Jeremy Moore Speech to Inside Government Disability Forum (27 October 2011)

ODI’s Director spoke at the Inside Government Disability Forum on Thursday 27 October 2011

Speaking at the Inside Government Disability Forum on Thursday 27 October 2011, ODI Director Jeremy Moore said that a wide-ranging debate on disability policy will start in December with the publication of the Disability Strategy discussion document..

Leading Disability Awareness across Government Keynote speech for Inside Government Disability Rights Forum

Introduction

Thank you for inviting me to give today’s keynote speech.

I want to talk today about

the challenges facing government as it seeks to improve the life chances of disabled people
the plans the government has for meeting those challenges
and about the way we should work together to achieve the best we can for disabled people.

As some of you may know I recently took up my role as the new Director for Independent Living and ODI at DWP - actually 3 weeks and 3 days ago!

So this was a good opportunity to look at what has been happening in and around the ODI since the 2005 report: Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People.

Substantial progress on securing and promoting the rights of disabled people has already been made since then.

The Government is working towards removing the obstacles that prevent disabled people from achieving their potential and leading full, rewarding lives:

The UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People is being implemented and the Equality Act (which includes a Public Sector Duty for government departments to involve disabled people) has come into force.
Equality 2025 has been set up; it is a Non Departmental Public Body of disabled people who deliver independent, strategic advice to government departments, ensuring that disabled people are heard in the earliest stages of policy development.
Pathfinder initiatives such as the new Right to Control - which give disabled people more choice and control over the support they need to go about their daily lives - are being piloted. Seven local authority areas are working with Jobcentre Plus to test how the Right to Control will work for disabled adults.
Further, attitudes to disabled people are improving. In 2005, 77% of people in the UK thought of disabled people as the same as everyone else, compared with 85% of people in 2009.

More to be done

But it is obvious that there is still a lot more to be done.

At a national level, there are two million children and young people who are identified as having a special educational need or who are disabled.
The life outcomes of young disabled people and those with special educational needs are disproportionately poor. Post-16, young people with special educational needs are more than twice as likely to be out of education, employment or training as those without.
Many disabled people want to work but disabled people are far less likely to be in employment; in 2010 employment rates of disabled people were around 48 per cent, compared with 78 per cent of non-disabled people.
The benefit system currently does not fully support disabled people and is seen by many to be unfair and difficult to administer.
There is also a degree of benevolent prejudice towards disabled people which can be as damaging to long-term attitudes as overt prejudice.
In the 2009 British Social Attitudes Survey, over three quarters of respondents reported thinking that disabled people need caring for some or all of the time and four in ten respondents felt that disabled people could not be as productive as non disabled people.
Further, there is still work to be done tackling disability hate crime. Crown Prosecution Service data for 2009/10 shows that 5 per cent of the almost 14,000 hate crime prosecutions in that period were related to disability hate crime.

So what is the government proposing to do about this?

What the government is doing - education

On education, the Government is committed to providing personalised support to young disabled people. The Department for Education’s Green Paper Support and aspiration sets out the Government’s proposals to improve support for disabled young people from birth to adulthood.

The vision set out in the Green Paper is informed by the expertise of families, teachers, local authorities, health professionals and national and local organisations working with them.

The consultation ran from 9 March to 30 June and around a quarter of the 2000 plus responses were from parents and parents’ organisations. All responses will be considered carefully before the Government publishes its response.

What the government is doing - employment

On employment, the Work Choice Scheme was launched in 2010. This programme is designed to ensure that disabled people with more complex support needs - that can not be met through other employment support provision - have access to support to help them find the right work.

Liz Sayce of RADAR was recently asked to conduct an independent review of the Government’s specialist disability employment programmes. One of the key aims of the review was to make sure that the existing funding can be used as effectively as possible to support more disabled people into work. The findings were published in June.

Maria Miller welcomed the central theme of the review: that resources for supporting disabled people into employment should be focused on disabled people themselves rather than on specific institutions.

She has already acted upon the review’s recommendation to establish a cross-government Ministerial group to oversee a new strategy for disability employment.

The review and consultation are about spending money differently. At a time when virtually all other budgets are being squeezed, the £300 million spent every year on specialist disability employment programmes like Access to Work has been protected. Access to Work will also be reformed so that disabled people can apply for jobs with funding already secured for any adaptations and equipment they will need.

What the government is doing - DLA reform

However, some disabled people will need additional financial support, even when they are in work. This includes the support provided by a fair, transparent and sustainable benefit system.

Many individuals and disabled people’s organisations have said that the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) needs to be updated.

For example, there is no straight forward way of reviewing entitlement to the Disability Living Allowance. Some conditions of entitlement give more weight to those whose needs arise as a result of physical impairment than those whose needs arise from mental, cognitive or sensory impairments.

This is why the Government is committed to reforming the DLA. But recognising the importance of maintaining an extra-costs benefit for disabled people. This will create a fairer system, and ensure that the disabled people who find it most difficult to lead full, active, independent lives continue to receive support.

The Welfare Reform Bill sets out the framework to reform the DLA. By replacing it with a new benefit for working-age people from April 2013 - Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

This will be a non-means-tested and non-taxable cash benefit. Payable to disabled people whether they are in or out of work.

The government recognises that it is crucial to get this right. This is why the proposals for the new PIP assessment are being developed in collaboration with a group of independent specialists - including representatives of RADAR and Equality 2025 - and were informally consulted on over the summer.

A second draft of the assessment criteria, building on the feedback received and the findings from the testing will be published later in the autumn.

What the government is doing - Hate crime and attitudes to disabled people

One of the areas where disabled people’s user-led organisations are providing valuable support to government is in tackling disability hate crime.

Hate crime is unacceptable; we must all take tackling it very seriously.

This is why government has been working with agencies and the voluntary sector to improve the reporting and recording of disability hate crime, which is believed to be under-reported and frequently not centrally recorded.

Police forces are now formally collecting data across all five monitored strands of hate.

Increasing the reporting and recording of disability hate crime will mean that there is a better understanding of the extent of the problem, ensuring that victims get the support they need.

The Government is also developing a new cross-government action plan on hate crime. This will also take account of findings from Hidden in Plain Sight, the EHRC’s report of their inquiry into disability-related harassment.

This report sets out a range of recommendations for both national and local public authorities to prevent and tackle disability-related harassment.

Legacy 2012

On a happier note, the Government sees the 2012 Olympic legacy as a key tool for encouraging participation and changing attitudes to disabled people.

In summer 2012, the UK will go further than any previous host nation to hold the most accessible Olympic and Paralympic Games ever.

By next year, around a quarter of all London Underground stations will have been made step-free. Already, London’s 8,500 buses are fully low floor accessible; all of London’s 22,000 black cabs have wheelchair ramps; and over 6,400 trains meet accessibility requirements.

This is already making a tangible difference to the lives of London’s one million disabled people.

This is because the Games are about more than just medal success.

While they present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase the exceptional talents and sporting expertise of disabled people, the government’s vision for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is bigger than this.

This is why the DWP is working with officials from across government and the Olympic and Paralympic family. To improve opportunities to participate in sport. To encourage community engagement and participation. To transform perceptions of disabled people.

Working Together

Finally, I said that I wanted to say something about how we work together.

Government is committed the principles of co-production and to listening to the needs and views of disabled people. The role and value of disabled people’s user-led organisations - in providing a strong voice for disabled people - is well understood. This commitment to co-production is supported by everything we, in Independent Living and the ODI, do.

We work with disabled people and their user-led organisations to listen to and represent the interests of disabled people in all areas of Government policy; and we work with stakeholders to ensure a strong evidence base for policy decisions.

The Government is currently preparing the progress report on the UK’s implementation of the UN Convention. This provides a useful snapshot of the continually evolving position in the UK as we work towards achieving true equality for disabled people.

Many of you will have seen and may have commented on the draft report on the ODI's website earlier this year.

It shows clearly that the UK is well-placed on implementation of the Convention, although more needs to be done to realise their ambition of equality for disabled people.

This ambition is supported by the vision for disability equality: to remove barriers in order to create opportunities for them to fulfil their potential and be fully participating members of society.

The Disability Strategy, which we will co-produce with disabled people, will set out a narrative for how this vision can be achieved. The strategy must reflect the lived experience of disabled people. We have begun the process of engagement so that disabled people are fully involved in defining the content and nature of the strategy in line with our commitment to co-production.

This will be a fully participative process. We aim to publish an initial discussion document outlining the Government’s strategic vision in December. After a period of discussion with disabled people, their organisations and others, the final strategy will be published in the spring.

We want the Disability Strategy to build on previous work and discussions with disabled people, including the 2005 report on the Life Chances of Disabled People, the 2008 Independent Living Strategy and our recent consultation on the UN Convention report.

Conclusion

The financial and economic background against which change needs to happen is very serious indeed.

Nevertheless, the Government is working towards a society in which disabled people can participate fully.

The vision for disabled people will help to transform the life experiences of disabled people in the long term and deliver the principles of:

supporting aspirations - both of and for disabled people;
ensuring individual control - including increased participation and personal and financial control; and
challenging negative and prejudicial attitudes towards disability.

The Government is committed to all of these principles as they provide the tools to deliver the equality that disabled people expect and deserve.

Thank you

Page last reviewed: 28 October 2011