Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Rejected
National Disability Strategy criticised for lacking integration and disabled people's input.
Conclusion
Disabled people and their representative organisations told us they have had little to no influence over the National Disability Strategy. The result is a disability strategy in name only: a list consisting mainly of pre-existing departmental actions with minimal strategic thinking behind how those actions interact. Only a strategy which integrates different policy areas—such as education, health, social care, employment and transport—will have a truly transformational effect on the lives of disabled people. (Paragraph 7) A longer-term approach
Government Response Summary
The government rejects the conclusion that disabled people had little influence over the National Disability Strategy, providing extensive details of meetings, consultations, surveys, and qualitative research undertaken with various disabled people's organizations and charities during its development.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The Strategy was developed with significant engagement of disabled people, their organisations and disability charities. This engagement included: • meetings with our strategic disability stakeholder forums: Ȥ 42 meetings of the 9 Regional Stakeholder Networks, involving disabled people, their organisations, parents and carers, totalling 225 members Ȥ 10 meetings with the Disability Charities Consortium, a coalition of the UK’s largest disability charities: Leonard Cheshire Disability, Mencap, Mind, RNIB, RNID, National Autistic Society, Scope, Sense and Business Disability Forum Ȥ 4 meetings with the Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) Forum, which represented 14 DPOs across England • 11 roundtable discussions with a total of 98 disabled people about their experiences in daily life • 6 roundtable discussions on specific themes with a total of 130 attendees including disabled people, DPOs, charities, academia and think tanks This extensive engagement was supplemented by thorough analysis of the evidence base on disability, with a particular focus on the barriers faced by disabled people, alongside the UK Disability Survey (one of the largest ever evidence-gathering exercises of its kind, with input from over 14,000 disabled people), and qualitative research commissioned by the Disability Unit (DU). The qualitative research helped us develop better insight into the daily lives of a sample of disabled people–before and during the Covid-19 lockdown. Both reports are published.