearly why individuals faced with this possibility say they want help to die rather than suffer this lack of support”.

“We want to change bad attitudes, lack of social care and health care, before thinking about the possibility of assisted dying.”

Maynard agreed. The report points to the need for “good quality end-of-life care available in all settings” and “a good level of care and support services” alongside any legalisation, but she said that in reality the quality of health and social care was now “going backwards”.

Ian Loynes, chief executive of Southampton Centre for Independent Living, said disabled people were “fighting a war of attrition” against the “continual barrages” of those trying to secure legalisation, and were “frightened at the implications of missing any of these volleys”.

He was another to highlight the social care system’s failure “to meet even a very basic level of dignity, choice and care” which he said was “at complete odds to the commission’s fine words on the need to ensure provision of good quality end-of-life care”.

Loynes said that any legalisation would simply absolve society and the government from “their caring responsibilities”.

Phil Friend, another leading disabled campaigner and member of NDY UK, said the commission’s conclusions were “both disappointing and unsurprising”.

He said there was no way to “safely” offer a choice of assisted suicide. “How do we know whether people have been influenced by others? How sure are we that people are likely to die in 12 months?”

He also raised concerns about the two “independent” doctors who would have to approve every assisted suicide, and pointed out that “diagnosis and prognosis often change over time, as do people’s desires to live or die”.

Friend added: “Many disabled people can’t get the basic support that they need to live independently as spending cuts bite.

“Uncertainty and fear are the order of the day for many of us. It’s made worse when there are noises about changing the law to make euthanasia possible.”

Concerns about the commission have been further raised after its report revealed that just two disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) – Disability Awareness in Action and Disability Alliance – were asked to give evidence. Both of them declined.

In practice, the disability movement boycotted the commission, as not a single DPO appears to have given evidence.

Other individuals and organisations that declined to give evidence after being asked to do so by the commission include Baroness Campbell, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Demos declined to comment on its failure to invite more DPOs to give evidence.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Remploy battle ‘could lead to occupation of factories’

January 6, 2012 – 9:00 am

Government decisions on the future of the remaining 54 Remploy sheltered factories could lead to strike action and even occupation of their workplaces by disabled people, MPs have heard.

The warning was issued by the Labour MP John McDonnell, who was taking part in a debate on the future of the factories.

McDonnell said the 54 factories would close unless there was a “change of attitude” from the government.

He said: “This is a fight for those factories, and if the workers want to fight with whatever means possible—industrial action, occupation—and we cannot persuade the government to reconsider, I will be joining them.”

Last month, Remploy workers handed Downing Street a petition of more than 100,000 names, organised by the GMB union, which called for the government to stop the threatened closure of the remaining factories.

Labour MPs lined up during the debate to condemn recommendations on Remploy contained in a report by RADAR chief executive Liz Sayce on the future of employment support for disabled people.

Sayce’s report calls for an end to government ownership and funding of Remploy, and the closure of factories which are “not viable”, but says others could become social enterprises, co-operatives, or “mutuals” owned by employees, with the help of short-term government subsidies.

The report also calls on the government to double the number of disabled people receiving support through the Access to Work scheme.

But Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP who secured the debate, said: “In a period in which unemployment is rising, it is pie in the sky and cruelly misleading to suggest that expanding the Access to Work programme will result in more work for disabled people.”

The disabled MP Dame Anne Begg said that closing the Remploy factories would mean “fewer opportunities for work experience to give people the skills, expertise and background that will allow them into open employment”.

She added: “We cannot do away with the factories if we are serious about getting people with severe disabilities into open employment.”

The only strong backbench support for the idea of closing sheltered factories and encouraging disabled people to work in mainstream employment came from the Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Lloyd, who has a hearing impairment.

He said: “Having disabled people living, studying and working alongside non-disabled people is vital to achieving a more cohesive society.”

He added: “The key, for me, is that it is time finally to address the low expectations that some disabled people have, as well as to challenge stigma that comes from outside.

“That is why it is so important that disabled people should become more visible in open employment.

“The subsidy could be better used to transform Remploy factories into individual viable businesses and to support more Remploy workers into open employment.”

Anne McGuire, the shadow minister for disabled people, accepted that the disability movement believed sheltered factories should be closed.

But she argued that there should “still be a place within our range of opportunities for supported factory employment”.

Another Labour MP, Nick Smith, said: “I am fearful that Remploy closures in places such as Abertillery will lead to its workers moving not to private sector jobs with the appropriate support, but to joining the dole queue alongside former incapacity benefit claimants. That is the reality of what will happen in many parts of the country.”

Maria Miller, the minister for disabled people and the only Conservative MP to speak in the debate, said Remploy’s latest accounts showed that it cost £25,000 to support each of the remaining 2,200 disabled members of factory staff.

She said that the issues facing the Remploy factories were “not new”, but that their operating loss had increased to tens of millions of pounds, while the modernisation plan introduced under the Labour government had “simply not addressed the fundamental weakness in the business model”.

She added: “I want to make it clear that I have not yet made a final decision about the consultation [on Sayce’s report], but I am persuaded that there is a need for change and that the Sayce review suggests a persuasive model for such change.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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