Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted in Part
Develop a ten-year National Disability Strategy with disabled people, including clear targets.
Recommendation
The Government should develop the National Disability Strategy beyond the short- term actions already in progress. To support this approach, it should work with disabled people to develop a ten-year strategy with an action plan for the first five years outlining clear targets and timescales for delivery. The Disability Unit should have the final say on all disability policy sitting in or originating from other Government Departments to ensure that the whole of Government works towards the same long- term strategic objectives. It should also have the power to challenge relevant Ministers. (Paragraph 13) Engagement with disabled people
Government Response Summary
The government commits to delivering a long-term vision for the National Disability Strategy and has a new Disability Action Plan for immediate actions in 2024. However, it explicitly rejects the recommendation for the Disability Unit to have final say or power to challenge other departments, and does not commit to the requested ten-year strategy with five-year targets and timescales.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
The Government is fully committed to delivering the long-term vision in the Strategy. In addition, the new Disability Action Plan sets out the immediate actions we will take in 2024 to improve disabled people’s lives and lay the foundations for longer term change. One of the ambitions behind the development of the plan is to ensure the Government continues to deliver improvements to disabled people’s lives until the end of this Parliament. Every government department has a responsibility to consider the needs of disabled people in their policies and work to make improvements, as set out in the public sector equality duty. We have taken steps to embed this approach in government. This is a shared responsibility and it would not be appropriate for the DU to have the final say on all disability policy sitting in or originating from other government departments. The DU already works with officials across Government to raise awareness of issues relating to disability and to strengthen Government’s engagement with disability stakeholders. To support this, the Prime Minister has appointed Ministerial Disability Champions in every government department, all listed on GOV.UK. They provide a personal commitment to championing accessibility and opportunity for disabled people within their departments’ policies. The Ministerial Disability Champions meet regularly chaired by the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work. Past meetings have focused on: • Planning and priorities for the Disability Action Plan • Stakeholder views on the impact of cost of living on disabled people • Areas of policy where Departments can strengthen joint working. Ministerial Disability Champions have also attended stakeholder meetings to discuss issues including housing provision and transport accessibility