Civil Service Live

Involving disabled people in policy making

From exception to rule

This content is written by the Civil Service News Team

Though disabled people are making ever more inroads into public life, we are still at an early stage on the road to true equality.

Twenty years ago, disability was not seen and not heard. Disabled people lived 'outside the mainstream of society' as Anne McGuire, Minister for Disabled People, puts it. 'They had few rights, and the rights they had were frankly not enforceable.' Through the efforts of disabled people and legislation such as the Disability Equality Duty (DED), a journey of positive change is underway.

The Disability Equality Duty (DED) places a legal duty on all public organisations to focus clearly on the promotion of equality for disabled people across their work. More than that, DED involves disabled people in policy making through the body Equality 2025 - not just in the public consultation stage, but from the very beginning and throughout the entire process.

Dave McCormick of Equality 2025 believes that we still think about disability in the wrong way. 'The question should not be if you are disabled, but if you are experiencing difficulties because of a disability: what barriers to access do you experience?'

Empowerment

DED ensures that local authorities and human resources 'have a responsibility' to deliver disability equality and break down the barriers of access disabled people face. DED empowers frontline staff, users and carers; they can use the duty as a lever to bring innovation. And the key end result is that it makes it more and more possible for disabled people to take part in and enrich public life.

“We must remember that most people are not born disabled; they become disabled during their working life. We must think about it would impact us and what we would want for ourselves“

Anne McGuire

In practice.

One person who was empowered by the Disability Equality Duty was Craig from Nottingham.

Martin Jackaman of Nottingham City Council showed a video of profoundly disabled Craig and his mum trying to change his incontinence pads in a standard disabled toilet. These standard toilets assume that the user has use of their arms. Many, such as Craig, do not. The room was too small, there was nowhere for Craig to lie down and his mum needed another person to help lift him. Craig's mum had to lay him down on the toilet floor - not only unclean for Craig, but an injury to his dignity too.

Martin used DED to begin to make changes. He set up a team of experts and they designed, tested (with carers and staff) and built a public toilet with all of the necessary facilities. The scheme has been rolled out across the Nottingham and now profoundly disabled people and their carers can come and enjoy the city, no longer confined to their homes.

'We must remember that most people are not born disabled; they become disabled during their working life. We must think about it would impact us and what we would want for ourselves, 'Anne McGuire pointed out.

But is the Office for Disability Issues leading the way? Is the Civil Service an exemplar? Anne has her doubts, 'It's my aim, but I'm not entirely confident at the moment that we are. I think there's a danger that the private sector is going to be showing us the way.'

Anne told an anecdote about a disabled person who'd had a positive experience in the Civil Service, but then finished with, 'The exemplar status will be reached when I don't pick out the outstanding examples, but, instead, when it's the routine.'

Links:
Disability Equality Duty (DED)
http://www.dotheduty.org/

Equality 2025
http://www.officefordisability.gov.uk/equality2025/

The Office for Disability Issues
www.officefordisability.gov.uk