Hampshire County Council

Disability Equality Scheme 2006 -2009

Foreword by the Leader of the Council & Chief Executive

This is the first disability equality scheme to be produced by Hampshire County Council. The scheme is part of an overarching equality and diversity plan which sets out the vision which the council has to eliminate unlawful discrimination and to promote equal opportunities for all people.

There are particular people who may experience exclusion for reasons relating to their race, ethnicity, disability, age, gender, sexual orientation or religion. The equality and diversity plan and associated schemes explain what we intend to do to improve fair and equal access to employment and Council services.

We want the actions that are proposed in this scheme to make a real difference to the lives of disabled people who work and live in Hampshire. By taking this action we will also improve services for everyone.

Comments by HCoDP & SCIL?

1. Introduction to the scheme

The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) was introduced in order to improve opportunities for disabled people. It is unlawful to discriminate against a person because they experience disability. Organisations must also make `reasonable adjustments' to ensure that the person can access services and employment.

Although the law has been in place for 10 years there are still many barriers which prevent disabled people from fair and equal access. The Government has set out a vision for disability equality:

"By 2025, disabled people in Britain should have full opportunities and choices to improve their quality of life and will be respected and included as equal members of society"

Public bodies have a significant impact on the lives of all citizens and the law has been amended to place greater responsibilities on them to achieve this vision. Therefore as from 5 December 2005 all public bodies, when carrying out their functions, must have due regard to the need to:

· Eliminate unlawful disability discrimination

· Eliminate disability related harassment

· Promote equality of opportunities

· Promote positive attitudes towards disabled persons

· Encourage participation by disabled persons in public life

There is also a specific requirement to publish a Disability Equality Scheme which sets out the action that will be taken to meet these requirements.

2. When we say disabled people this is what we mean

The DDA provides a legal definition of a disabled person as someone who has a `physical or mental impairment that has an adverse, long term affect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities'

In reality this covers a wide range of people. Some obvious examples are people who use wheelchairs, are blind or deaf. Less obvious examples include people with mental health conditions, learning difficulties or disabilities, diabetes, severe eczema. People with cancer, HIV or progressive illnesses are covered from the moment of diagnosis.

3. This is what it means to you

Disabled People as employees and service users can expect to be treated with respect and to have their communication needs met. We recognise that people have very different communication needs and you have the right to ask for communication aids such as British Sign Language Interpreter or information in different formats. The service that people receive from the Council will not be diminished because certain barriers may disable them. We will take steps to overcome such barriers wherever possible and will raise awareness of this commitment with our staff and customers.

4. An overview of Hampshire

The County of Hampshire is large, dynamic and successful, but this overall appearance of affluence masks real problems of relative deprivation and vulnerable communities.

Hampshire is the third largest shire county with a population of 1.25m residents, over 502,000 households and covering 3680km². It is a diverse county with a mix of significant urban and extensive rural areas. Although less than 10% of the county is urban, 87% of the population live in urban areas with major settlements at, Aldershot, Andover, Basingstoke, Eastleigh, Fareham, Farnborough, Gosport, Havant and Winchester.

Approximately 90% of the county is classified as rural with significant areas which are the subject of national and international environmental designations, including the new national park for the New Forest and the proposed one for the South Downs. Although not within the administrative area of the County Council, the relationship between the port cities of Southampton and Portsmouth and the rest of the county has a significant effect on transport connections, employment and travel to work issues, housing and economic needs.

The County Council provides a range of services to people in the County. We also provide services in partnership with District/Borough Councils, the Health Service and other community based organisations. Other public bodies in the County will also be preparing a disability equality scheme and we will do our best to work together and deliver `joined up' services.

Example of services provided by the County Council:

Libraries

Museums

Country Parks

Education for children and adults

Social Care services

Waste disposal - Districts & Borough collect the waste

Transport planning

Highways maintenance

Arts Centres

Sports Development - Leisure Centres are delivered by District/Borough or private organisations.

Elected Members/Councillors have overall responsibility for the services which are provided by the Council. The role of the Local Councillor is to help local people have an influence over the way decisions are made. Hampshire Action Teams are a new initiative and will be developing their role over the next year. The intention is to improve the opportunities for local people to interact with their Elected Members/Councillors and make their views known to the Council.

5. This is how the scheme fits with Our Corporate Priorities

Hampshire Safe and Secure for all

This is our overarching priority and is about developing and supporting stronger safer communities for all by protecting vulnerable people, maximising safety in the places we live, helping young people to live positive lives and helping diverse communities to feel secure. Statistics tell us that disabled people are more likely to be subject to robbery. We have introduced Community Safety Officers who work at a local level. All officers have been trained to understand the different needs of people and ensure that they take account of the need to challenge disability related harassment.

Maximising Wellbeing

This priority is about maintaining and improving quality of life and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to support themselves, be active in their community and have access to the services they need, whilst knowing that should things go wrong we are there to support them. Key to meeting this priority is to have fair and equal access to services, therefore this scheme which focuses on breaking down barriers will assist the Council to improve the lives of disabled people.

Enhancing our quality of place

This priority is all about making the County a good place to be by protecting local distinctiveness and diversity, ensuring excellent facilities, respecting Hampshire's heritage and planning proactively for the future. We play a big role in protecting and conserving our heritage. This scheme will assist us to ensure that we improve access to our country parks, museums and other similar services.

6. Activity already in place

The County Council has taken a positive approach to improving life chances for disabled people for a number of years. Our approach is based on the `Social Model' of disability which was adopted by the Council in 1999. This approach explains that it is the barriers in every day life that serve to `disable' people and that disabled people should have the right to the same services as non disabled people. The British Council of Disabled People describes the `Social Model' as

`People have impairments and are disabled by the barriers that society puts in place'

A major objective through this scheme is to raise awareness of this approach throughout the Council and with partners.

We were one of the first Councils to introduce Direct Payments to enable people to manage their personal support needs by providing funds directly to the individual. Services that we provide continue to develop in ways that provide independence and choice for people to control their own lives. This is particularly the case when providing personal and social care. The Council has always sought to work in partnership with organisations and individuals who have direct experience of the barriers that prevent disabled people from fair and equal access. This scheme builds on the work already undertaken in particular the work to improve the physical access to our buildings through the Access Audit and Improvement strategy.

7. Involving disabled people

The approach to improve physical access to our services was developed in partnership with local access groups across the County. This work continues to develop. Members of the steering group for the Disability Equality Scheme have been drawn from Hampshire Coalition of Disabled People, Southampton Centre for Independent Living, Jobcentre Plus and Council officers and disabled staff. Groups representing different impairment areas have also been involved with the preparation of the scheme through direct contact.

The `Social Model' explains that it is the barriers in every day life that serve to `disable' people and therefore a key element of this scheme is for the Council to identify these. Southampton Centre for Independent Living undertook research on behalf of the County Council into barriers to employment and Birmingham University carried out research into the way the Council has responded to the Disability Discrimination Act. This work combined with other consultation across various departments has identified the following barriers which prevent disabled people from fair and equal access.

· Employment: Attitudes and knowledge of line managers , stereotypical perceptions

· Knowledge and attitudes of partners, employment agencies

· Physical barriers

· Financial barriers - mainly the benefits trap which can prevent people from securing employment

· Lack of reliable statistical data

· Inaccessible information

· Inaccessible transport, housing

· Flexible personal care , availability of personal assistants

· Lack of role models, stereotypical perceptions - e.g. lack of disabled people in senior jobs

.

This information formed the basis for a draft scheme which was published in May 2006. The scheme was published on our web site and also sent in a range of formats to over 250 community and partner organisations. We worked with the District and Borough Councils, Hampshire Constabulary, the Police Authority, Probation Service, Fire Service and some of the health care trusts to take a joint approach to involvement. Local `disabled people's involvement' events were held jointly in the New Forest, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport and Basingstoke.

The information gathered from those events and the feedback from other forms of consultation have influenced the final scheme. Key areas of concern related to transport, travel, communication and employment. We have also begun to undertake specific work to ensure that people with learning disabilities and people with mental health difficulties have an opportunity to be involved.

It is important to recognise that this is just the beginning of a different approach to involving disabled people in the way that the Council works. The Council will need to continue to challenge what it currently does to find out if this disadvantages disabled people.

8. Working with Partners

The duty to promote disability equality applies to all public bodies. There is a network of officers representing most of the public bodies in Hampshire. This group works together to raise awareness of equality and diversity. During the past year the work has focussed on supporting each organisation to develop disability schemes. We have been conscious of the potential for consultation overload and therefore have worked together at joint involvement events. Each organisation will be producing individual disability schemes, and we will continue to work together to make sure that our actions compliment each other and result in real change to the lives of disabled people in Hampshire.

9. Implementing the scheme

There is an established structure in place within the Council that will make sure that this scheme is interpreted by each department into specific actions for their services. The Corporate Equality and Diversity Action Group are led by a Cabinet Member, Councillor Roy Perry and John Clarke the Deputy Director for Children's Services. This group has been working for a number of years to implement a range of Equality initiatives across each of the departments.

The actions identified in this scheme will impact on each department differently according to the services they deliver. They will be reviewing their current equality action plan to include specific actions which arise from this disability scheme. Performance is measured against these plans and the results reported annually to the Corporate Management Team and Cabinet.

Progress with this scheme will be reviewed from May 2009 and a revised scheme agreed by December 2009

10. Impact assessment

Public bodies have been working to implement the general duty to promote equality for 3 years and an important part of that duty is the need to assess the impact that services may have on different groups. This approach is needed because discrimination is usually not intended, it happens because a policy or service has not considered a wide range of different needs. There is a process known as Equality Impact Assessment which is a systematic way of finding out whether a policy service or strategy will have an adverse impact for any particular group or sector of Hampshire's diverse community.

The process is designed to tackle the long term challenge of removing "institutional discrimination" from the public sector, and ensure that policies, services and strategies do not unfairly discriminate against disabled people.

Action has already begun and a number of assessments have been carried out and considered the potential impact on people of different groups. For example, trading standards section looked at venues where they tested electric blankets for members of the public and found that most of the venues were not accessible. As a result they changed the venues to improve access. By April 2007 each department will review these assessments to ensure that issues relating to disabled people have been adequately considered and then where gaps are identified make a plan to fully assess the impact.

An important part of this process is to gather information about the barriers which disable people and prevent fair access to employment and services. This information is then used to inform the impact assessment. To support this approach it will be essential to listen to the views of disabled people.

11. Publishing the scheme

The scheme will be a separate section of the Corporate Equality Plan and will be published through the web site and in a range of other formats. Copies will be sent to known community groups and will also be available through libraries and information centres. It will also be important to find other ways to communicate this to the people who will benefit from the actions described in the scheme.

12. Monitoring the Scheme

Annual progress reports will be published and presented to Elected Members and Chief Officers as described in section 8. During the first year an external monitoring group will be established to ensure that disabled people have a role in managing performance. The scheme will be reviewed in 2009

Contact

For enquiries about this scheme please contact: Jane Goodwin

Equality and Diversity Manager, Hampshire County Council, Elizabeth II Court, Winchester, SO23 8UJ. e.mail: [email protected]

Tel: 01962 847347; mobile phone or text 07793758823

Textphone: 0808 100 24 84

Disability Equality Scheme - Action Plan 2006 -2009

The main barriers to access have been identified through existing research and consultation with disabled people and the action plan is in response to those barriers.

Add Glossary of terms