16 September 2005 - Office for disability issues to be established later this year
David Blunkett today announced that a new Office for Disability Issues would be established later this year as part of ensuring services are fit around the individual, rather than the individual having to fit rigid services.
Speaking in Canada, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions described a parallel determination in both countries to end disability discrimination.
Mr Blunkett said there were lessons to be shared and one way forward was to put decision making and, where possible, the finance to achieve this, into the hands of people with disabilities. He said:
‘’Rather than people fitting into services – services need to fit to individuals. Every person with a disability should have the power to choose the support and services they need from a wide range of possibilities that exist within a given community.
‘This concept of individualisation is now becoming global. The idea of a menu of choices – focused on the individual but supported by the community - is both powerful and inspirational.
‘‘Choice is something the UK is committed to. Many more men and women are now realising their potential with our measures to support them into work, including the new work rehabilitation pilots, such as Pathways to Work".
‘’We want to ensure individuals have control where possible over budgets so they themselves can handpick services. This is a key driver in our ambitious strategy to tackle inequality for people with disabilities within a generation.
‘’This programme will be co-ordinated by an Office for Disability Issues which will be established later this year. This new unit will be responsible for driving action and delivery across the whole of Government and linking with the work of the Disability Rights Commission in ensuring equality across society. Crucially it will be working with organisations of and for people with disabilities, businesses and public services in changing attitudes and facilitating inclusion. This is an example of how nations can share good practice and we are studying Canada's own model.
‘’Ultimately we are talking about a truly fair society we want for ourselves; inclusive and supportive but not paternalistic or confining which liberates, not patronises people. Creating independence, but with mutual help – something for something – not abandoning but helping people overcome the additional barriers to a full life’’.
Mr Blunkett turned to welfare reform and the issue of inherited disadvantage between generations:
‘’Helping our communities adapt for the future is not about ameliorating poverty, but overcoming intergenerational disadvantage in order to root out poverty and exclusion. I have seen this work in practice in Vancouver.
‘’The coming months will be crucial for both our countries – with both Governments looking to make major changes to their welfare systems. But both Governments must look further in working to change attitudes and embedding the social capital which is central to successful integration and cohesion of our societies’’.
The Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit report this year published an ambitious twenty year strategy to build on recent disability rights for people with disabilities by radically reforming the way local public services are delivered – centred on the consumer, based on individual needs, and funded through transparent, individualised budgets. This will give real choice to people with disabilities over how services are delivered, ensuring they are suited to their needs and helping them achieve independence.
Notes for editors
- Secretary of State for Work and Pensions David Blunkett today delivered a speech to disabled people and their representative organisations at the British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union Headquarters, Victoria, British Columbia. Yesterday, he visited SUCCESS, a community based project in Vancouver to help new immigrants engage and find work.
- This week Mr Blunkett has met with the Labour and Health Secretary of States in the US and Canada to discuss the future of welfare provision and the pensions challenge. He is examining in detail a range of North American policies and welfare to work initiatives. The Government will publish a Green Paper on welfare reform in the autumn.
- A key recommendation in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit report ‘Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People’ is for an Office for Disability Issues in Britain to provide a cross-government focus on disability issues. Canada’s own model is being considered to shape its design. A separate recommendation for Individual Budgets will bring together different sources of funding, increasing the choice and control disabled people have over the support they need and its delivery. The Department of Health is leading the cross government project to bring in pilots from the end of this year. www.strategy.gov.uk/downloads/work_areas/disability/disability_report/index.htm
- Canada and the UK share similar approaches to disability. Canada has a Human Rights Commission, laws to tackle disability discrimination and an Office for Disability Issues to ensure disabled people’s needs are met across Government, and similar initiatives to the New Deal and Pathways to Work.
- Pathways to Work pilots offer early, sustained support to involve Jobcentre Plus, the NHS and the voluntary sector to support people with health conditions and disabilities. These include support from skilled personal advisers and monthly contact in the first 8 months of the claim, NHS rehabilitation support so people can learn to manage their health condition so they can get back to work, and a £40 a week return to work credit once they get a job so it always pays to get back to work
- There are around 10 million adults (22%) and 700,000 (5%) children in Great Britain likely to be covered by the provisions of the DDA. The DDA defines disability as a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
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