Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Mark Isherwood, has called for Welsh Government action to address the growing concern that public agencies are failing to carry out their duties and responsibilities to disabled people.
Mr Isherwood raised the matter in the Assembly Chamber yesterday with the Leader of the House, Julie James AM, whose responsibilities include equality, covering the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and human rights in relation to UN conventions.
He said:
“The Equality Act 2010 requires that service providers must think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people and states you should not wait until a disabled person experiences difficulties using a service.
“The Welsh Government incorporated the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People into the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 Part 2 Code of Practice, which said that 'Local authorities must seek to empower people to produce innovative solutions through local networks and communities’, and that this 'means putting robust arrangements in place to secure involvement of people in the design and operation of services'.
“Now, I've raised this question with Welsh Government Ministers many times: what action will the Welsh Government take to address the growing concern, distress and damage being caused when those very public agencies are failing to carry out those responsibilities and duties?
“I'll give you just a couple of examples. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Flintshire gave its contract for disability support services to outside agencies, not the agency FDF Centre for Independent Living, on which the local disability community depends, who told me at their AGM that they had not been involved in the decision.
“The news today from Wrexham, that a number of social businesses providing work for disabled people are set to close, but no reference whatsoever to designing and delivering with the communities affected. We know about the Conwy deaf community having had
to go to Ombudsmen after their British Sign Language services were withdrawn.
“And, of course, concern in Cardiff that Autism Spectrum Connections Cymru has had to pull back services from its one-stop shop, despite the autism community locally saying they weren't consulted and that they absolutely depend upon those services. So, given your responsibilities in these areas, how will you now ensure that the Welsh Government intervenes to help these local authorities understand better what they must do, and also how that will not only benefit disabled people, but also, ultimately, save them money and help them manage their budgets better?”
The Leader of the House replied: “I'm not aware of all of the details of some of those examples, and I'd be very grateful if Mark Isherwood would kindly pass them on to me; I am aware of some of them. Where somebody has signed up to the ethical code of procurement practice, then they ought to comply with it, and I'll be taking those up with the local authorities in question where that's been breached.”
She also said she would be issuing a new set of guidelines - Action on Disability - before the end of the Christmas term, that will address some of the issues raised by Mr Isherwood.
Mr Isherwood added: “I hope that will help local authorities and health boards to better understand how to reconcile their procurement obligations with their obligations to design and deliver services with local people, because there is a conflict between the two.”