Phillips to leave equality watchdog

April 5, 2012 – 9:00 am

The head of the equality watchdog, Trevor Phillips, is to leave his post after six years, it has been confirmed.

Phillips has faced repeated criticism during his two three-year terms as chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

His decision not to seek a third term was revealed in a foreword to the commission’s new strategic plan.

The plan also reveals that – due to drastic cuts in its budget – staffing levels at the EHRC are set to fall from 420 to between 150 and 180.

Two years ago, the parliamentary joint committee on human rights said “major questions” remained over Phillips’ leadership, following a series of resignations by commissioners.

Two disabled commissioners, Baroness [Jane] Campbell and Sir Bert Massie, had been among those who resigned in 2009 over concerns at his leadership.

Phillips also faced criticism in a report by the public accounts committee in March 2010.

More recently, he had appeared on a collision course with the coalition, after arguing last year that its plans for reform risked turning the EHRC into an “anonymous, cowed, nit-picking compliance factory, remote from the everyday challenges that face ordinary people”.

The Government Equalities Office had laid out plans to slash the commission’s budget and reduce its powers, remove funding for its grants programme, and ask the private or voluntary sector to take over its national helpline.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Trevor Phillips’ appointment as the chair of the EHRC ends in September 2012. The government are looking for an appropriate successor. It was Mr Phillips’ decision to leave.” She declined to comment further.

An EHRC spokeswoman said: “As I understand it, he is not seeking another term.” She also declined to comment further.

The EHRC’s budget is set to fall to £26.8 million by the end of 2015, compared with £70 million when it launched in 2007, and it warns in the plan that this will mean “significant” changes.

The strategic plan lays out the EHRC’s three “strategic priorities” for the next three years.

The first is to promote fairness and equality of opportunity in the economy, such as tackling the causes of the “pay gap” between the salaries of disabled and non-disabled people, and ensuring decisions by the government and the public and private sector “take full account of equality and human rights”.

It also wants to promote fair access to public services, including “dignity and autonomy” in social care.

Its third priority will be “promoting dignity and respect and ensuring people’s safety”, including a programme to reduce disability-related bullying in schools and workplaces, and tracking the implementation of recommendations from its well-received inquiry into disability-related harassment.

The plan says legal action will continue to be the EHRC’s “last resort, when nudge, persuasion and advice have not proved effective”, and that it will have to move from providing direct services such as a helpline and grants to being “a catalyst for change and improvement”.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Government’s immigration decision will ‘marginalise disabled people’

April 4, 2012 – 9:00 am

The government has been heavily criticised for its decision not to accept the part of the UN disability convention that protects disabled immigrants.

The UK Disabled People’s Council (UKDPC) spoke out after immigration minister Damian Green announced that the government would not be removing the UK’s “reservation” on article 18 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

If there was no reservation, article 18 would recognise the rights of disabled immigrants to the UK not to be discriminated against on the grounds of their impairment.

But the Labour and coalition governments have both kept the reservation in place since the UK ratified the convention in 2009.

Last week, Green said the reservation allowed the coalition to apply its own immigration rules and avoided creating another way for people to challenge immigration decisions.

But he also said the reservation would “preserve the right to safeguard the public purse from excessive demands which may be placed on it”.

UKDPC called on the government to produce the equality impact assessment it should have carried out on the decision so it could demonstrate what these “excessive demands” were.

It said the government had already used the argument of financial necessity to push through its Welfare Reform Act, and accused the government of “using the financial situation of the country against the promotion of disabled people’s rights, whenever possible”.

UKDPC said it was “very disappointed” with Green’s decision, which would “further marginalise disabled people in our community”.

It pointed out that article 18 does not give disabled people any extra rights than under immigration laws, but merely exists to “strengthen existing laws and promote disabled people’s rights”.

A Home Office spokesman said:  “We do not believe this decision will marginalise or segregate disabled people.

“The UK already has some of the strongest laws in the world on disability discrimination and this is not affected by the reservation.

“We believe the reservation was necessary to safeguard our ability to apply immigration policies and safeguard the border.”

But he declined to comment on UKDPC’s claim that the government was using the country’s financial situation to attack disabled people’s rights, or on whether the Home Office would produce an impact assessment on its decision.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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New PIP consultation adds fuel to concerns

April 3, 2012 – 9:00 am

A new consultation on disability living allowance (DLA) reform has added fuel to concerns that the government is ignoring the likely impact of the changes on disabled people’s lives, say campaigners.

Disability Rights UK (DR UK) spoke out after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) quietly published the latest consultation document on its plans to replace working-age DLA with a new personal independence payment (PIP).

The document lays out plans for some of the detailed rules on PIP.

Among the proposals is a key change to the rules governing payment of DLA to people on the Motability car scheme who are admitted to hospital.

Currently, DLA payments stop after a disabled person has spent 28 days as an in-patient, but claimants who use their DLA mobility component to pay for a Motability vehicle can continue to receive those payments until the end of their lease.

But these payments are also now set to stop after 28 days, meaning PIP claimants who spend more than a month in hospital are likely to lose their Motability vehicles.

It is not yet clear exactly when this change will be brought in, as the document says only that the change will be rolled out “from 2013 alongside the implementation of PIP”.

Neil Coyle, director of policy and campaigns for DR UK, said the government appeared to have ignored the potential costs of the suggested new rule.

It could mean disabled people not being able to drive home from hospital or finding it impossible to travel to work, while the government could face extra hospital costs from delayed discharges.

The consultation document also says that PIP will often be awarded for short fixed-term periods of just one or two years, although longer term awards of five or 10 years “may be more appropriate” in other cases.

Coyle said he expected fewer people to qualify for the new PIP than even the government had predicted, leading to more “wasteful and stressful” assessments and appeals, and a huge backlog in the PIP system.

He warned that the move to PIP could see a “never-ending” revolving door for many disabled people from PIP assessment to appeal to another assessment, as has happened with the much-criticised employment and support allowance, the new out-of-work disability benefit.

He said he feared many disabled people would simply “feel it is not worth the effort” to claim PIP.

The new document says that the levels at which PIP will be paid will not be announced until the chancellor makes his autumn statement later this year.

DWP will start to phase in PIP for new claimants from April 2013, and begin to reassess existing DLA claimants from Oct 2013.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Heathrow trial could provide quick fix for broken wheelchairs

April 2, 2012 – 9:00 am

A decision by Heathrow Airport to trial a new wheelchair repair service in time for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics has been welcomed by young disabled campaigners.

The move was mentioned last week by BAA, which runs Heathrow, at a meeting of the all- party parliamentary group for young disabled people.

Two years ago, research by the Trailblazers group of young disabled campaigners found that the fear of damage to electric wheelchairs – which can cost up to £16,000 – while being loaded and unloaded from flights was a major source of anxiety for young disabled people.

The Heathrow trial is set to run from July to September, spanning both the Olympics and Paralympics, and will see a specialist technician stationed at the airport to fix faults on the spot.

About 80 per cent of London 2012 visitors – including many Paralympic athletes – are expected to pass through Heathrow.

Trailblazer Jagdeep Sehmbi, from Birmingham, said: “This is great news for disabled flyers. A couple of years ago, I arrived back into Heathrow after a holiday to find my wheelchair broken and bent out of shape.

“I’m dependent on my wheelchair for independence day to day, so I’m stranded when it is out of action.

“I really feel for disabled people from other countries who experience the same thing, when they have paid hundreds or even thousands of pounds to come here and enjoy their holidays.

“Knowing there will be an expert at the airport should the worst happen means that people can relax and enjoy their breaks.”

A Heathrow spokeswoman said: “Heathrow faces a huge challenge during London 2012 as we will see large numbers of passengers with reduced mobility arriving and departing during the Paralympic Games.

“To ensure the facilities we already have available are suitable we will be putting in place additional measures which include ramp-lifting devices [to allow baggage handlers to move wheelchairs up and down], toilets, lightweight aisle chairs, changing places and a wheelchair repair service. Final details of the wheelchair repair service are still being finalised.”

The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, which runs Trailblazers, said it hoped the wheelchair repair trial would be successful and that London 2012 “might bring us the legacy of a permanent wheelchair repair service at our busiest airport”.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Mayor’s staff refuse manifesto delivered by disabled campaigners

April 1, 2012 – 9:00 am

Staff working for London’s mayor have refused to accept a manifesto of demands for improvements to public transport that was delivered to his offices by disabled campaigners.

Staff and volunteers from Transport for All (TfA), which campaigns for accessible transport for disabled and older Londoners, tried to deliver the manifesto to the Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson, following a protest outside the City Hall offices.

But City Hall staff refused to accept the manifesto, which instead had to be left propped up outside the building’s front entrance.

Faryal Velmi, TfA’s director, told them: “It is completely ridiculous that we are in City Hall and we are being asked to send this to the mayor in the post.”

More than 50 disabled people had attended the protest outside the offices near Tower Bridge.

Johnson had earlier failed to turn up at a pre-election “hustings” event organised by TfA and Inclusion London, even though his three other main rivals attended and answered questions from an audience of about 100 disabled Londoners.

TfA has set out a “charter for change” to transform the accessibility of London’s transport network.

Velmi told the hustings event: “It is scandalously true that in 2012, Deaf and disabled Londoners are often treated like second-class citizens as we try to get around this city and live our lives.”

The manifesto lays out suggestions for bus, tube and rail travel, and door-to-door services, and calls for improvements set to take place during the Olympics and Paralympics – including extra staff and volunteers and manual ramps providing platform-to-train access – to continue after the games.

The manifesto has five key demands: penalties for bus companies that fail to meet minimum access standards; a target for a third of tube stations to be step-free from street-level to train by 2018; restoring hundreds of staff lost through last year’s cost-cutting at London Underground; every bus stop to be accessible by 2018; and the lifting of a cap on Transport for London’s (TfL) contribution to the Taxicard service, which has led to “swingeing cuts” to the service.

The manifesto also criticises Johnson’s new “bus for London” as an “expensive missed opportunity” to improve accessibility.

It also points out that TfL set a target in 2006 of a third of all tube stations to be step-free by 2012. That promise was withdrawn and the latest target is for just 26 per cent of stations by 2018.

TfA says that only 15 of 270 tube stations are completely step-free from street-level to platform and from platform to train.

Among the other changes called for in the TfA manifesto are for a high-profile publicity campaign to remind parents with buggies that wheelchair-users have priority in bus wheelchair spaces.

No-one at City Hall was prepared to comment on the refusal to accept the manifesto.

A spokesman for Johnson also declined to comment.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Johnson leaves platform open to mayoral rivals

April 1, 2012 – 9:00 am

The three leading candidates seeking to replace Boris Johnson as mayor of London have laid out policies on accessible transport, disability hate crime and affordable housing in a bid to attract the votes of disabled Londoners.

Johnson caused anger among the audience by failing to turn up to the “hustings” event – organised by the user-led organisations Inclusion London and Transport for All (TfA) – despite having been invited nearly four months ago.

The other three main candidates, Labour’s Ken Livingstone, the Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick, and Green candidate Jenny Jones, summarised the policies they hope will convince disabled voters on 3 May, and answered questions from an audience of about 100 disabled people.

Livingstone, Johnson’s main election rival, pledged that the social model of disability would “underpin” his administration.

He promised that a third of London’s 270 underground stations would be made accessible and all bus-stops would be accessible by 2016. Only 63 tube stations are currently step-free from street-level to platform.

He said that all of London’s councils were struggling to fund the disabled and older people’s Freedom Pass because of Johnson’s “absolutely horrendous” fare increases.

And he warned that if Johnson won a second term there was “a real danger… that borough councils are going to start withdrawing or reducing the scope of the Freedom Pass”.

He said that his own pledge to cut bus and tube fares would save London boroughs £22 million in funding for the Freedom Pass.

Livingstone backed an idea suggested by a member of the audience to install some stairlifts in tube stations – rather than expensive vertical lifts – if the idea could be shown to work.

He also said he would set up a Transport for London co-operative to provide cheaper fuel to domestic consumers.

Brian Paddick, a former senior officer in the Metropolitan police, said the involvement of disabled people in tackling disability hate crime had been “late in coming” and that he would hold the Met police commissioner to account to “make sure that is done”.

He said there was need for a “change of culture in the Met so they actually take hate crime seriously, and particularly hate crime against Deaf and disabled people”.

Paddick said the service provided by bus drivers to disabled passengers should be written into bus companies’ contracts with Transport for London, and if drivers failed to comply with those terms the companies should be fined.

He also backed the idea of installing stairlifts in tube stations, and said he would prioritise introducing step-free access at the stations that were “most important” for disabled Londoners.

He said: “This is about your rights, your fundamental human rights, and I don’t care if we have to spend more money to make stations more accessible.”

Paddick said his party had identified brownfield sites in London where 360,000 homes could be built over the next decade, and that he would lease land owned by the mayor to developers so they could build social housing at “genuinely affordable rents”.

Jenny Jones accepted all the key demands laid out in Inclusion London’s own manifesto, including engaging with disabled people, tackling disability hate crime, increasing accessible and affordable housing, and supporting inclusive education and training.

She said there had been a “transport apartheid for far too long” and accepted all five of TfA’s key demands in its manifesto, on penalties for bus companies that fail on access, step-free tube stations, staffing of London Underground stations, funding for Taxicard and accessible bus stops.

She said TfA’s target for all bus stops to be accessible by 2018 should be brought forward to 2016, while she wanted to “immediately review” training of bus drivers, with the involvement of disabled people’s and older people’s groups.

She has also pledged to create new standards and targets for accessible high streets.

She told the meeting that the next mayor would have to start building “affordable, secure, accessible housing”. She has promised that 15 per cent of all new homes would be wheelchair-accessible.

She also criticised the “appalling decision” to allow Atos and Dow Chemicals – both of which have been heavily criticised by disabled campaigners – to sponsor the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

Johnson’s Conservative stand-in, the London Assembly member Richard Tracey, defended the mayor’s record on increasing the number of step-free tube stations and accessible bus stops and hailed his success in ensuring that 100 per cent of buses now have wheelchair ramps. He also promised to take the idea of installing stairlifts in tube stations to the mayor’s policy team.

But a spokesman for Johnson later declined to say whether the mayor had any targets for making all bus stops accessible, or for improving step-free access at tube stations.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Anger over Boris snub for user-led question time

March 31, 2012 – 9:00 am

London’s mayor has been criticised for failing to turn up for an event that provided an opportunity for disabled people to question candidates for May’s mayoral election.

Three of the four leading candidates for mayor attended the “hustings” organised by two disabled people’s organisations, Inclusion London and Transport for All (TfA), but the mayor Boris Johnson was said to be too busy to turn up.

Johnson’s decision to send another Conservative politician, Richard Tracey, in his place, caused anger among disabled audience members.

There was further anger when it emerged that Johnson would instead be attending a hustings next month organised by three non-user-led national disability charities: Mencap, Leonard Cheshire Disability and RNIB.

The three charities have not invited Inclusion London or Transport for All to their event.

Faryal Velmi, TfA’s director, said she was unhappy with the mayor’s decision, and that of the three charities to hold their own hustings – and not invite or consult with the capital’s leading user-led organisations.

She said: “It just follows the model they operate. Disabled people are not involved in the leadership of those organisations.”

She suggested that Johnson may have refused to attend because of the hostile reception he received at last October’s Disability Capital conference, where he and disabled people’s minister Maria Miller both received repeated, angry heckling from activists.

Henrietta Doyle, Inclusion London’s policy officer, added: “Boris Johnson’s support for Deaf and disabled people’s organisations is under question as he has turned his back on our hustings.”

A spokesman for Johnson said: “We have been approached by a number of disability organisations regarding mayoral debates but sadly competing commitments don’t allow us to accept all of them.

“Boris Johnson will be debating the other mayoral candidates at a hustings jointly held by Mencap, Leonard Cheshire and RNIB in April, and is looking forward to discussing the key issues there and answering the questions of disabled Londoners.”

But when Disability News Service asked why Johnson had chosen to attend an event organised by three national disability charities rather than user-led, pan-London organisations – and whether he was aware of the importance of such events being run by user-led organisations – the spokesman declined to comment further.

No-one from Leonard Cheshire Disability was available to comment on why they and the other two charities organised a rival hustings event, or have failed to invite London’s leading user-led organisations to attend.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Remploy campaign ‘could lead to factory occupations’

March 30, 2012 – 9:00 am

Closing many of the remaining Remploy factories is set to lead to direct action, national protests and even the occupation of the factories by disabled workers, a meeting of campaigners and union activists has heard.

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) this week pledged its full support for a campaign against the closures, at a meeting it called to discuss how it could help disabled Remploy workers threatened with losing their jobs.

Les Woodward, Remploy convenor for the GMB union, described the speed of the closures as “absolutely obscene”, with the first of the 36 factories set to close on 4 July, and the rest in the middle of August.

He argued that there was “no economic argument” for closing the factories, as costs had fallen and revenue risen sharply in the last year, with sales revenue set to increase from £104 million in 2010-11 to £116 million in 2011-12, and the cost of running the factory sites due to fall from £68 million to £50 million.

Woodward told the meeting that he believed the remaining 18 Remploy factories would close within a year, even though the government had said it would consult Remploy bosses on whether they could be sold or could survive as social enterprises run by employees.

He said Remploy unions had vowed this week to fight the closures “tooth and nail and with every breath of our body”, and added: “There is going to be a campaign that will involve civil disobedience. We are not going to go out of this quietly.”

Ellen Clifford, a member of DPAC’s steering group, said DPAC was strongly opposed to segregation of disabled people.

But she called for the Remploy factories not to be closed but to be reformed as user-led enterprises because “now is not the time to be making up to 2,000 people unemployed”, while it was non-disabled managers who had failed the Remploy workers.

She said the government had “no interest in an inclusive society whatsoever” and that the way to build an inclusive society was “to build an inclusive education system”, which would ensure disabled people had access to mainstream employment.

She also claimed that “some of the distaste” for the Remploy factories among parts of the disability movement was due to “snobbery” about factory work, and said: “Now is the time to stand behind the Remploy workers. It is not the time to argue amongst ourselves.”

There has been anger among Remploy workers, their unions and some disabled activists over support in large parts of the disability movement for the closure of what they see as “segregated”, “sheltered” factories.

Woodward told the meeting: “We believe that until we reach Utopia and get to a position where employers are willing to take on disabled employees without prejudice… then I am afraid that for some disabled people Remploy will be the preferred option.”

He called for Remploy to be run by disabled people, and said that members of the public were “queuing up” to support their campaign against the closures.

Clifford said she did not believe that the money saved by closing the factories would be spent instead on the Access to Work scheme, as the government had promised.

She added: “We don’t believe money from this is going to go anywhere near Access to Work.”

The DPAC members and union activists at the meeting agreed to hold a high-profile public meeting to oppose the closures on Thursday 19 April in central London, with the possibility of a national day of action, factory occupations and other direct action to follow.

Remploy has been unable to confirm Woodward’s estimates for increased factory revenue but said the fall in costs was due to the impact of the voluntary redundancy programme announced in January 2011.

A Remploy spokesman said the dates for the factory closures mentioned by Woodward were “not fixed”, although he admitted they were “contained in documents which the company is legally bound to provide to the government and which have been given to the unions and management forums”.

He added: “Much will depend on the outcome of the consultation and what steps may be agreed to reduce the number of proposed redundancies and what other strategies might emerge to mitigate redundancies.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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VisitEngland and DisabledGo Launch Online Disability Awareness Course

March 29, 2012 – 4:46 pm

VisitEngland, the national tourist board, today launched a new online training course to help tourism businesses deliver excellent service to disabled customers.  Designed in partnership with award-winning disability organisation DisabledGo, the course is specifically tailored to help those working within the tourism industry. One thousand free spaces have been made available to tourism businesses in England, and businesses can register up to 5 places each by visiting: http://www.disabledgo.com/tourismtraining

The course consists of six modules, which can be completed online at the user’s convenience; the whole course takes around one to two hours to complete.  The training starts with an introduction to disability, and then looks at different types of impairment, before offering practical advice on providing an accessible service and acceptable language to use when communicating with disabled customers. The final section talks through the legal obligations of tourism businesses under the Equality Act (2010). Progress can be saved throughout the course, allowing the user to log off and complete it over several hours or days, if necessary. 

Following successful completion of the course a certificate is made available for download, and each user’s account remains active, allowing them to log in at a later date to refer to the course material; sections can also be printed out for every-day reference.  This value-for-money course costs a maximum of £15 per person, with the cost decreasing the more people a business would like trained.

James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive, commented:

“It is vital that those working within the tourism industry have the knowledge and confidence to offer excellent customer service to disabled visitors, particularly as we prepare for the many exciting events taking place across England in 2012. Over £2 billion is spent in England by disabled visitors and their companions each year, and this new online Disability Awareness Course will enable staff to be more aware of their specific needs, providing a high quality and memorable visitor experience.”

Dr Gregory Burke, Founder and Chief Executive of DisabledGo, commented:

“At DisabledGo, we provide access information, access audits, equality and disability awareness training programmes for a wide range of business sectors. As the national tourist board, VisitEngland was a natural partner for us in developing a cost-effective, high-quality online course for the tourism industry and we are delighted to be working with them to launch this programme.”

Visit www.disabledgo.com/tourismtraining to register for free places on the online Disability Awareness course (only 1,000 free places available, limited to five per business).

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Budget 2012: Shock at new £10 billion threat to benefits

March 29, 2012 – 4:45 pm

Campaigners have warned that this week’s budget has produced a new and worrying attack on disabled people’s rights and support.

While most of the media’s attention was focused on measures such as reducing the top rate of income tax, freezing tax allowances for pensioners, and increasing the personal allowance, another announcement has alarmed disabled activists.

The chancellor, George Osborne, suggested that he could be planning another £10 billion of cuts to welfare spending, in addition to the £18 billion already announced since the coalition came to power two years ago.

He claimed that the welfare budget was set to rise “to consume one third of all public spending” if nothing was done to “curb welfare bills further”.

And he said that the next spending review would “have to confront this”, with figures showing that to keep spending cuts in other departments at their current levels, the government would “need to make [annual] savings in welfare of £10 billion by 2016”.

Disabled activists and disabled people’s organisations were horrified by the threat, and said they feared that many of these cuts could fall on disabled people and disability benefits.

Sue Marsh, a disabled activist who has played a key part in campaigning against the cuts to disability benefits in the new Welfare Reform Act, said her reaction on learning of the new threatened cuts was “beyond incredulity”.

She said she believed the government would focus any further cuts on groups such as disabled and unemployed people and single parents.

She said: “It was £18 billion before and I didn’t think they could do that. I already felt that £18 billion had brought us to a tipping point. Now it’s only about how far we tip. Any further cuts are just going to cause massive, massive hardship.

“If they tried to put through another £10 billion and 50 per cent of that fell on our shoulders, I think last year’s riots would look like nothing [in comparison].”

Neil Coyle, director of policy and campaigns for Disability Rights UK, said a £10 billion cut in welfare spending “could be very damaging for disabled people”, even if the cuts were not made directly to disability benefits [many disabled people claim mainstream payments such as pensions and jobseeker’s allowance].

He said he feared the Treasury wanted to transfer older people from disability living allowance (DLA) to the new personal independence payment (PIP), and make similar cuts to the 20 per cent reductions already announced to spending on DLA/PIP for working-age disabled people.

Roger Lewis, a member of the steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts, said he believed the government had placed disabled people “very clearly central in their sights” and that disabled people were “being squeezed off benefits and being squeezed out of work”, as so many had jobs in the cash-strapped public sector.

He said: “It feels like we are being marginalised in society and most of the gains we have won over the last 50 or 60 years are being completely pushed back. It is a very, very, very grim picture.”

Henrietta Doyle, Inclusion London’s policy officer, said: “We are very concerned at the possibility of a further £10 billion in cuts in welfare benefits because well over half of disabled people claim welfare benefits and tax credits.”

The Treasury has said that any decisions on the £10 billion – and how any cuts would be split between welfare and spending in other government departments – would only be made at the next spending review, although there have been reports that this review could be brought forward from 2015.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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New access guide to Guernsey is Go!

March 29, 2012 – 4:45 pm

The States of Guernsey has joined online access guide www.disabledgo.com providing a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to know more about access to the island.

The guide to Guernsey covers over 500 venues across the island including – cinemas, hotels, parks, leisure centres, state offices, high street stores, restaurants, tourist attractions – the list goes on and on.

The guide, which launched on Tuesday 13th March at the Beau Sejour Leisure Centre will enable islanders and visitors to find out whether venues have adapted toilets or parking close by but also specific details such as whether there are tactile or Braille markings in lifts or on doors, the dimensions of toilets, the positioning of fixtures and fittings and whether you can request large print or Braille information.

Speaking at the launch Deputy Jane Stephens, Disability Champion of, the States of Guernsey, said that the scheme, which will run for five years…

“will give disabled islanders, carers and many others the information they need to plan their outings in advance and to find places they can be sure of visiting in comfort and with dignity.”

Deputy Stephens went on to say: “the guide provides an excellent resource for Guernsey, which will be useful to islanders in their day-to-day lives, and will also be of real value to visitors.”

DisabledGo have been working in Guernsey with the support of the Policy Council, the Culture and Leisure Department and the Commerce and Employment Department, as well as with the help of three local surveyors who have been trained and employed by DisabledGo especially for this project.

All of the information provided on DisabledGo-Guernsey will also be available on the ‘Looking Local’ service on the red button on your TV, so if you don’t have access to a computer at home you can still get the information you need.

If you would like more information about DisabledGo-Guernsey please contact Rachel Felton, External Relations Manager (E: rachel.felton@disabledgo.com T: 01438 842710).

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Protesters to shame Atos over inaccessible offices

March 29, 2012 – 9:00 am

Campaigners are to protest outside the company which conducts “fitness for work” assessments of disabled people for the government, but has leased inaccessible buildings to carry them out.

The protest in Norwich tomorrow (March 23) is being supported by two disabled people’s organisations, Norwich Access Group and Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People (NCODP).

They say the Norwich offices used by Atos Healthcare to carry out the much-criticised work capability assessments (WCAs) – which test eligibility for out-of-work disability benefits – are inaccessible to wheelchair-users.

They also say that public transport links are too far away from the offices for them to be used by many disabled people attending their assessments.

Last July, the Commons work and pensions select committee criticised Atos for holding many assessments across the country in inaccessible buildings.

George Saunders, chair of Norwich Access Group, said: “Our government has awarded a multi-million pound contract to a company which can’t even rent a building which their customers can access.

“I think this is a real statement of the coalition government’s attitude towards disabled people.”

Mark Harrison, NCODP’s chief executive, added: “This multinational company makes profits from disabled people and disabled people can’t even get into their premises.

“Everything this coalition government does seem to have a negative effect on disabled people, their families and carers.

“This is yet another example of our elected representatives putting the needs of private business before those of the poorest in society.”

The protest was called following the treatment of a disabled couple at the Norwich offices, and an incident involving a disabled veteran at Atos’s Ipswich offices.

Elly Everett was told she could not enter the Norwich building to accompany her husband Glen for his work capability assessment because she uses a wheelchair, even though she had attended her own test there several days earlier.

Because she was unable to accompany her husband, his assessment had to be cancelled.

Glen Everett said: “We felt humiliated. The receptionist said she has to turn people away every day. How do they think we feel? We feel like second-class citizens.”

The protesters will also be highlighting the case of Dene Carter, who says that an Atos doctor caused him “horrific pain” by forcing his leg into “places it can’t go by itself” to prove that he was “fit for work”.

Carter, whose injuries were caused through active service in the infantry, was subsequently declared “fit for work”, even though a separate assessment by Atos for his war pension found he was “not capable of work”.

He said: “I get the feeling the doctors are under pressure to test people to get them off benefits.”

Harrison said: “How can an ex-serviceman be treated in this way? How can one system declare him fit for work (knowing that medical investigation was still ongoing) and the other declare him unfit for work? Which assessment would you trust?”

No-one from Atos Healthcare was available to comment.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Peers and MPs hear of young man’s six-month hospital nightmare

March 28, 2012 – 9:00 am

A disabled peer has dedicated a ground-breaking parliamentary report on independent living to a young man who has been prevented from leaving hospital for more than six months by “bureaucratic failure” and a lack of support.

Baroness [Jane] Campbell said his case illustrated her fear that disabled people’s hard-won rights to independent living “may be built on sand”, and showed why the inquiry report published by the joint committee on human rights was so “timely”.

A parliamentary seminar on the report heard that she had met the young disabled man – who she said was called Rikesh – while receiving treatment herself for a serious chest infection last September.

He had been due to return home, but Baroness Campbell was amazed to find him still in the specialist respiratory unit of St Thomas’ Hospital when she was readmitted two months ago.

Because he had undergone a tracheostomy, it was decided that his support needs – which had previously been met through direct payments and personal assistants funded by his council – had now become health needs.

Responsibility for his support passed from social services to his primary care trust, which insisted on taking control of his personal assistants.

Rikesh has now spent six months living in the hospital, at a rising cost of about £225,000 and without even the support he needs to leave the intensive care ward for a coffee or some fresh air.

He hopes to finally return home next month, but even this is not certain.

His ordeal was described in a speech written by Baroness Campbell – but delivered by her fellow disabled peer Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson – at the parliamentary seminar held to discuss the committee’s report on the implementation of disabled people’s right to independent living, which was published earlier this month.

Baroness Campbell played a lead role in the report but has again been readmitted to hospital and so was unable to deliver her speech in person.

She said that Rikesh’s case showed that disabled people were still being institutionalised “through bureaucratic failure, red-tape and a lack of support”.

She said: “Such waste and inefficiency is shocking at any time, but especially so in the context of the reforms and spending cuts presently being implemented [by the government].

“The UN Convention [on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities] makes clear that countries should progressively realise disabled people’s human rights within the maximum of their available resources.

“We are clearly failing to do so if we allow almost a quarter of a million pounds to be wasted in such a way.

“For those who say independent living is an unaffordable ideal, I say that having control over our own lives is a way to cut through such waste.”

Baroness Campbell said she feared that she could end up in a similar situation to Rikesh if her local authority was to cut her care package or demand that she transferred to NHS care, and was “only a few bureaucratic decisions away from returning to the inequality I endured at age 18”.

Diane Mulligan, a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s disability committee, who leads on its work on the UN convention, told the seminar that the inquiry’s report was “fantastic, exemplary and extremely timely” and could influence other countries that have signed up to the convention.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Budget 2012: Tax statements ‘could lead to hate crime’

March 27, 2012 – 9:00 am

A measure announced in this week’s budget could lead to a further increase in disability hate crime, campaigners have warned.

There has been considerable alarm at plans laid out in George Osborne’s budget speech to send annual statements to 20 million tax-payers, from 2014, showing how their taxes are being spent.

Osborne said the statements would show how much of their own tax bill funds “healthcare, education, or welfare, and how much is spent on servicing interest payments on the national debt”.

He added: “People will know what they are paying, and what they are paying it for.”

The Treasury wants to send out “pie charts” showing total government expenditure divided into slices of a pie that represent spending in departments such as health and education, with the largest slice by far likely to be labelled simply “welfare”.

But there were real concerns this week that this could suggest to some people that disability benefits are far higher than they are and lead to more of the disablist hostility that has been stirred up by frequent coalition attacks on alleged benefit fraud and dependency.

Stephen Brookes, a coordinator of the Disability Hate Crime Network, said the plans outlined so far were “pretty shoddy” in how they would present welfare spending.

He said the statements would “most probably” increase “lower impact” disability hate crime, as had happened in recent months because of the rhetoric around the government’s welfare reforms.

Henrietta Doyle, Inclusion London’s policy officer, said she feared the annual statements would stir up hostility, even though disability benefits were a small proportion of welfare spending.

She said: “Because of the level of coverage in the media the public have been linking over and over disabled people and welfare benefits.

“They just automatically put the two together, which could increase the antagonism against disabled people, and may lead to more harassment.”

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman refused to comment on whether it would ask the Treasury to take measures to ensure the annual statements did not stir up more hostility towards disabled people.

He said: “It would not be for one department to comment on another department’s policies.”

But there was some better news in the budget, with the announcement of an extra £20 million for voluntary sector advice organisations in both 2013-14 and 2014-15, to “support the sector as it adapts to changes in the way that it is funded”.

The government is pushing through plans to cut £350 million from the legal aid budget, and confirmed in December that it would not be replacing millions of pounds in grants formerly provided by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to organisations that provide expert legal support for discrimination cases.

Neil Coyle, director of policy and campaigns for Disability Rights UK, said he was “excited to learn of £20 million per year for advice services”, but said the money would simply be “a plaster over legal aid cuts”.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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IPhone App detailing London’s disabled access first of its kind!

March 26, 2012 – 5:24 pm

Our new iPhone App, ‘My DisabledGo London’, has launched today.  The App, which has been developed entirely in house, is free to use and features over 20,000 venues across the capital.

DisabledGo has designed the App for anyone who wants to find out more about access whether they are a visitor or a Londoner. The App is unique, only featuring venues that have been fully assessed by a trained access surveyor.

Information featured on the App is pulled from our website www.disabledgo.com, which now has access information to over 100,000 venues from across the UK and Ireland.

The App is based on feedback from over 100 involvement events held in 2011 and has been developed in partnership with 20 London Boroughs.

Speaking about the App DisabledGo’s Chief Executive, Dr. Gregory Burke said,

‘We are really excited to be launching this App, it features information to all kinds of venues – tourist attractions, hotels, restaurants, retail outlets, the list goes on! People who use our website, www.disabledgo.com, told us it would be great to have the same comprehensive service on the move and that’s what we’ve delivered, it will be great to hear what people think.’

You can download the App free on iTunes from today or you can visit DisabledGo’s website www.disabledgo.com for further information. Please spread the word!

My DisabledGo London

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

26th March 2012

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Funding for ‘one size fits all’ advice service leads to fears for disability specialists

March 26, 2012 – 9:00 am

A user-led advice service that has lost its council funding fears similar cuts could have serious financial consequences for disabled people in other parts of the country.

Calderdale DART (Disabled Advice Resource Team) has provided information to disabled people for nearly three decades, but its long-term future is now in “serious doubt” after its local authority withdrew its funding.

Calderdale Council in west Yorkshire will provide funding for a “one size fits all” general advice and information service, run by Calderdale Citizens Advice Bureau, rather than continuing to fund specialist advisers such as Calderdale DART.

But Tony Kay, DART’s manager, said: “This just isn’t going to work. Disabled people are going to suffer financially because they are not going to get the advice that they need.”

DART has received widespread support from disabled people, with one calling the council’s funding decision “downright disgusting and disgraceful” and another a “travesty”, while praising DART’s “first class” and “invaluable” service.

Kay pointed to the need for specialist advice on a raft of changes to disability benefits that will soon be introduced through the government’s Welfare Reform Act, including the new personal independence payment that will replace working-age disability living allowance.

DART, which is based in Halifax, this week heard that it had secured a transitional council grant while it seeks alternative long-term funding over the next 18 months.

But Kay warned that other councils could copy Calderdale’s move in a bid to cut costs, and added: “If other councils follow the route that Calderdale Council has gone down, inevitably it is going to exclude a lot of small, specialist organisations.”

Kay has been involved with DART for almost its entire 28 years, and said it was originally set up because of the need for specialist advice services.

He said the transitional grant was “very good news”, but added: “What still appears to be clear to us is that the council no longer believes it has the responsibility to provide funding for a specialist disability advice service and that it wants to pass on this responsibility to other funders.”

In 2010-11, DART helped nearly 1,200 people and dealt with more than 7,000 problems.

Calderdale Council’s cabinet member for communities, Cllr Pauline Nash, said the council was “confident that specialist advice for people with disabilities and their carers can be provided through the Citizens Advice Bureau”.

She said: “Within the contract with CAB, we have a number of agreed specific targets to ensure that people with disabilities and their carers have access to the best advice available.

“However, we recognise the valuable work that DART has been doing and have provided £74,000 transitional funding over 18 months to give DART the time and the opportunity to look at ways in which it can either provide advice services in a different way or seek alternative funding.”

Any organisations or individuals who can help with funding or support should visit the Calderdale DART website.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Boris refuses to test accessible version of cycle hire scheme

March 25, 2012 – 9:00 am

London’s mayor could be breaching his Equality Act duties by refusing to trial an accessible version of his cycle hire scheme, it has been claimed.

Boris Johnson launched his high-profile cycle scheme – which is sponsored by Barclays – in 2010, allowing anyone to hire a bike from one of hundreds of “docking” points across the city.

The scheme – which is not accessible to many disabled people – has so far been used more than 10 million times, with nearly 140,000 cycles being hired every week.

But despite the scheme’s apparent success, the mayor has refused to pilot a scheme that would allow disabled Londoners and tourists to increase their enjoyment of the city’s royal parks by hiring one of a small number of accessible hand-cycles.

The idea was suggested by disabled access consultant Tracey Proudlock, a wheelchair-user who lives in north London, who wrote to Johnson about her idea in January 2011, and has suggested Hyde Park as the venue for a pilot.

She thought it would be an ideal scheme to trial in the lead-up to the London 2012 Paralympics.

She said: “If you invested some money in having some decent bikes than I think it would be a big success.

“It’s about just getting a little bit fitter and getting out and having a good time.”

Johnson passed Proudlock’s idea to his deputy, Richard Barnes, who met with Proudlock last year but has now told her the mayor’s office was “not able to progress this particular idea”.

She suggested that the mayor’s refusal to set up an accessible trial of the scheme could be a breach of his public sector equality duty under the Equality Act.

Among the problems the mayor’s team blame for turning down the idea include the difficulty of finding space for the docking stations for the hand-cycles, problems with designing a bike “to suit all disabilities”, and ensuring the bikes were evenly spread across all the hire stations, as well as the cost of the project.

But Proudlock said all of these problems could be easily solved, particularly as there were many existing suppliers of hand-cycles, and the pilot scheme could be restricted to just one of London’s spacious royal parks, such as Hyde Park.

The mayor’s office has so far been unable to comment.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Success in euthanasia court case would be ‘catastrophe’

March 25, 2012 – 9:00 am

Disabled activists have again been forced to warn of the “catastrophic” consequences of a weakening in the laws on euthanasia and assisted suicide, after the latest “right to die” high court ruling.

Tony Nicklinson, from Wiltshire, this week won the right to have his bid for legalised euthanasia examined in depth by the high court, after his lawyers defeated a government attempt to have the case thrown out.

Nicklinson has spoken of his wish to end his own life at some stage in the future, but because he has “locked-in syndrome” – a condition in which he is almost completely paralysed – he says he would need a doctor to kill him.

He wants the courts to declare that it would be legal – on the common law grounds of “necessity” – for a doctor to kill him at a time of his choosing, if sanctioned by the courts in advance. At present, such an act would be seen by the courts as murder.

Nicklinson’s lawyers are also arguing that criminalising euthanasia is incompatible with his right to respect for his private life under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mr Justice Charles ruled this week that Nicklinson’s case could be heard in full by the high court.

Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick, of the disabled people’s organisation Not Dead Yet UK, which campaigns against weakening the law on euthanasia and assisted suicide, expressed sympathy with Nicklinson’s situation, but said the legal changes he was seeking would be a “catastrophe” for other disabled people.

He said: “The biggest problem is that these cases are about individual people, but a change in the law would be for everybody. The problem is what comes behind that change. That is where the danger is.”

Mike Smith, a trustee of Disability Rights UK and a commissioner with the Equality and Human Rights Commission – but speaking in a personal capacity – said: “It is complex, but it does not yet seem clear to me that the rights of an individual outweigh the rights to a whole group of people to be protected from potential group harm.”

Smith said he was also worried about the “wider impact” that cases such as Nicklinson’s have on public perceptions of disabled people, sending the message that “disabled people’s lives are miserable”, particularly in a time of austerity where “there are limited resources and people are not getting the support they need to live equal lives”.

In a statement to the court, Nicklinson has said that he has “no privacy or dignity left” and was “fed up” with his life, and added: “I am asking for my right to choose when and how to die to be respected.”

Nicklinson said in a written statement after the ruling: “This is good news indeed. I am delighted that we can now move on to discuss the pertinent issues properly in a dispassionate court of law instead of the emotionally charged glare of the media.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, which is opposing his claim, said: “We cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

But he said the government believed that any change to the law “in this emotive and contentious area is an issue of individual conscience and a matter for parliament to decide rather than government policy”.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Remploy factories have no place in modern world, says disabled MP

March 24, 2012 – 9:00 am

A disabled MP has backed the government’s decision to withdraw funding from the remaining sheltered factories run by Remploy.

The government announced last week that 36 of the 54 Remploy factories across the UK would close by the end of 2012, with the loss of more than 1,500 disabled people’s jobs, while there would be further consultation over the future of the other 18 factories.

Stephen Lloyd, the Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne, told Disability News Service this week that he supported the coalition’s decision.

The former disability consultant said those disabled people who were losing their jobs would understandably be “very angry and upset by what’s happened”, but he added: “The old-fashioned, paternalistic, institutionalised approach of Remploy has no place in the modern world.”

He said his support for the decision depended on the government meeting its pledge that “every penny saved will go into helping more disabled people into [mainstream] jobs”, with “significant levels of support” to help former Remploy workers into mainstream work, and “generous” packages for those for whom this was not possible.

He said it was “not realistic” to expect all former Remploy workers to find mainstream work, but he was “very, very hopeful” that more would be found work than happened with those who lost their jobs after the closure of Remploy factories by the last Labour government.

He said: “Having been involved in disability equality for over 20 years I have always been passionate about ensuring more disabled people are in mainstream employment.

“Disability equality, respect and opportunity for disabled people is one of the things that brought me back into politics.

“In their heart of hearts, people who actually understand this subject know that this decision by the government is correct.”

But he added: “If I get a sniff that this is part of a Treasury-driven initiative and the money [from the Remploy closures] goes back to the Treasury, I will publicly fight it tooth and nail.”

Tracey Proudlock, a leading disabled access and disability consultant, said she believed that about a third of Remploy’s employees would find sustainable, worthwhile jobs through Work Choice, the government’s scheme for supporting disabled people into employment.

Proudlock said she expected the other two-thirds would either resist the idea of a new career in mainstream employment, possibly because they were close to retirement, or would find it impossible to find jobs.

Her experience of supporting disabled people into mainstream employment from a sheltered workshop run by a London local authority in the early 1990s has convinced her that many ex-Remploy workers will be successful in finding work, if given the right support.

She said: “I think these people leaving Remploy will probably need high levels of support for an appreciable period of time. It is not a temporary thing.

“Finding them mainstream work will be complex, but very, very worthwhile, because some of them will come away with meaningful, inclusive work.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Tanni spearheads Lords legal aid victory

March 24, 2012 – 9:00 am

A disabled peer has spearheaded the latest defeat of the government over its plans to reform the legal aid system and cut £350 million from its budget.

Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson told peers that plans to force people to use a telephone helpline as the first point of contact when seeking help with cases of debt, discrimination, community care and special educational needs would create serious problems for many disabled people.

Her amendment to the legal aid, sentencing and punishment of offenders bill would ensure that those eligible for legal aid advice would be able to access it in the forms most suited to their needs, such as a face-to-face meeting.

She said some disabled people might “struggle to explain complex problems over the phone”, while “people with language or speech difficulties may be deterred from seeking advice”. The government proposal would have saved less than £2 million a year.

The crossbench peer said that a “telephone-only legal aid service” might suit many people, but “those with language difficulties, learning difficulties or mental health problems may be disadvantaged”.

Lord Wigley, the Plaid Cymru peer, said the government’s proposals would “in effect disfranchise individuals with learning difficulties or disabilities that impair their ability to communicate efficiently from being able to access advice” and would “put up shocking barriers to equal access to justice”.

The Liberal Democrat justice minister Lord McNally said that “face-to-face advice” would still be an option in those “exceptional circumstances” when suitable adaptations could not be made to the service.

But he said a telephone service would be easier to access and of a higher standard than face-to-face contact, although he did make a concession by agreeing that those seeking help with community care cases would not need to use the “telephone gateway”, because of the complexity of that area of the law.

Despite the concession, Baroness Grey-Thompson’s amendment was passed by 234 votes to 206.

The government wants to cut about £350 million a year from the £2 billion legal aid budget for England and Wales by 2014-15, but has now suffered a string of defeats over the bill in the Lords.

Last week, it was heavily defeated over plans to remove legal aid for complex benefits appeals.

But coalition MPs are likely to attempt to reverse the defeats when the legislation returns to the Commons, as they did with amendments to the welfare reform bill.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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