Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Rejected
Paragraph: 19
Government's engagement with disabled people on National Disability Strategy proved insufficient and exclusive.
Conclusion
The Government claimed to have carried out “the biggest listening exercise with disabled people in recent history” to inform the National Disability Strategy. We disagree. Rather than being listened to, many disabled people and their representative organisations felt excluded from the engagement process. The Government then chose to ignore their concerns, even after the possibility of legal action became likely, further disempowering its primary stakeholder group.
Government Response Summary
The government rejects the committee's conclusion by detailing the extensive engagement undertaken to develop the National Disability Strategy, including numerous meetings with various disability organisations, roundtables, and the UK Disability Survey.
Paragraph Reference:
19
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.