Regaining momentum on our rights

1. Regaining momentum on our rights Getting rights in practice in the next decade

3. A decade of rights • 2000 a Commission • 2001 New duties in education • 2004 Premises and physical features • 2005 Positive duties, wider coverage • 2010 Pre-employment health questions We achieved a lot through joint working: Rights Now, formal and informal coalitions, allies

4. Some headway? • Employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people is down by over 10% since 1998 – but still 30% (2 million people) • Disabled people who report transport difficulties - down by 5% • More disabled people now go to university • Good practice in some companies • Independent living accepted in principle by all parties • And the Paralympic effect

6. Across the world - Russia

7. BUT…Power and lack ofpower • Disabled people only now speaking up about Savile allegations: Caroline Moore, Stoke Mandeville, Stephen George, Broadmoor • Winterbourne View. Panorama 2012 noted if someone is in a restrictive and hostile environment, it can affect their behaviour, so the restrictions increase • Our objective: to mobilise disabled people’s leadership and control

8. But… Poverty • Disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty as non-disabled people • Less likely to be able to afford fruit and vegetables • More likely to say cost is a barrier to leisure, transport • And that is before major benefit reductions • Our objective: to break the link between disability and poverty • Apprenticeships. Employment opportunities and support. A fair system of benefits

9. Access to Work • We wrote to the Minister Nov 2012: numbers down last 2 years from 37,000 to 30,000, all regions except North/mid Wales • Urging action: concerted marketing, remove list of restrictions, reduce bureaucracy, cover all work experience and internships

11. But…Freedom to live independently? • ‘I am a woman who lives independently in the community in social housing employing enablers…I keep my postman electrician gasman binman local shop chip shop takeaway petrol station supermarket bank delivery men and women employed…My local authority say if my needs are over £500 a week I will be put in a care home. I am becoming more disabled by society than ever before – it’s a crime against disabled people’s human rights and there isn’t a darned thing I can do about it’ (response to blog)

12. Source: NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care (2012) Inpatients formally detained in hospitals under the mental Health Act 1983, and patients subject to supervised community treatment, Annual figures, England, 2011/12, Health and Social Care Information Centre

13. Note: Supervised Community Treatment Orders only in operation for 5 months of 2008-9 Source: NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care (2012) Inpatients formally detained in hospitals under the mental Health Act 1983, and patients subject to supervised community treatment, Annual figures, England, 2011/12, Health and Social Care Information Centre

14. Aspire: spinal cord injured adults in care homes ‘To keep me in this place, weekly costs £800 and for what for what? Look at how I’m living. No quality of life now whatsoever’.(Lawrence) ‘I am a prisoner here. I’m a prisoner in my body, but that’s not what I’m upset about; that’s accepted. It’s the care home system holds me prisoner. But I’ve done nothing wrong!’ (Harry)

15. ‘It’s easier for them [care home staff] to just leave me lying in bed. But I insist every day and tell them, ‘What time are you getting me up?’ Sometimes they might say, ‘We can’t get you up today; we’re short staffed’, and then I have to accept that. I’ve no control even over the very basics like getting up in the morning’. (Phillip) Our objective: independent living in practice. Personal budgets in health, education, employment , sport….Better use of resources

16. What we have done so far • Worked with members – strategy, regional events, surveys, joint projects • Half a million people use our advice and information – on PIP, ESA, independent living, employment, sport, IT……. • 6,600 get specialist advice • Projects with DPOs to test new approaches to personal budgets, apprenticeships, leadership • Influence: secured a trial period for PIP, portability of social care/support, access to work • Over 5,000 involved in campaigns so far

17. Today’s discussions:Where next? • Are there opportunities as well as threats? • Previous recessions – achieved DDA, direct payments, growth of organisations led by disabled people • Paralympic momentum eg transport, sport • Using money better and ending red tape: portability, access to work, taking positive risks • Removing restrictions eg the bar on mental health service users being an MP or company director • Specific policies – Universal Credit, personal health budgets and peer support, priority on ‘long-term conditions’

18. Using a range of methods

20. Some ways of working • Involve more and more people in disability rights • Pursue our shared campaign priorities – (in draft) freedom to live independently; opportunities to live free from poverty • New disability action alliance • Today: workshops to shape future work