Government review could fatally undermine new legislation, says DRC.

Legislation aimed at tackling institutional discrimination in public services will be fatally weakened if Government proposals to streamline equality laws go ahead, the Disability Rights Commission’s Chairman said today.

Sir Bert Massie’s warning comes on the day the DRC publishes a report showing that the legislation – the Disability Equality Duty (DED) - has had a positive impact on the public sector, with senior managers reporting it has increased efficiency and improved services.

A key part of the new duty - and which could be scrapped - is the legal requirement on the public sector to draw up a disability equality scheme. The scheme shows how the authority will tackle inequality and promote equality of opportunity for disabled people and, importantly, involve them in the development of the scheme.

But the requirement to produce a scheme, and so involve disabled people, has been dropped from the Government’s proposals for a single equality act. Instead, the duty to set out plans in a scheme will be replaced by set of non-enforceable principles. In addition, instead of public authorities having to consider disability equality in all the relevant things that it does, there will be a requirement purely to set certain priority equality objectives.

Sir Bert Massie said: “If the measures proposed in the Green Paper are adopted then the potential transformation of public services, which the Disability Equality Duty has set in motion, will be reversed.

“Our research illustrates quite clearly that the current legislation is effective and has produced some very positive results for the public sector, less than a year after implementation. Changing the framework would undermine the progress made by thousands of authorities who are currently successfully implementing the new duty. It would set back years of work and demoralise precisely those authorities and community groups working with them, who have devoted the most effort to promoting equality.”

DRC research by the Office of Public Management (OPM)* found that involving, rather than just consulting, disabled people in producing schemes meant public bodies improved their performance, increased efficiency and helped increase trust in local services.

For example Teresa Clark, Equality Mainstreaming Team Leader, at the Department for Education and Skills reported how involvement had led to a change in policy:

“Bullying was a key finding in our involvement with disabled people from the disabled children right through to disabled adults who had experienced bullying …and as a result there will be new guidance on bullying for schools and also schools are required to keep a log book of incidents for race and the new guidance may well also encourage schools to keep a log for disability also.”

At the Department for International Development, Kamaljit Kerridge-Poonia, their Diversity Advisor said that involving disabled people meant their work has gained credibility:

“We get better intelligence – what are the issues, what is it really about, rather than assuming or double guessing what the issues are. This was our opportunity to get research based intelligence on what our actions should be and involving disabled people gives it credibility.”

The legal duty for public bodies to produce a Disability Equality Scheme involving disabled people came into force for most organisations in December 2006. While the DRC believes there is room for streamlining and clarifying the DED’s duties, we believe the present model needs to be built on rather than replaced.

Ends

For further information please contact Nicola Pazdzierska, DRC Press Office on 0207 543 7045 and out of hours on 07791 015009

Notes to Editors

* Involvement for Real Equality, The benefits of involving disabled people for public services, OPM report for the Disability Rights Commission, August 2007 is available from the DRC’s website at www.drc-gb.org.

Five public sector organisations were involved in the research: the Department for Education and Skills, the Department for International Development, the Communities and Local Government Office, the Department for Trade and Industry and the Department for Work and Pensions.