Memorandum from the Disabled People's
Direct Action Network (DDB 9)
The essence of DAN's Free our People Campaign
is to provide all disabled people, regardless of impairment, the
choice and the resources to live in the community. We are hoping
that the government acts in a positive way to create the structures
and systems required so that everyone has that choice. bisabled
people have been locked away and segregated in institutions too
long and it is time for this practice to stop. We want to cut
the link between services and housing, services and education.
At the moment if you want the services you must live here or be
educated there. We want full inclusion for disabled people in
this society.
DAN's campaign could be correctly portrayed
as a campaign for those on the sharp end of the discrimination
that we call disability. It would be appropriate given the Governments
claims in advancing the rights of disabled people to call this
campaign NO DISABLED PERSON LEFT BEHIND.
THE GOVERNMENTS
APPROACH AS
OPPOSED TO
DAN'S APPROACH
1. The Social Model
DAN would like to see the government adopt a
Social Model approach, which focused on removing the physical
and systematic barriers to disabled people's inclusion. The new
legislation fails to take this approach building on the medical/individual
model approach taken by the Tories under the DDA in 1995. Under
this approach (medical Model) the reforms the government are proposing
are piecemeal and not joined up. There is no evidence of strategy
or cross government thinking or a change in the way that the government
is committed to tackle the long-term problems. As the government
is well aware DAN campaigned from 1993 to 1995 to get rid of the
Tories who could never understand our radical thinking. It has
taken this government five years to come up with a hotch potch
of measures contained in this Bill.
2. Consultation
We in DAN were prepared to work with this government
to develop policy but this government has deliberately ignored
DAN as a group it wants to deal with. We have learned that the
major charities, which run the institutions that we want to close,
have been closely advising the government on the new legislation.
Talking to people who you feel comfortable with is not the way
to create a learning government or radical policy. We call on
the government to arrange urgent meetings with DAN to discuss
our agenda before the scrutiny process ends.
3. Seven action steps to independent Living
A social Model approach would adopt the seven
action steps to independent Living as a template for developing
policy. This has not been done. Below we go over these steps to
see what the government could have done and what they are proposing.
Birmingham City Council has demonstrated that a political body
(ie the Council) can adopt the Social Model and begin to plan
and review services around the seven action steps.
WHAT DAN AND
DISABLED PEOPLE
WERE LOOKING
FOR
The Seven steps to Independent Living devised
by Ken and Maggie Davies in the 1970s remain a useful template
for looking at the services required to get people and keep people
out of institutions. Below is a description of each step what
the government could do to strengthen policy and practice in this
area and a commentary on what it is proposing.
1. Information
Disabled people need information at the right
time in accessible formats about services, processes and procedures
that promote independent living so they can make good decisions
about their lives.
The best information disabled people receive
is still within the voluntary sector. The experience of disabled
people is that there are too many places to go for different bits
of the jigsaw.
The government could have announced a duty on
Local Authorities and Health care trusts to work together to create
one stop shops led by disabled people in the voluntary sector
where all the information they need is contained in one place
with a dedicated phone line. The government could have recognised
and supported the tremendous work disabled people are doing in
the voluntary sector.
They haven't.
2. Peer Support and Advocacy
Often when the information is confusing disabled
people find it helpful to talk to and learn from other disabled
people. Disabled people may feel more comfortable or really need
an advocate to work with them when making choices about independent
living. When the system is failing them they may need an advocacy
group to campaign to challenge and change the system.
DAN's demand in this area is to call on the
government to create Independent Living Centres throughout the
country and to place a duty on Local Authorities to develop, fund
and support these vital pieces of the jigsaw. IL Centres are controlled
and run by disabled people who are in the best position to be
peer counsellors and effective advocates.
DAN also calls on the government to recognise
and support through funding BCODP and the National Centre for
Independent Living as the principal organisations it would work
with in developing and implementing this policy.
The government has done little and understands
even less the principles of peer support and advocacy. Let's face
it if they had we would actually be implementing the DDA 1995
by now!
Furthermore BCODP and NCIL continue to struggle
for the level of funding they need to achieve their mission. Instead
DAN understands that 96p in every pound the government gives to
the voluntary sector goes to organisations not controlled by disabled
people. These organisations are impairment specific and not based
on the Social Model. In return for this funding these organisations
including those running the institutions we are against act as
nodding dogs to the governments new proposals. We understand that
the government tries to consult fully with these unaccountable
organisations both on the record and behind closed doors down
in WCI. Until the government accepts the principals of self-help,
self-empowerment, self-representation and accountability it is
hardly likely to deliver what the people want.
3. Housing
Disabled people need affordable accessible and
safe housing which is not linked to the services they need around
personal assistance. The chronic lack of this kind of housing
in this country means inevitably disabled people and elderly people
will be segregated from their families and forced into institutions.
The main cause of impairment is age and we are all living longer.
Improvements in our health care will as a consequence create more
people who survive trauma and become disabled people. In 2020
the baby boomers will reach 65 and the number of people with impairments
requiring housing will go through the proverbial roof. All of
us in this country are heading for a major crisis in housing,
pensions and health care. DAN has called on the government to
legislate so that all new housing is built to lifetime homes standards.
Whilst we welcome the effect the government has had on the public
sector this needs extending to the private sector. Now may already
be too late. The new legislation does little if anything to accomplish
this and certainly couldn't be seen as a long-term strategy to
avert this crisis. Encouraging private landlords to make a few
adaptations just won't cut it. We call on the government to urgently
engage in across the board talks with all concerned including
disabled people and to publish long term sustainable plans to
avert this crisis that disabled people are already at the sharp
end of.
4. Aids and Adaptations
Some disabled people need aids and adaptations
to live independently or to reduce the time that they need personal
support. DAN has called for duty on Local Authorities and Health
Care trusts to reduce the waiting time and to simplify and de-professionalise
the assessment process. Disabled people should not be means tested
for equipment, which they use to get out of bed or into a house,
or means that they can cook dinner without relying on someone
else. DAN wants these basic needs addressed free of charge so
that we can seek employment.
There is nothing in the government's new legislation
that tackles this.
5. Personal Assistance
Even with the other steps in place some disabled
people need personal assistance to live independently. This could
be assistance with household tasks, money management, support
in emotional crisis or help with childcare. DAN supported the
introduction of Direct payments which means that disabled people
can hire direct and fire their own assistants however there has
been little funding to promote and market this service. DAN believes
that with the creation of Independent living centers pro rata
throughout the country, this excellent idea and others could be
developed. DAN also calls for a review of more traditional services
and their appropriateness in the 21st century. We also call for
a de-linking of this aspect of independent living to either housing
for example in sheltered housing, supported living or residential
care so that those disabled people in those situations may have
some choice and control of who undresses them, what time they
go to bed etc. We call for a targeted and rapid expansion to these
schemes to be led by this government. We call for a marked increase
in the rate of pay for those Personal assistants working within
the current direct payments schemes.
Finally we call for every disabled person currently
living in residential care to be offered the opportunity and the
resources to return to the community. The new Bill does not address
these concerns in any way whatsoever.
6. Transport
DAN campaigned throughout the 90's for accessible
Public transport and we welcome the improvements so far and that
are proposed in the new Bill. However we feel that the timescales
for trains to be accessible is too long. We also note that there
are no plans to make the tube accessible in regards to stations
in this Bill. DAN also wants the government to extend their taxi
policy to private hire companies to make all new private hire
vehicles accessible by law. This could be easily and cheaply done
and would offer greater choice for disabled people in all areas.
DAN would also want to review Ring and Ride! Dial a ride services
with a view to comparing them with an alternative taxi card option,
which may well, be cheaper and more convenient for disabled people
and government alike.
7. Access to the environment
Disabled people need to have access to the environment;
both the built environment and accessible information so they
can achieve full participation and equality. The DDA of 95 and
the new proposals that this government is bringing seem to address
this, except that without giving the legislation real teeth little
is going to change and certainly not at he pace that disabled
people want. Less than 30% of Local Authority buildings are accessible
despite the DDA law being on the statute book for eight years.
The key problem is that individual disabled people have to bring
and prove the charge against well-organised and well-briefed opposition.
DAN has called for legislation so that disabled people can bring
class action suits against those that are still breaking the law.
This would then act as a substantial deterrent to non-compliance
and maybe increase the pace of change. Sadly this proposed Bill
doesn't change the situation in the slightest. They, the government
are making laws without policemen.
We are confident that Tony's cronies in the
charity system will find it within themselves to welcome this
Bill not for what it contains but for what it doesn't. Their institutions
are safe and their remains a place to put us away from the community.
We also understand that whilst these issues
remain unresolved government initiatives around employment are
doomed to fail. Unless our care packages are transferable from
one district to another, unless there is housing available, unless
we can have responsive services, employment remains the dream
of a small few.
The almost total invisibility of disabled people's
issues being addressed in this Bill deeply dismays DAN who did
at one time have high expectations for this government. Their
absence means that disabled people will remain in institutions
suffering abuse of their human rights on a daily basis. The disabled
people's movement has been ignored and bypassed by the nodding
dogs of the charity system who have been a problem for disabled
people for many years.
DAN will be in London in March to bring these
messages to Government. We will soon know if the Government is
scared to talk to real people. We await your response.
DAN—DISABLED PEOPLE'S DIRECT ACTION NETWORK
Janary 2004
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