Supplementary memorandum from the Local
Government Association (DDB 132)
I agreed to send you some further written evidence
following my appearance before the Joint Committee on the Draft
Disability Discrimination Bill on 10 March. I believe there were
three areas where I suggested the LGA may be able to supply further
evidence:
1. examples of work that authorities are
engaged in regarding the promotion of good community relations
between disabled people and non-disabled people;
2. examples of specific issues that affect
disabled councillors; and
3. some indication of the potential costs
to authorities of a duty to promote disability equality.
1. THE PROMOTION
OF GOOD
RELATIONS
The key to promoting good relations between
disabled and non-disabled people is inclusive access to mainstream
services and facilities. As with the duty to promote good race
relations, where communities are segregated with little opportunity
to interact there is no opportunity to foster good relations and
a "them and us" attitude will prevail. Provision for
wheelchair users in many of our football stadiums (in "disabled
enclosures") is one example of how disabled people are segregated
from non-disabled people in a social setting. A duty to promote
good relations between disabled and non-disabled people should
direct public authorities to seek to provide inclusive access
to services and facilities rather than provide separate services
and facilities. There are many examples of how local authorities
have sought to facilitate inclusive access to facilities and services
contained within the "Access to Services" report which
I passed to the Committee on 10 March.
2. DISABLED COUNCILLORS
We have collected many examples of how disabled
councillors are often unwittingly discriminated against, which
we hope will inform the accompanying guidance to the new legislation:
— The chair of a council planning committee
is driven to site visits by car as he is unable to access the
coach which takes other committee members to the site. He has
complained that he feels excluded from the inevitable discussions
between committee members during the journey back from the site
visit. An obvious solution would be for the authority to obtain
a new bus that can accommodate wheelchair users.
— Another councillor and wheelchair
user, who sits on a partnership body, attended a meeting of the
partnership only to find that the lift was out of action and he
was unable to access the first floor meeting room. Although the
lift had been under repair for some three weeks, no one had thought
to move the meeting to the ground floor. Had the organisation's
staff undergone disability awareness training this situation might
have been avoided.
3. POTENTIAL
COSTS OF
A DUTY
TO PROMOTE
As I stated in my oral evidence, it is very
difficult to accurately assess the costs of promoting disability
equality. My officers have, however, made a broad assessment of
the potential costs of staff training needs in relation to the
duty. Assuming that training would need to be provided for all
managers across an authority you are probably looking at the need
to train some 1,000 to 2,000 staff, depending on the size of the
authority (assuming an average of 10,000 staff in a small authority
and 20,000 in a large authority). The Disability Rights Commission
state that they pay trainers some £1,000 per day. If we assume
that a minimum of half a day's training is required for all managers
and that some 50 staff can be trained in the same venue then the
costs of a one off training exercise would be £10,000 to
£20,000 per authority. This amounts to a total cost to local
government across England and Wales of some £5.5 million.
In addition to training costs there would be a human resource
requirement across the authority if, as expected, there is a specific
duty to produce a disability equality scheme and monitor its implementation.
I hope this further evidence assists the Committee
in its scrutiny of the Draft Bill.
Cllr Laura Willoughby
Chair, LGA Equalities Executive
April 2004
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