Memorandum submitted by UK Sports Association
for People with Learning Disabilities
SUMMARY OF
KEY ISSUES
TO BE
ADDRESSED
1. Lifting the ban on athletes competing
in the Paralympic Games.
2. Full inclusion of athletes with learning
disability in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
3. INAS-FID and UKSA need Ministers, UK
Sport, and the LOCOG of London 2012 to pledge that the Games will,
without any doubt, include athletes with learning disability and
ensure that the IPC conforms to UK standards of fair play, inclusion
and our laws against discrimination on the grounds of disability.
4. Funding implications for athletes with
learning disability in the UK, and their coaches, including but
not limited to Podium (World Class Potential) funding; training
programmes; funding of athletes to INAS-FID competitions; coaching
development
5. Funding of UK Sports Association for
People with Learning Disability—the disability specific,
national governing body for sport and people with learning disability
in the UK.
6. Support and full inclusion of athletes
with learning disability in UK School Games.
— athlete with learning disability
is UK based term; and
— internationally "intellectual
disability" is used.
SUMMARY OF
POSITION
1. Since the Sydney Paralympics athletes
with intellectual disability have been barred from the Paralympic
Games and IPC Sanctioned competitions because a small number of
able bodied individuals cheated by pretending to be intellectually
disabled. Intellectually disabled is the term used in international
sport in place of mental handicap as defined by the WHO.
2. The cheating was connived at and made
possible by the former President of INAS-FID. The International
Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID),
founded in 1986, is the world organisation representing sport
for people with intellectual disability at high performance/elite
level, including Paralympic level and is a member of the International
Paralympic Committee (IPC).
3. INAS-FID has produced a rigorous method
of registration for athletes competing internationally to prevent
the possibility of further cheating The IPC has once more refused
to accept the INAS-FID process. Their refusal is despite the fact
there was a previously tried and tested system of verification
carried out by an agreed joint Committee of INAS-FID and IPC officials
(JEVC) to check the authenticity of each athlete's application
after the Sydney Games in anticipation of future IPC events.
4. Intellectually disabled athletes (Id
athletes) have been discriminated against on the basis of their
disability by being excluded from the Athens Paralympics and the
Beijing Paralympics as well as all the other IPC sanctioned events
worldwide.
5. In many countries because athletes with
intellectual disability will not compete in the Paralympic Games,
their grant aid has been shut off which has affected representative
organisations' work with intellectually disabled people, some
of whom could never aspire to international or even national sport
but who benefit enormously from participation.
6. The UK Sport Association for People with
Learning Disability (UKSA) is the only portal through which athletes
with learning disability from the UK can compete at international
level and has been seminal since it was established in 1979 in
developing sport and performance pathways for people with an intellectual
disability. Its role and focus are quite different from those
of Special Olympics but both enjoy a warm relationship and co-operation.
Grant aid to UKSA has declined over the years and will cease next
year altogether. UKSA is now operating under very severe financial
pressure due to athletes with learning disability no longer being
able to participate in the Paralympic Games or IPC sanctioned
events.
7. Additionally, in the UK it has led to
athletes with intellectual disability of very high standards being
ejected from World Class Potential Funding programmes; having
little or no access to development or training funds and more
recently has resulted in their exclusion from the UK School Games.
8. It is important to note that the membership
of IPC have instructed the Board to solve the problem. However,
as a result of the discrimination by the IPC Board, athletes with
an intellectual disability:
— have no access to the estimated £100
million pounds allocated to develop GB medal prospects for 2012;
— are denied access to the training
facilities that other disability athletes enjoy;
— have to meet their own expenses to
participate in INAS-FID World, European and other international
events;
— have been excluded from the School
Games;
— have to pay between £300-£1,000
to carry out the rigorous IQ and Adaptive behaviour testing procedures
required for registration. Athletes with intellectual disability
are the only athletes who have to pay a fee to be registered;
and
— representative organisation, the
UK Sports Association is working on a miniscule budget and relies
on its trustees' ability to meet most of their expenses.
9. The other current known financial implications
and the likely financial impact for the future should the current
situation remain are illustrated later in this document, though
they can be encapsulated in the statement: "It is estimated
that £100 million is being expended between now and 2012
to ensure we do well at the Games. The only group excluded from
equal access to this resource are people with intellectual disability".
10. Bernard Atha CBE, the President of the
UK Sports Association, a former Chairman of the British Paralympic
Association for two Paralympiads and of the International Sports
Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID)
and currently President of the English Federation of Disability
Sport, has asked the former Secretary of State to insist that
the intellectually are engaged on equal terms with other disabilities
in the 2012 Paralympics and demonstrate to the international world
of sport that discrimination against the most disadvantaged groups
in the world society will not be tolerated in the UK. Her answer
was evasive. A clear message is now needed.
BRIEF HISTORY
The International Sports Federation for People
with Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) is the International Organisation
responsible for the registration of athletes with learning disability
and the member organisation of the International Paralympic Committee
(IPC).
The Paralympics grew from the Stoke Mandeville
Games which were themselves developed from programmes utilising
sport for the rehabilitation of people with physical disabilities.
In 1988 Athletes with learning disability were
not invited to the first Paralympic Games which paralleled the
Olympics held in Seoul in 1988.
In 1992 athletes with learning disability were
included in the Paralympic programme. However, as a result of
protests from wheelchair athletes, athletes with learning disability
were relegated to their own Paralympics in Madrid whilst the largely
televised and promoted Barcelona Paralympic Games carried on without
them.
In the lead up to 1996, similar protests threatened
inclusion in the Atlanta Paralympic Games but a world-wide campaign
ensured inclusion, albeit at a very token level which nevertheless
produced for the UK a considerable number of gold silver and bronze
medals.
Sydney Paralympic Games of 2000 saw the full
inclusion of athletes with learning disability for the first full
programme.
In the Sydney Paralympics the Spanish Basketball
team for people with learning disability were revealed to have
cheated by having non-disabled members one of whom was a journalist.
This was achieved with the collusion of the Spanish Association
who also at that time, held the INAS-FID Presidency and Secretariat
and had responsibility for the world-wide registration of athletes
with learning disability. As a result of the Spanish cheating,
athletes with learning disability were banned by the IPC from
all IPC sanctioned events, including future Paralympic Games,
pending action by INAS-FID to address a number of matters at the
insistence of the IPC. Note the irony. The intellectually disabled
were banished because non disabled individuals cheated.
In the immediate aftermath of Sydney INAS-FID
acted swiftly. The 2001 General Assembly saw INAS-FID members
vehemently supporting immediate action to rectify the problems.
Over the following six years INAS-FID have worked to meet all
of the demands of the IPC to regain inclusion. This included the
removal of the guilty INAS-FID President and all officers who
supported the President or his administration; the re-registration
of all INAS-FID athletes who took part in the Sydney Games and
a complete revision and expansion of the process for the registration
for eligibility of athletes with learning disability.
With the exception of the handful of athletes
who cheated all the other athletes were found to meet the intellectually
disabled criteria.
The process of gaining re-admission to the Paralympic
Games and IPC sanctioned events has been hindered by the intransigence
of the IPC who have rejected the work of INAS-FID, changed agreed
goals and produced ever more conditions. This has resulted in
the exclusion of athletes with learning disability from the Athens
Paralympic Games 2004 and the Beijing Paralympic Games 2008. The
General Assembly of IPC in November 2004 ultimately charged the
IPC Governing Board to resolve the discrimination by directing
"a process by which mutually eligibility and verification
systems are developed". INAS set up an independent body of
distinguished academics in the field including a senior member
of the IPC which looked at the INAS system of registration and
finally reported that the System met the requirements for intellectually
disabled athletes to participate in IPC events. The report is
a very substantial document and has been subject to peer review.
Its conclusions were: "The accompanying Research Report provides
sufficient evidence to suggest that INAS-FID has developed a general
eligibility process as follows:
| Impact of intellectual ability on sports performance
| Yes |
| Determination of minimum handicap | Yes
|
| Protest procedures | Yes |
| Sport specific criteria | No
|
INAS-FID considers that intellectual disability as defined
is a generic disability and like blindness affects all sports.
Cognitive incapacity affects for instance understanding of rules
of the particular sport, tactics, reasons for specific elements
of training, ability to practice unsupervised, understanding issues
relating to diet, rest and relaxation, over training etc.
In June 2006 the Board rejected this report and continued
the ban on id athletes.
At INAS-FID's insistence, discussions continue with the IPC
for inclusion in Beijing 2008 but a change of decision will depend
on those Board members that voted against INAS-FID athletes. Moreover
the short time before the Beijing Paralympics makes it virtually
impossible for id athletes to compete in Beijing which of course
would be obvious to the IPC Board. The President of INAS-FID was
permitted to address the IPC Kuala Lumpur meeting at the end of
November 2006 to again present INAS-FID's case. However, the IPC
were insistent that INAS-FID had not fulfilled the requirements
demanded for re-inclusion and therefore, the exclusion of athletes
with learning disability was upheld.
Frustrated by the refusal of the IPC to give fair reasons
for the exclusion of athletes with learning disability from the
Paralympic Games in Athens, the General Assembly of INAS FID approved,
should the INAS Executive deem it necessary, the use of legal
action by the INAS-FID to pursue inclusion. The Executive did
not instigate immediate legal action believing further discussion
was the best way forward. However, as a result of the IPC stance
at the Kuala Lumpur meeting, its non-recognition of agreements
already reached with INAS-FID on eligibility and its refusal to
address the proposals on a way forward regarding protest procedures,
the INAS-FID Executive, with the support of lawyers from Bird
& Bird proposed to the IPC that INAS-FID and the IPC take
their dispute to the Court of Arbitration. Currently INAS-FID
is awaiting a formal response from the IPC on the proposal.
It is worthwhile noting that at the Paralympic Games when
the id athletes have competed their tally of medals has put the
UK in the top few places of the medal tables. They were medal
winners and one indeed received an MBE for his performances.
To date the most successful Paralympic Games for athletes
with learning disability was Sydney 2000. The UK is justly proud
of its record in opposing discrimination and working to eradicate
the prejudice that often causes people with learning disability
to be excluded from sporting opportunities elsewhere in the world.
The UK Sports Association for People with Learning Disability
(UKSAPLD) is the body recognised by UK Sport (formerly the UK
Sports Council) and is the national member nation of INAS-FID
that promotes sport for people with learning disability in the
UK.
INAS-FID and UKSA call upon all those with influence with
the London 2012 Paralympic Organisers to ensure that a clear message
is sent that intellectually disabled athletes will compete in
the Paralympic Games in the UK and that the current plans for
legacy delivery, increasing participation and funding streams
include athletes with learning disability so that when the Paralympic
Games come to London, athletes with learning disability are able
to compete.
Currently athletes with an intellectual disability are denied
access to each and every initiative open to all other athletes
in the country. They have even been excluded from the UK School
Games. The British Paralympic Association has declared unequivocally
its support for the ending of the discrimination and inclusion
of athletes with learning disability in London 2012 and has been
a voice for this in the IPC.
Other agencies have pledged their support. These include,
but are not limited to the Federation of Disability Sport in Wales,
the English Federation of Disability Sport, the Welsh Sports Association
for People with Learning Disability, Mencap, Scottish Disability
Sport, Disability Sport Northern Ireland, London Sports Forum
for Disabled People, the Disability Rights Commission and RADAR.
INAS-FID and UKSA need Ministers, UK Sport, and London 2012
to pledge that the Games will, without any doubt, include athletes
with learning disability and ensure that the IPC conforms to UK
standards of fair play, inclusion and our laws against discrimination
on the grounds of disability.
In this way the UK will show the world that people with learning
disability will not be excluded from a full and meaningful participation
in this, the premier sporting challenge of the world's sports
arena. The UK will reinforce its positive reputation that has
historically set standards of sportsmanship, inclusion and fair
play that are recognised throughout the world.
There is no doubt that the international organisation, INAS-FID,
will launch a court case based on the British anti-discrimination
laws if the intellectually disabled are excluded from the 2012
Paralympic Games.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
OF IPC CONTINUING
BAN ON
ATHLETES WITH
LEARNING DISABILITY
TAKING PART
IN THE
PARALYMPIC GAMES
AND IPC SANCTIONED
COMPETITION
The UK Sports Association (UKSA) is the disability specific
National Governing Body of Sport for people with learning disability
in the UK. UKSA co-ordinates and promotes sporting opportunities
for people with learning disability in the UK and is supported
by UK Sport. UKSA is the only officially recognised GB member
of INAS-FID, the international sports federation for people with
intellectual disability. UKSA employs one full time member of
staff and is heavily reliant on the goodwill of professional volunteers
to sustain its activities.
An illustration of how unfairly the intellectually disabled
athletes are treated is that in order for each athlete for international
competition to be registered to ensure he or she meets the criteria,
they must have administered IQ and Adaptive Behaviour tests which
must be carried out by a suitably qualified specialist. The fees
for each in the UK alone cost between £200-£1,000. They
are the only disabled or non disabled athletes who face this cost
and of all disabled people the intellectually disabled are those
with the lowest income, if work can be obtained at all. The organisations
involved in the process do not receive any assistance to be directed
at athletes for this process. The following is an overview of
the financial situation.
World Class/Podium Funding
— Due to INAS-FID Athletes not having IPC recognition,
the athletes with learning disability who are already at the top
of their sport will remain unfunded. They are unable to access
World Class/podium funding. This will in some cases result in
athletes retiring from sport due to financial constraints. Currently
these elite athletes receive no direct funding from Governing
Bodies, UK Sport or lottery to maintain training plans or assist
with equipment, kit, etc in order to maintain their elite status.
— Whilst in Northern Ireland there is funding available
for elite level athletes with learning disability, in England
there is none. In Scotland, exceptionally restrictive and limited
funding is sometimes available and whilst in Wales there is support,
funding is limited. Equally, financial investment in development
programmes varies throughout each Home Country. We understand
that the situation with regard to world class/podium funding for
athletes with learning disability throughout the UK will not change,
nor will there be any moves towards change until INAS-FID athletes
return to full competition within the Paralympic movement.
Core Funding and Sustainability
— The UK Sports Association for People with Learning
Disability itself is dependent upon UK Sport providing core funding
at an appropriate level. As the disability specific National Governing
Body of Sport for people with learning disability, and the only
portal through which athletes from Great Britain can take part
in the international sporting pathway, UKSA's function is unique
and although this is the case, core funding has been reducing
over recent years and is likely to continue to do so. UKSA is
reliant on core funding from UK Sport to continue to carry out
its functions. The core funding provided by UK Sport acts as a
platform from which UKSA raises additional funds for its key areas
of work; not least of which is supporting athletes to competition,
implementation and management of the international eligibility
registration system on behalf of GB and the management of the
national registration system. UKSA is concerned that the continued
ban will force UK Sport to review the funding situation to UKSA's
detriment. As long as the ban continues and athletes with learning
disability are outside the Paralympics pathway, funding is in
jeopardy. Paralympic pathway and Paralympic medal potential appears
to be the only real currency.
— In addition, the International Post holder funding
provided to March 2008 by UK Sport will cease. The UK Sport rationale
is that they are focussing on Paralympic sport and cannot therefore
include the post holders currently within the UK Sports Association
in their International Influence Strategy.
— The UK Sports Association is a member of INAS-FID,
which in turn is a member of the International Paralympic Committee.
Athletes with learning disability across the sports are part of
the Paralympic family and UKSA post holders hold key roles where
they actively influence the future of INAS-FID/IPC, the Paralympic
Games and subsequently British athlete's involvement in the Games.
— Despite the current situation, INAS-FID, and subsequently
athletes with learning disability, have retained full membership
of IPC. In order to ensure that UKSA representatives continue
to influence the direction of the international environment, not
only for the benefit of GB athletes, but also those from around
the world, it is imperative that grant aid assistance and benefits
of access to the UK funding is available to UKSA post holders.
To remove UKSA from the list of beneficiaries of this grant aid
may result in a number of post holders no longer being able to
continue in their roles.
— There is no justifiable reason for post holders
acting in the best interests of a group of athletes who are members
of the IPC to be treated any differently to any other Paralympic
member group. To remove funding despite INAS-FID's membership
of IPC is unacceptable and a decision UK Sport need to address
and reverse.
— UK Sport's support in this matter is key in ensuring
that the post holders continue to work within INAS-FID on all
matters for the benefit of these athletes, not least of which
is ensuring that the matters still unresolved between INAS-FID
and IPC are resolved and quickly.
Investment in Workforce
— There is little or no funding available to invest
in the development and training of new coaching staff nor, to
sustain current coaching staff at sufficient levels to work with
current and prospective elite athletes with learning disability.
There is enormous reliance on the goodwill of coaches to give
their time voluntarily, often taking unpaid leave from work to
coach athletes with learning disability, run training sessions
and travel with and manage GB Squads to overseas competition.
In many situations, coaches also provide pastoral support and
fundraise for athletes in serious financial need. Until learning
disability sport is seen as a full and integral member of the
Paralympic pathway, and recognised fully for their contribution
to sport in the UK, workforce investment is unlikely to be addressed
and steps taken to resolve the difficulties faced.
— The effect is a limited workforce, no growth and
limited opportunity for professional development which has, and
will continue to have, an impact on the quality and quantity of
high level performance led coaching available to athletes with
learning disability.
Investment and Identification of Young Talent and Paralympics
2012
— The current funding streams available to other
young talented athletes in anticipation of 2012 are not being
made available to athletes with learning disability; the rationale
being they are not currently part of the Paralympic programme
and therefore outside the remit of 2012. The implications of non
investment are catastrophic. Even if athletes with learning disability
are given full permission to compete at 2012, there may be no
young talented athletes with learning disability able to qualify.
Having been omitted from funding, training and investment opportunities
in the lead up to 2012, athletes with learning disability will
not have had the same opportunity as other disability groups to
train, achieve and/or sustain performance at the required level.
— The impact on the majority of athletes in this
group will be severe. Many are already struggling, are from disadvantaged
backgrounds and have no realistic prospect of earning at sufficient
levels to fund their own route through sport. In many cases, there
are insufficient domestic support structures available to assist
either. Unless financial investment is available now for learning
disability athletes of the future, sport for people with learning
disability at elite Paralympics level by 2012 may not exist at
all as athletes will be unable to meet the high standards required
to compete on this elite field. The result will be no GB athletes
of sufficient standard to compete at 2012, and no prospect of
athletes with learning disability reaching those standards in
the foreseeable future.
— With core funding in question, non recognition
of learning disability sport and complete lack of investment,
resources are diminishing. UKSA and its member organisations have
insufficient and ever decreasing resources. They are unable to
develop competition opportunities in the UK at the level required
in order, not only to support clearly identifiable pathways through
to elite competition, but to identify new talent and sustain a
lasting legacy for people with learning disability.
INAS-FID COMPETITION PATHWAY
(INTERNATIONAL SPORTS
FEDERATION FOR
PERSONS WITH
INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY)
— Currently in the UK, the only recognised performance
pathway deemed eligible for funding streams is that of Paralympic
opportunity. For athletes with learning disability, a fundamental
part of development, training, competition opportunity and achieving
performance standards to reach Paralympic standards is the INAS-FID
competition programme.
— Yet, despite the fact that the INAS-FID pathway
leads to Paralympic opportunity it is not recognised as being
appropriate to attract performance funding. The result is that
athletes with learning disability as they travel to INAS-FID competition
are forced to "self-fund". UKSA "invites"
an athlete who meets the performance standards to join a GB Squad.
However, their ability to accept that invitation is dependent
upon their either having sufficient personal financial means to
travel or the ability and competency to fundraise for their event.
— If an athlete is unable to meet the financial
commitments that a position on a GB (Learning Disability) Squad
warrants there is little choice but to withdraw from the Squad.
Despite meeting the standards of competition and reaching this
elite status, their continued performances and the opportunity
to represent Great Britain at international events is "finance"
led, where in fact it should be those with medal potential represent
Great Britain and not only those that have the personal financial
means to do so.
— UKSA actively fundraises to not only breach the
deficit in core funding, but also to assist athletes with this
financial burden, however, income has been limited. UKSA is reliant
upon UK Sport core funding to provide a platform from which it
endeavours to achieve fundraising success; core funding is key
to any realistic prospect of achieving this. However, as indicated
earlier, with the ever decreasing levels of core funding which
has impacted on resources available to carry out key fundraising
tasks to grow and invest in these activities, the ability of UKSA
to sustain its attempts to limit the financial burdens on athletes
and also achieve independent financial sustainability is limited.
— It is imperative that this is addressed and UK
Sport recognise not only athletes with learning disability part
of the Paralympic pathway, but also that of the INAS-FID route.
November 2007
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