TOWARDS AN EQUALITY STRATEGY
GRASSROOTS CONSULTATION WITH DISABLED PEOPLE IN SCOTLAND
SUMMARY
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INTRODUCTION
In January 2000, the Scottish Executive published a consultation paper - 'Towards an Equality Strategy'. This set out the Executive's commitment to equality and the main principles and proposals around this work. A key issue was how to ensure effective consultation, communication and participation of people with an interest in equality. Respondents outlined the barriers they faced and how these could be tackled. A report of responses was published in June 2000. To learn more about improving participation, the Scottish Executive ran three events in August 2000 to discuss face to face the issues in more detail, with people with direct experience and expertise of discrimination and exclusion.
Three 'Grassroots' events were arranged; one with disabled people, one with women and one with ethnic minorities. The events were aimed at increasing the range and number of people in contact with the Executive, giving more people a chance to be involved in how policy is made and put into practice. The Executive and its partner agencies took steps to make the events as inclusive as possible, including support for travel, childcare and personal support costs, access audits for all venues and provision of Plain English Crystal Mark documents and alternative formats and communication support. Feedback from the events pointed out what further steps needed to be taken to address barriers to participation and this was an important aim of the events - to learn more about making consultation accessible to all.
Making the events happen required a lot of hard work from participants, facilitators and partner agencies. Their commitment and assistance helped make the events a successful and effective way of hearing what different groups wanted to tell us, we learnt a lot.
This is a brief summary of the day for consultation with disabled people, the outcome of the evaluation and what we have learnt. A full report of the event is available which provides much more detail of the content and discussions. Copies are available from the Equality Unit.
THE SPEAKERS
The day began with brief introductory talks followed by a series of workshops and was chaired by Bob Benson from the Disability Rights Commission.
Elaine Noad - Disability Rights Commission
Elaine outlined the work of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), which has 4 main areas of activity: policy, advice, conciliation and legal enforcement including support for individual cases. It also has powers to undertake formal investigations and enquires and provides information and advice through its helpline. It will also provide research and evaluation. The DRC covers the UK and has an office and Chief Executive in Scotland and a Commissioner for Scotland.
The DRC will work on key areas of policy providing advice and consultation. Work will include education - codes of practice for schools and post 16 education; codes of practice for access to goods and services and on lowering the employment threshold. The Commission will also work at the European level.
Elaine emphasised the importance of keeping disability awareness at the forefront and the need to change attitudes and behaviour. She welcomed the Scottish Executive's initiative and the importance of the social inclusion agenda for disabled people. She welcomed the consultation and said for it to be successful progress must happen and disabled people must be involved in monitoring progress.
Jackie Baillie, Deputy Minister for Communities 1
Jackie Baillie thanked everyone for agreeing to share their expertise and for their work in helping the Executive develop the Equality Strategy. Whilst there is a lot to do, this is a unique opportunity to bring about change. It is not acceptable that disabled people are under represented in decision making, more likely to live in poverty and to be unemployed. Inclusion and access are crucial and cover all aspects of policy and government.
Responsibility for legislation on equal opportunities rests with the UK government, but the Scotland Act allows the promotion of equality. The Programme for Government states a commitment to equality; the Equality Unit was set up in September 1999 and the strategy is being developed. Reponses to the consultation paper showed a support for the broad approach outlined, in particular the mainstreaming of policy, target setting, monitoring and improving the statistics and research base.
There are three core elements of the strategy:
- consultation, communication and participation
- development of good equality practice and policy in the Scottish Executive
- development of public awareness raising
The strategy will include action plans and targets for each area of interest which will be monitored and reported on. The Executive will be open and accessible about what it is trying to do and how it is succeeding. However, the Scottish Executive cannot achieve this alone and will need to work in partnerships with other organisations and disabled people.
Developing effective communication and consultation are key to making this happen and Jackie said that Scottish Executive is very keen to hear the views of people at today's event. The Executive will prepare a report of the proceedings and feed back to everyone. Today is about looking at whether the proposed Equality Strategy will work; how dialogue can be improved and put into action. This is the start of a dialogue, today is the beginning not the end of a process.
Jackie concluded by saying that a fundamental part of the vision of the Scottish Executive is to work for a society free from discrimination and prejudice that these aims are worth working for and worth achieving.
Question and Answer Session
There is a campaign to approach the Parliament about winter fuel for disabled people as well as pensioners, is this supported by the Executive?
Jackie said this has been raised before and is an anomaly. This is a reserved area - neither the Scottish Parliament nor the Executive have direct responsibility for the tax and benefits systems, but it has been discussed with Westminster.
Employers and agencies are often unaware of disability issues, grants and awards; can awareness about access to work be raised?
Jackie said that there have been similar discussions with women in the Scottish Trades Union Congress and that even though this is a reserved area, she would be open to similar discussions around disability issues.
What will be done in education? The Education Bill will promote mainstreaming, so what will be done about local authority funding to improve access?
Jackie replied that we need to know more about how budgets impact on different groups and that research is needed.
A welcome for the commitment to interpreting services for deaf people, but is the Executive committed to services for visually impaired people?
Service provision is mainly determined at the local level, but Jackie said she would inform the Minister responsible for community care of the request for a similar commitment for visual impairment.
THE WORKSHOPS
There were 6 morning and 6 afternoon workshop groups. All looked at the same issues and morning and afternoon sessions focused on different questions. Everyone received a feedback form to allow for further comments. The report of these sessions covers the points raised in workshops and on the forms with no attempt to decide whether any point was more or less important than any other.
The morning workshops looked at the equality strategy and barriers to it. The groups considered:
- How the strategy might be developed
- Barriers to Disabled Peoples' involvement in decision making, getting and feeding in information and participation in public life
- The effects of the barriers
The afternoon workshops considered:
- What changes are needed to address the barriers
- Examples of Good Practice
- The Way Forward
Discussions were wide ranging and covered many issues. Because there was a lot of overlap across the questions, the points made in both workshops and on forms have been pulled together into broad categories.
Barriers to consultation and communication
Information from the Scottish Executive
People wanted the Scottish Executive to take a more strategic and creative approach to communicating with disabled people. This included ensuring that a wider range of people and organisations were contacted and involved. Views were mixed about the role of disability organisations and networks. Some people felt they were used too much, others not enough and some people saw them as a barrier to wider communication. The Scottish Executive should ensure that disabled people are informed about all policy issues in a joined up way, not just on areas which the Executive considered as relevant to them. Some participants complained that they had not been consulted about key issues for disabled people such as policy on cochlear implants.
Information was needed on who to contact in the Scottish Executive and Parliament, on committees, the consultation process (how to become involved, how to respond effectively and so on) and legislation. People also wanted to be told who had been consulted about different issues, kept up to date with progress and informed on the impact and outcome of policies and legislation.
There were also concerns about the flow of information, whilst some people wanted more, others wanted much less and felt that the flow of information should be more planned. A strategic approach to information output would help, but the Executive should also look at the content and tone of information. Output from the Scottish Executive could be paternalistic, contain too much jargon or too dry and there were concerns that it was not sufficiently geared towards different audiences. The Executive should also ensure that the use of different formats became the norm and think more carefully about the needs of different disability groups. The Executive should use the disability press and other appropriate places in the community such as Citizens Advice Bureaux.
Barriers to Participation in the Consultation Process
Disabled people were prevented from participating for a range of reasons. Some involved practical issues, such as lack of appropriate formats, poor communication mechanisms, use of inaccessible venues, long distances to travel, having to take time off work, financial implications, including issues relating to benefits, and varied access to IT. Even if people were able to get to events, often the pace of discussion could be too fast or the content too complex, making it hard for people to participate effectively. Some people felt that there should also be training and capacity building for disability groups and disabled people to help them participate better.
There were difficulties in reaching disabled people at the grassroots level. Some felt that organisations and 'activists' acted as gatekeepers, and stopped wider access and information flow. Others felt there were too many 'voices' of disabled people and that this was disputed territory. These factors combined meant that the wider communities of disabled people were difficult to reach and the impact and involvement of disabled people was therefore limited. A lot of different and often contradictory voices also diluted the ability of disabled people to participate effectively. To be effective, disability groups must work together and accept their differences and diversity and ensure that individual disabled people were not excluded.
The Scottish Executive needed to change its attitude towards disabled people, acknowledge its ignorance and lack of awareness of the issues, including the diversity of disability; barriers to participation and issues of self identify. It should work with disabled people to improve information, provide positive images, and challenge stereotypes. The Scottish Executive should improve its understanding and accept that participation will mean that it might be challenged.
Effective Consultation
Participants said that effective consultation should be built on a relationship of mutual trust and respect and that the Executive should work on developing this. It was important the Executive showed that it valued and respected the experience and expertise of disabled people and their input. A number of people commented that disabled people often contributed freely and that participation should be better resourced. Encouraging participation and involvement and not simply access might mean supporting and resourcing capacity building, training and empowerment. It also requires having comprehensive and up to date information on contacts.
Developing effective consultation is about developing a working relationship and would take time and require all parties to develop shared understanding and commitment. The Scottish Executive should meet more directly with disabled people on their own ground and talk directly with people with direct experience of disability. Contacts should be nurtured and there should be regular and ongoing communication. Contact should be as wide as possible and steps taken to include the excluded. Older people, carers, people in residential care, children and people in rural areas were identified as groups of disabled people who could be particularly excluded.
There should be different approaches, for example, through round table discussions at grassroots levels, and at regional, local and national levels. There should be more user control. Ministers and Civil Servants should listen, attend for whole sessions and be actively involved in discussion. They should not cancel appointments.
It was important that disabled people are involved at all stages of the policy process and from as early a stage as possible. Consultation should be seen as a process not an event and information and feedback provided (in appropriate formats of course).
Whilst there was some cynicism about whether this would happen, many people felt that there were grounds for optimism and the that the Executive would listen and act.
The Event
There were comments related to the grassroots day itself. Several people pointed out the problems with public transport, especially when more than one wheelchair user was travelling by train at any time.
The importance of a thorough access audit of the venue was raised. For example, some of the workshop groups were far away from the main centre. Some of the speakers in plenary or in workshop groups spoke too fast making it difficult for various groups to join in. The fairly large workshop groups and the range of issues they covered made it difficult for some people who had learning difficulties to participate effectively. People also should be discouraged from interrupting speakers or finishing off sentences for people.
For future events, participants said it would be useful to include information on the Scottish Executive and a delegate list in the conference pack. People also stressed the importance of providing feedback on event and plans for what was to happen after the event, including for ongoing communication.
Barriers to Public Appointments
Attitudes, stereotypes and discrimination
A variety of reasons were given to explain why disabled people are not sufficiently represented in public appointments. Because there is low representation, disabled people do not have role models; because they are excluded they do not have the contacts, information and networks to hear about appointments. Some felt that discrimination and negative stereotypes created significant barriers to their proper involvement.
Barriers to Access and Communication
Many issues here were similar to the factors identified as barriers to consultation - lack of information in appropriate formats, lack of confidence and experience and physical, communication and financial constraints. These could stop people becoming involved in a wide range of ways from public appointments, to local politics, to voting. Access to transport was difficult for some disabled people, others did not get information in the appropriate format, and meeting places often were not appropriate for communication and physical access requirements. Speakers spoke unclearly or too quickly and information was presented in ways not accessible to people with learning difficulties.
Barriers to participating in elections were raised as a problem, not just in their own right, but also because this form of exclusion led to people becoming disenfranchised and disillusioned. How could people participate in broader ways when this basic right was effectively being denied?
The Changes Required
A range of proposals was made for change covering several broad areas. First, work should be done to provide role models and increase the visibility of disabled people. This might be through having a disability champion within the Parliament, having Ministers or MSPs shadow disabled people, more prominent use of alternative formats, for example ensuring British Sign Language signers were available at key events such as the swearing in of MSPs. Symbolism was important, but tokenism was not acceptable. There was also a need to widen public awareness on disability and to change attitudes. Public campaigns were one way to do this, as was using positive images of disability.
Second, that there was a need to raise the awareness of non disabled people through training, and that disabled people should be involved in delivering this. This applied at all levels of the Executive and the Parliament. Opportunities for formal and informal direct contact should be identified. Research was another way of raising awareness and stimulating debate. One area identified for work was around the different ways that disability is defined.
Third, there was work to do with disabled people to help build their self-esteem and confidence, to resource support mechanisms and training and to tackle the financial problems around involvement and reduce the amount of unpaid and voluntary input. Improving access of all kinds was essential to this.
What mattered was the Scottish Executive should take action and lead and influence others. The Parliament and Disability Rights Commission were also felt to have an important role to play. Several people suggested that the Executive should take a carrot and stick approach to engendering change and more thought should be given to sanctions for non-compliance.
Comments on the strategy
There was general support for mainstreaming so that disability issues could be covered in the whole range of policy areas and stages of the process, including consultation. It was important to set action plans, with timescales, and measure and report on progress against targets. This was important to ensuring accountability.
The Executive also had a role in influencing others and setting an example, as had the Parliament. Staff training and employment of disabled people were part of this. The Executive should work with key groups to promote active involvement and wide ownership. One approach was through developing codes of practice.
People were unsure of the status of the strategy and whether or not there would be sanctions for non-compliance.
Good Practice
People identified a number of areas of good practice around consultation, services and practice. For example, the Employment Disability Unit in Dundee and job clubs offering work experience. There was support for sharing good practice and on consulting with disabled people about what constitutes good practice.
Other Concerns
The workshops and feedback also raised some more general points, in particular around education and employment.
Mainstream, inclusive education, with proper support and resourcing was seen as essential for long-term improvements and change. Disabled children should be properly resourced and supported in mainstream education and the supporting infrastructure also resourced. Work in schools was also required to help raise awareness and understanding amongst all children and the Disability Discrimination Act should be extended to cover schools.
Around employment, there were major problems with employers' attitudes to disability and disabled people - as employees and as clients/consumers. They tended to see the Disability Discrimination Act as a problem, did not make adjustments they should and were bad at keeping people on and paying them during periods when they were unable to work. Again, the lack of disabled people as role models was seen as a problem. Positive action was required to change attitudes and tackle barriers so that people were properly supported.
Issues arising over the 3 events
Grassroots events were also held with women and people from minority ethnic communities. A number of themes arose across the 3 events. These are summarised briefly below.
The Executive should move quickly from producing the strategy to developing detailed action plans, informed by the findings of the events. These should identify:
- the themes affecting groups individually
- actions required and ways themes will be addressed
- how issues which have arisen will be embedded in action plans
- adequate time and resources to participate meaningfully
The plans should include clear statements about measurable outcomes, timescales, responsibility and resources and should be monitored properly. The plans and information on progress should be made publicly available.
In all the events there was a degree of cynicism about whether the hopes would be translated into reality, but also some optimism that now is the time to make a difference with a Scottish Executive that is willing to listen.
The Executive should say how the findings of the days have been used, and that materials should be circulated in draft to facilitators to ensure that everyone is happy about how their discussions are represented.
Resources are needed to support effective involvement in consultation and to implement change. Many suggestions were made about how to improve consultation, communication and participation for different equality groups.
Good consultation and participation should run alongside the action plans. And the Equality Strategy should spell out how change will be actioned and demonstrate a clear will to do so.
All recognised that there could be problems balancing a mainstreaming approach with an appreciation and focus on the diverse groups it encompassed. Individual action plans must take account of the needs and experiences of different groups and people facing multiple discrimination.
The strategy and action plans must be taken on across the Scottish Executive and senior figures within Government must endorse and act upon the strategy. Training and awareness raising for staff and politicians is also required.
The Executive should recognise the expertise within communities and foster equal partnerships, engaging partners on a regular basis and providing feedback on what account has been taken of their views. This makes the process more inclusive and accountable.
All recognised the problems of seeking the views of a wide range of groups and individuals, and that the consultation base must be expanded. This is a task for the Scottish Executive and requires an up to date database of organisations and contacts and a concerted effort to tackle barriers to participation.
Footnote
1 Jackie Baillie is now the Minister for Social Justice.