How ULOs benefit from engaging with the local authority and what’s in it for disabled people

Key points from presentation

Thinking about why we’re doing this

  • We need to look more rigorously into why we are promoting ULOs
  • Recommendation 4.3 from the government’s Life Chances report is a recommendation only – we can’t just respond to government fads; we need a deeper understanding of why we are doing this
  • In working to promote ULOs we need to keep present in our minds their history and purpose and the history of the disabled peoples’ movement
  • We need to remember the Vietnam veterans returning to the USA in the 1960s who demanded equal rights to access the community; the first people to see disability as a human rights issue
  • We need to remember the activists in the UK in the 1970s who campaigned against having to live in residential accommodation simply on the grounds of disability, and who were subjected to massive state intervention into their personal lives
  • People moving out into the community began the campaign for independent living, and the emergence of the social model of disability
  • Independent living is about the right to live with dignity and free from state interference in the personal life
  • The social model of disability is about seeing how society disables and disadvantages individuals through inaccessible environments (both physical and cultural), rather than focusing on what is “wrong” with people
  • ULOs developed out of the campaign for independent living and the social model of disability

What’s in it for disabled people

  • ULOs have promoted the involvement of disabled people in the services they receive; we now call this “co-production”
  • Not enabling disabled people to solve their own problems is “taking not giving, taking their dignity” (Saul Alisnky)
  • Customer satisfaction surveys show that ULOs are better at providing services than the local authority
  • Disabled people trust and have belief in their local ULO; ULOs have empathy with their client group and are fighting their corner
  • ULOs are honest about what is and what is not possible
  • ULOs avoid bureaucracy and complexity; they reject jargon and mystification, all of which can further disable disabled people; local authorities are part of the mid-twentieth century’s “disabling professions” (Ivan Illich), i.e. social workers, doctors, lawyers, scientists, in whom we put trust before our own judgement

How do ULOs benefit from engaging with the local authority

  • The voluntary sector is hugely competitive and unstable; there is no ability to plan in the long term and staff redundancy is always a very real threat
  • Tendering processes initiated by the local authorities can undermine and weaken the voluntary sector
  • In this sort of environment, “making friends” with your local authority is a vital step in survival
  • Relationships between ULOs and LA’s are about face-to-face meetings, they’re about finding understandings between individual people
  • Finding the right person in the local authority is key; a person who has understanding of the issues of the history of the disabled peoples’ movement, independent living and the social model of disability
  • ULOs need not just to make the business case for receiving investment, but promote their ability to contribute to enabling citizens to live healthier and happier lives