D-Day looms for disability equality duty...but is everybody ready?

With the disability equality duty coming into force this December there are concerns that some public bodies are not ready for the change. Elizabeth Choppin reports

November 2006

With the deadline for the disability equality duty (DED) fast approaching, Britain's 45,000 public bodies are scrambling to meet the requirements of the new law.

The DED, which comes into force on 5 December, is meant to ensure that all public authorities - such as central or local government, schools, health trusts or emergency services - pay "due regard" to the promotion of equality for disabled people in every area of their work.

They must do away with discrimination and harassment, promote equality of opportunity and positive attitudes toward disabled people, and take steps to meet their needs.

Most public authorities are also covered by specific duties. They include publishing a disability equality scheme (DES); most bodies must publish theirs this December.

Each scheme should include an action plan, involve disabled people in producing the scheme, and be able to demonstrate that action has been taken.

Public bodies must report on progress every year and review and revise the scheme every three years. An example of how one might work in practice, would be that if a local authority found disabled people in its area were affected by a high incidence of burglary and crime, it would be obliged to address the issue.

The scheme might involve targeted crime prevention advice or security grants for devices like alarms or window locks. Or, a health trust might improve the way it keeps track of information, to reduce the gap in services between disabled and non-disabled people. It might tackle the low number of women with learning difficulties using breast-screening services, for example.

Marie Pye, head of the DED for the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), says the duty provides "a fantastic framework" to address the institutional discrimination plaguing public authorities, with a "specific role" for disabled people to play, as they will have input into schemes.

She feels the duty will make a difference "not on an individual drip, drip level" but across whole organisations.

She says: "Almost every major indicator shows that disabled people fare worse. They fare worse because of the way our institutions are structured. This duty will make public bodies look at the way they do things."

However, disability experts are worried that some organisations are not prepared for the December deadline and are not truly involving disabled people in the development of their schemes.

Ms Pye says she has seen some great examples of organisations reaching out to disabled people, but some are not doing it in the correct way - or worse, not at all.

Although she will not name specific bodies which are lagging behind, she says local councils have been more responsive to the duty than the health sector.But she is confident that the DRC's damning report on health services for people with mental health conditions and learning difficulties (DN October, page 1) has generated a "surge of interest".

She says: "It is not about producing a scheme and consulting with disabled people by asking: ÔIs this okay?' It's involving them from the beginning. We're not interested in whether people are ticking a box."

The DRC has encouraged public bodies to make use of its guidance and code of practice. Ms Pye says the bodies involving disabled people in a real way will be "achieving something tangible and practical, instead of something that won't have any impact".

Those bodies will also more likely avoid enforcement action, which could start as soon as January. If a public authority does not comply with its general or specific duties, it could be subject to judicial review by "anyone with sufficient interest in the matter" or a compliance notice by the DRC.

The London Development Agency (LDA) has been lauded by the DRC as an example of good practice in preparation for the DED.

Frances McAndrew, head of equalities for the LDA, says part of its success is due to "grabbing" the code of practice as soon as it was published two years ago.

Ms McAndrew says the LDA set up a staff network of disabled people as well as an independent panel of disabled people, and has run workshops.

The LDA scheme will be available in easy-read format after a consultation with the learning difficulties group People First. The LDA says it is important that disabled people are paid for their input.

Ms McAndrew dismisses the idea that smaller bodies, which do not have the LDA's budget levels, cannot afford to pay disabled people. "I say to them: ÔYou have the money but you've chosen to spend it in other things.' It's a matter of leadership and priorities. It's relative, even if it means they take on one consultant for a week."

She stresses that delivering disability equality is not a huge cost if implemented at the beginning instead of trying to adjust later. But she is keen to stress that the LDA is not resting on its laurels - the DED has become a "living, breathing ethos" that goes far beyond simply producing a document by December.

"We are mindful that we've only just begun, and we have much more to do," she says. "It's about understanding. It's not about writing a document, it's about improving outcomes.

"Years of anti-discrimination legislation hasn't changed the outcomes for disabled people. It was more about individuals bringing cases instead of putting the responsibility on public bodies. This turns the whole thing on its head and says it is our job to stop institutional discrimination."

It remains to be seen whether health trusts will cover all the bases before the deadline. Jo Davies, director of the NHS Centre for Equality and Human Rights in Wales, says there is not one overall approach for individual health trusts and that they are all in "various stages of preparation".

She says each trust is responding to local needs, which vary, and are working with local health boards, voluntary sector organisations and in partnership with each other.

"Some have got a community-based approach and are working across sector, and others have been less successful."

But the feeling at disability organisations is that too many public authorities are doing a rushed, patched-together job.

Jane Vernon, legal officer for the RNIB, says that the bulk of schemes started to stream in as recently as September.

"Things have been left to the last minute as they always are and organisations are not ready."

Public bodies that have sent completed schemes for approval by the RNIB have been alerted that they have not adequately involved disabled people in the process. She recalls one local authority that has been "looking at the spirit of it [DED] and not just complying. But that is by no means typical".

The first thing public bodies tend to look at, Ms Vernon says, is physical access. Needs for people with sensory impairments are not always at the forefront of change, she says, but being able to get accessible information on things like council tax and housing benefits are core issues for this group.

"You need to be thinking about and pre-empting those issues," she says. Ms Vernon is sceptical about the effect the DED will have. "I don't think that by December compliance with this will by any means be universal. How long has the race equality duty been in? We still hear shocking statistics about organisations not complying with it. This will be much the same."

Chris Sherwood, equality and diversity training manager at Scope, agrees that some of the action plans are quite "woolly" but believes the DED is an important step in removing institutional barriers.

"If you go in there with a legislative stick and beat them with it, I think that people will not engage with the equality agenda. Yet it shouldn't be a toothless piece of legislation, either."

But Marie Pye warns that the aspirations of the DED will take time. "This is not going to change things overnight," she says.

"The world will not change on 5 December. We're saying the hard work starts on 5 December."

• For more information, contact the Disability Rights Commission, tel: 08457 622 633 or visit: www.drc-gb.org