15 July 2004

Rt Hon Andrew Smith MP
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Scope Disablism Summit

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Good afternoon – I’m very pleased to have this opportunity to talk to you.

Disabled people face barriers to participating in many aspects of life. Some of these barriers are physical, some are attitudinal. Breaking down these barriers is what all of you work hard to achieve and is a cause close to my heart.

In years to come I believe that the treatment of disabled people typical of the last century – and still too often the case today – will be seen as an affront to their humanity.

It is the last great cause of emancipation of our time and one that we must fight together.

In some ways disability rights are like a jigsaw – only a couple of small pieces were put in place with the initial DDA; the picture was still full of holes – no transport rights, no rights for workers in small firms, no rights in education.

Since 1997 we’ve been legislating to fill these holes and we’ll soon complete the legal part of the jigsaw.

But legal change is not enough – it’s also about the challenge of creating a step change in public attitudes.

The Government can’t build this jigsaw on its own – some of the biggest pieces sit in the hands of society as a whole.

A society without “isms” – be that racism, sexism or disablism can only be a better society.

But moving to that vision means all of us working to break down attitudinal barriers and explore new ways of thinking.

Collaboration between Scope and Disability Awareness in Action is very welcome. Partnerships between all of us will be required to really meet the challenge of changing attitudes and turning disabled rights into reality.

I will say more about this challenge later, but first I would like to talk briefly about the measures that Government is taking through its legislative programme.

Government’s action

When we came into office in 1997, disabled people only had two effective civil rights after 18 years of Conservative Government – both of them granted reluctantly after at least 14 attempts to bring forward legislation.

The 1995 Act sat on the statute book doing little and with no champion to take cases to tribunal.

So we started by setting up the Disability Rights Commission which has proved formidable in eliminating discrimination against disabled people and promoting equality of opportunity.

We are working to ensure that the DRC’s championing of disability is at the very core of the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights.

Having set up the DRC to ensure that legal protection was enforced we set about implementing the biggest extension of disability civil rights this country has ever seen.

Extending the DDA to education, transport, public office, councillors, small firms, private clubs, and making sure it helps improve physical access to services.

Deepening it to cover all functions of public authorities, not just employment and service provision.

And strengthening it by placing a duty on the public sector to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people.

Much of what we have promised is already on the statute book and making a real difference to people’s lives.

Progress in education is particularly important. The impact of the Special Education Needs and Disability (SENDA) legislation of 2001 is introducing innovative solutions. For example:

At a school in Birmingham, a pupil who is registered blind accesses the whole curriculum with the help of a specially adapted keyboard.

The world of learning has been opened for him and his friends also benefit from his technology while working with him. What’s more there is no extra work involved for the teacher other than keeping the service provider abreast of teaching plans.

So we have already made a difference. The Draft Disability Discrimination Bill takes us even further – going beyond our commitments in some spheres.

Today I can tell you we are publishing our response to the Scrutiny Committee’s report on our Draft Bill.

The Committee made 75 recommendations and we have accepted the majority of them – wherever they are sensible and it’s practical to do so within an ambitious timescale.

For example, to remove the requirement in the DDA’s definition of disability that mental illnesses must be “clinically well recognised” before a person can qualify as disabled.

But we will not be stopping with the Bill. Our commitment to advance the civil rights of disabled people is not confined to these shores but has an important EU and international dimension.

DWP will make disabled people’s rights one of the key themes of our presidency of the EU next year, with a conference here in London dedicated to making a reality of disability rights. We hope this can be a further stimulus to co-operation between disabled people’s organisations across the 25 member states of the EU.

The Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit is currently undertaking a review called "Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People" and many of you will have contributed to its work.

The review is taking a tough look at where we need to do still more to eliminate the barriers disabled people are facing.

The final report is due later this year and the Government looks forward to its recommendations.

But as I have already said, this can’t just be about Government in Whitehall – local government, employers, service providers and individuals will all have a crucial role.

Together, we must all be committed to transforming the landscape in this country for disabled people. Not just in theory, but in practice.

We need to:

Let me take each of these in turn:

Tailored products and services

Firstly, with an annual spending power of over £50 billion it must make commercial sense for companies to design products and services which are tailored to the needs of disabled customers.

Take, for example, B&Q, who as well as making their stores more accessible have developed a “Daily Living Made Easier” symbol on products that fit into an “easier to use” definition.

They seek to ensure that B&Q is the store of first choice to respond to the spending power of disabled people and which enables them to find the inspiration and solutions to enjoy and participate in DIY and gardening.

So there are commercial opportunities here that business must seize.

Your second panel discussion later this afternoon explores this very issue. Developing the products and services needed requires informed and skilful designers and will offer new opportunities for disabled people in the workplace.

Employment for disabled people

These opportunities bring me to my second point. Disabled people are around seven times as likely as non-disabled people to be out of work and claiming benefits.

This is not through choice but because, all too often, the support needed to work hasn’t been there.

Creating, developing and managing a diverse workforce to serve diverse customers is a key to improving efficiency.

As a Government we have pursued active labour market policies, creating Jobcentre Plus and offering help and support to make work possible for those who want it. For example, the New Deal for Disabled People.

And many disabled people have benefited from our other New Deals – whether as lone parents, young people or adults.

All told, over 180 000 disabled people have been helped into work through our various New Deal programmes.

We have also set out ground-breaking proposals to improve the package of support we offer people on incapacity benefits through our Pathways to Work Pilots.

And we are making work pay for disabled people. The combination of the national minimum wage, new Tax Credits and the adjustments we have made to benefit rules to help ensure people do not lose out if they try work means that there is now more incentive than ever to get a job.

From April 2004, the guaranteed minimum income for a single disabled person working 35 hours will be £201 a week – an increase in real terms of £29 a week compared with April 2002.

Increasing the employment rate of disabled people is one of my Department’s Public Service Agreement targets. Between Spring 1998 and 2003 it has increased from 43.5% to 49.1%. So we’re approaching the point where old preconceptions will be challenged by the stark fact that most disabled people work.

But raising the employment rate for disabled people depends not only on making work pay but also on changing the culture of the workplace. This means working in partnership with employers.

And we need to do more to share best practice. Good companies know that it is not all about focusing on ramps and accessibility – more often than not it can be simpler things that make a real difference – adjusting duties or working hours, for example.

Here I must pay tribute to the fine work done by Susan Scott-Parker and the Employers' Forum on Disability, who do so much to promote a positive attitude to disabled people amongst employers.

In particular, I welcome their willingness to work closely with my Department to encourage and help employers to recruit and retain more disabled people.

Changing attitudes

Thirdly and finally, I want to say a few words about the fight to change attitudes.

Disability rights are about more than jobs. It is about people's equal worth as individuals so that they are not disabled by the preconceptions of others.

Creating a step change in public attitudes will require us all to work together closely. Many of the pieces of the Disability Rights jigsaw are now in place.

But the final pieces are in the hands of our society as a whole and getting them in place will take more work.

The legislative framework is crucially important – translating into rights and opportunities on the ground even more so.

Often discrimination can be indirect, sometimes even unintended. We can only put that right by changing attitudes. So we must all take every opportunity to raise awareness of rights for disabled people.

Increasing awareness of the rights of disabled people is a new Public Service Agreement target for my Department – and I welcome Scope’s “Time to get equal” campaign as another way of raising awareness.

We can only be successful by working together with all those who care about the society in which we live.

Conclusion

So to conclude, we must open people’s minds to the challenges that face disabled people and be united in the vision of a future that sees a truly fair society of equal rights and opportunities for all.

A future where “disablism” and all the other causes of disabled people’s inequality are effectively addressed so that everyone has the chance to make the most of their life.

This is a vision worth fighting for. And it is a future that I believe we have already made significant progress towards.

I hope this summit and our subsequent work together will take us another step closer to making this vision a reality.

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