Priorities and Workplan 2012/13: Plan of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Disability

Priorities and workplan 2012/13: Plan of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Disability Committee

Contents

Introduction

The Disability Committee

Our duties and powers

Our vision

Our approach and guiding principles

Our members

Our budget

The Disability Committee’s work in 2011/12

Disability Committee programme of work for 2012/13

Strategic Priority 1: To promote fairness and equality of opportunity in Britain’s future economy

Strategic Priority 2: To promote fair access to public services and autonomy and dignity in service delivery

Development of partnerships with other regulators, inspectorates and ombudsmen – Lead Kirsten Hearn

Strategic Priority 3: To promote dignity and respect and safeguard people’s safety

Development of the Commission’s evidence to support the Commission’s work in 2012 and beyond

To maintain and maximise protections provided by equality and human rights legislation

Maintaining current protection from discrimination

Ensuring that legislation and new policy advances equality and human rights

Change programme: getting fit for the future

The Statutory Review of the Disability Committee

Mainstreaming disability work into the new organisational design of the Commission

Other actions to fulfil the Disability Committee’s Statutory obligations

Contacts

Introduction

1. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (the Commission) aims to reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people, and promote and protect human rights.
2. The Commission was established under the Equality Act 2006 and opened in October 2007. We are a non-departmental public body, which means that we are accountable for our public funds but independent of government. We have taken over the roles and duties of the Commission for Racial Equality, the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission and we also have new responsibilities.
3. The Commission enforces and develops equality legislation on age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and transgender status and encourages compliance with the Human Rights Act. We work closely with, and provide advice and guidance to, policy makers, lawyers, government, businesses, the voluntary and public sectors, and individuals.
4. We have offices in England, Scotland and Wales. For further details please see our website: or contact us – contact details can be found at the end of this report.
5. If you require this publication in an alternative format and/or language please contact us using the contact details at the end of this report.
6. All publications are also available to download and order in a variety of formats from our website.

The Disability Committee

Our duties and powers

1. The Disability Committee is a decision-making body with wide powers and responsibilities delegated to us by Parliament. These powers and responsibilities are set out in the Equality Act 2006 and include:
2. monitoring and providing advice on disability law
3. publishing and disseminating ideas and information
4. providing education and training, and giving advice and guidance on disability rights
5. publishing and revising Codes of Practice on disability law
6. monitoring and preventing crimes affecting disabled people
7. arranging conciliation on non-employment disability discrimination disputes
8. providing or arranging legal assistance for claimants
9. conducting or intervening in disability-related judicial review proceedings, and
10. making sure the Commission’s Board consults us on anything it intends to do that affects disabled people, and providing them with advice on such matters.
11. These powers and responsibilities can only be exercised by the Board, other statutory or non-statutory committees or staff where the Disability Committee has given delegated authority to do so.
12. The Committee has the power, acting within our remit, to take action or instruct others in the Commission to do so. For example, we can ask for a press notice, produce articles, commission and publish guidance, initiate legal proceedings, develop policy positions, engage stakeholders, and make our views known to the government or Parliament.
13. The Committee must submit an annual report to the Board, which must be incorporated into the annual report of the Commission itself.
14. The Committee must also consult the Commission’s Scotland and Wales Committees regarding disability advice to national governments or others. Our primary means of doing so is via members of the Scotland and Wales Committees enjoying ex officio membership of the Disability Committee, and via engagement between relevant staff across England, Scotland and Wales.
15. The Equality Act 2006 requires the Commission to make sure that the Committee receives a sufficient share of the Commission’s overall resources to allow us to exercise our functions.
16. The Committee has an agreed annual budget of £90,000. We have a Disability Programme Director and Disability Programme Officer to co-ordinate the delivery of our work programme and to facilitate the relationship with officers in the Commission.

Our vision

1. The Disability Committee’s vision is of a society in which all disabled people have real freedom and opportunity to participate fully and to contribute to society as equal citizens.

Our approach and guiding principles

1. We aim to achieve this vision by inspiring leadership throughout the organisation to deliver on disability equality and human rights, and by promoting good relations within all of the Commission’s strategies and work programmes across Britain.
2. Our statutory remit as a decision-making body is underpinned uniquely by our membership, which is disability led and draws on our guiding principles:
3. to shape our perspectives from the needs of disabled people and their supporters
4. to be guided by the needs of businesses, employers, and public authorities, as well as service providers in general
5. to apply our knowledge, expertise and learning to further independent living and the integration of disabled people within communities and to share that learning, and
6. to take a long-term and strategic perspective, and work in partnership with decision-makers and influencers.

Our members

Commissioner Mike Smith,Chair of the Disability Committee. Ultimate decision-making authority for the Committee. Lead on tackling harassment. Mike also sits on the Commission’s Regulatory Committee.

Kirsten Hearn,Vice-Chair of the Disability Committee. For the last 12 years Kirsten has been an experienced advisor to government and key agencies as a non-executive director and a freelance trainer, researcher and consultant. She is the Chair of Inclusion London, the Deaf and Disabled People’s organisations community interest company, and is a trustee (and former Vice-Chair) of the consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender (LGBT) community and voluntary organisations. Kirsten was an independent member of the Metropolitan Police Authority from 2002 until its abolition in January 2012, where she chaired the Equality and Diversity sub-committee and co-chaired the Domestic and Sexual Violence board. For 8years (from 2000), Kirsten was a member of the Transport for London Board where she championed social inclusion.

Kirsten was an external member of the Office for Disability Issues’ Disability Equality Delivery Board from 2009 to 2012. She helped set up Equality 2025, serving as a member for three years (2006/09), providing disability equality advice at the heart of government. Kirsten was a member of the Arts Council England’s Independent Disability Equality Advisory Group for 18 months (until March 2011) and a member of the LGBT Advisory Group to the Metropolitan Police Service from 2000 to 2002.

For 16years, Kirsten was an equality specialist and senior manager in local government before leaving to create and run her own successful empowerment coaching and training consultancy, specialising in evolutionary change.

Diane Mulligan,Lead on human rights, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Diane has worked extensively on disability, human rights and international development issues both overseas and domestically. She is currently the UK's nominated candidate to run for the 2012 election round for the Expert Committee of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Her previous experience includes working as an academic at the Institute of Development Studies; as Country Director of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) Indonesia; Disability Advisor with Sightsavers and currently with CBM, the overseas disability charity, as the Co-ordinator of Advocacy and Alliances for Inclusive Development.

In 2009 Diane was featured in the Women's National Commission's 'Women in Public Life Guide'. In addition to her work with the Commission, Diane's appointments in public life include: Member of Equality 2025 (Office for Disability Issues), the British Medical Association (Patient Liaison Group and Equal Opportunities Committee), the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and Sussex Probation Board.

Saghir Alam, Lead on health and social care. Saghir is a lawyer, and a former Disability Rights Commission (DRC) Commissioner. He is a member of Equality 2025 and the Race and Diversity Panel of CENTREXD, the National Police Training Authority.

Andrew Lee,Lead on promoting awareness, information and advice to marginalised groups and lead on accessible information and communication. In the 1990s Andrew was a Lay assessor for the Hertfordshire inspection unit and was a founding trustee of PoHwer, the advocacy agency in Hertfordshire. In 1999 Andrew was employed as Director at People First (self-advocacy) and has been co-Chair of the Learning Disability Coalition since 2007. Andrew gave evidence to the Inquiry into disability-related harassment and to the All Party Select Committee on Human Rights regarding Independent Living. He was on the Learning Disability Action Group of the Disability Rights Commission and part of the team that led the Inquiry into primary and social care for people with learning difficulties. He also sat on the Advisory Group that set up Equality 2025.

Michelle de Oude, Lead on employment, skills and benefits. Michelle is Director of a Disability Consultancy and also works as a Policy, Performance and Partnerships Officer – Equalities, for Norfolk County Council. Prior to this, Michelle worked at the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) for 7years, where she advised stakeholders on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and had a key role in the co-ordination of DRC projects relating to employment.

Michelle is a member of the Federation of Small Businesses. She is also the Design for All co-ordinator for the British Standards Institute, and chairs the Norfolk and Cambridgeshire Area Crown Prosecution Service Community Involvement Panel. Michelle also acts as an adviser to the National Disabled Fire Association.

Teresa Waldron,Lead on the Equality Act 2010. Teresa currently works as Partnerships and Projects Co-ordinator at Chesterfield Law Centre, an organisation that provides free legal advice and casework services in the field of social welfare law, including equality, discrimination and human rights. She is also an advisory member of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) Disabled People Involvement Forum, advising ACAS on disability and employment issues. For the last 7 years Teresa has worked as an Equality/Disability Consultant for a local council. Occasionally, Teresa works as an Expert by Experience inspector for the Care Quality Commission, having previously worked for five years part-time as a community care law practitioner at the Law Centre.

Teresa was a member of the Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board and a trustee of the Law Centres Federation's Executive Committee, Deaf Equality Forward and the United Kingdom Council on Deafness (UKCOD) Boards. She is currently Vice-Chair of LINKS Council for Voluntary Service. Teresa used to work as Community Development worker at Derbyshire Centre for Inclusive Living and as a Youth worker for Derbyshire County Council.

Bob Benson, Lead on devolved disability matters (Scotland). Bob was the Executive Director, Community Development at disability charity SCOPE, leading SCOPE's strategy to deliver disability equality throughout England and Wales, with the further goal of influencing how national organisation’s work in partnership with their members, other disability organisations and stakeholders.

Prior to this he spent 5 years as the Scotland Director of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), where he oversaw the setting up of the DRC in Scotland. Bob had campaigned for many years for the establishment of the DRC, amongst other issues, in his role as director of the charity Disability Scotland. Bob was also a member of the UK Government Disability Taskforce and the UK Disability Employment Advisory Group. Bob will step down in 2012.

Rhian Davies,Lead on devolved disability matters (Wales). Rhian is Chief Executive of Disability Wales. Rhian will step down in 2012.

1. You can find out more about the Disability Committee members and the work of the Committee at:
2. You can contact the Disability Committee by email:

Our budget

1. The Commission is required to allocate sufficient resources to enable the Committee to fulfil its statutory function. For 2012 the budget of £90,000 reflects the reduced budget available to the Commission. The budget will be allocated as follows:

Statutory Committee Fees and Expenses / 24000
Support workers / 6500
Travel and Subsistence / 8000
Publications and Printing / 4500
Recruitment / 10000
Catering / 500
Project work / 20000
Total (A) / 73500
Reasonable adjustments
Microphones for meetings / 6000
Palantypists including expenses and travel / 8000
Translation/Formatting / 2500
Total (B) / 16500
Total / £90000

The Disability Committee’s work in 2011/12

1. The Committee agreed an ambitious programme of work to support the delivery of the Commission’s 12 month business plan for 2011/12, focusing on eight key areas and using the skills and expertise of lead Disability Committee members to add value to this work:

Teresa Waldron – Equality Act 2010

Diane Mulligan – The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

Saghir Alam – Health and Social Care

Michelle de Oude –Education, Employment and Benefits

Mike Smith –Inquiry into disability-related harassment

Andrew Lee – Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

Mike Smith and Kirsten Hearn – Preparation for the Formal Review of the Disability Committee

1. The Committee also worked with the Group Director of Intelligence and Engagement in the development of a Communications plan. Staffing reductions and the Commission’s decision to reduce some planned activity have impacted on the work of the Committee, nevertheless significant progress was made on each area, and each member of the Committee has undertaken stakeholder engagement within one of the areas identified.

Equality Act 2010– Lead: Teresa Waldron

1. Advised on key legal cases including McDonald, Cordell, Abercrombie and Fitch, Neary, Hook and Stott, Cook and Obrey.
2. Advised on the development and production of Codes of Practice and Non-Statutory Guidance ensuring that examples and explanations provided clear and accessible guidance on the rights of disabled people.
3. Commenced work with Legal and Enforcement teams to develop follow-up plans on successful strategic cases.
4. Worked with Casework and Litigation in the submission of the Commission’s response to consultation on the Application of the Equality Act to Ships and Hovercraft.
5. Advised on the Government’s consultation on Health and Safety Regulation (the Löfstedt review) ensuring that amendments to Regulation considered the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.
6. Worked with the Commission’s Legal team on the delegation of authority to the Chief Executive Officer in respect of Section 30 interventions in disability matters.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Personswith Disabilities (UNCRPD) – Lead: Diane Mulligan

1. Worked with the Commission’s UNCRPD lead in determining the Commission’s priorities for 2011/12.
2. Members of the Disability Committee worked with the Commission’s UNCRPD lead to inform the Commission’s response to consultation on the Review of Immigration Reservation.
3. Members of the Disability Committee worked with the Commission’s Education lead to respond to the recent Green Paper ‘Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability’. The Commission reiterated its strong support for Article 24 of the UNCRPD (mainstream schooling) and opposed the UK government’s reservation to and interpretive declaration on Article 24.
4. Contributed to the Commission’s written evidence to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights report on Independent Living, founded on the principles in Article 19 of UNCRPD. The Chair of the Disability Committee, Commissioner Mike Smith, along with representatives from the other three National Human Rights Institutions, gave evidence in person at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Human Rights on 16 June 2011.
5. Contributed to the Commission’s response to the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) consultation on the Government’s disability strategy, emphasising the central role of UNCRPD. As a member of the United Kingdom Independent Mechanism (UKIM), the Commission believes that the strategy should form the national action plan for the implementation of UNCRPD, as required by the Convention.
6. Fed into the development of the Commission’s Strategic Plan, to ensure that monitoring and reporting on Britain’s progress and compliance with international equality and human rights conventions is a key priority for the Commission.
7. Attended the Conference of State Parties, presenting on the Commission's role as an independent mechanism.

Health and Social Care – Lead: Saghir Alam

1. Worked with the Commission’s Health and Social Care Team to follow up on the recommendations on Winterbourne View, raising attention to the need to ensure that ‘safeguarding policies’ were not used to restrict the rights of disabled people.
2. Development and regional promotion with stakeholders of the Commission’s joint guidance on Equality and Human Rights with the Care Quality Commission
3. Promoted the Commission’s recommendations, adopted in ‘From Safety Net to Springboard’ (Equality and Human Rights Commission,2009) at external events, including events in Leeds and Wolverhampton.
4. Advised on the development and follow-up of the Commission’s Inquiry into home care of older people.

Employment and Benefits – Lead: Michelle de Oude

1. Worked with the Commission’s Policy team to finalise the Commission’s ‘Working Better’research report, supporting engagement with disabled people and employers through a focus group, inputting into the drafting and communications plan for the final report.
2. Informed the Commission’s response to ‘Getting in, staying in and getting on’. (Sayce Report, 2011),representing the Commission at an externally-held focus group, and inputting into the drafting of the consultation response.
3. Worked with officers to prepare the Commission’s consultation response to the Welfare Reform Bill that included specific concerns about the withdrawal of the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance.
4. Advised on the Commission’s response to the Treasury Select Committee’s Inquiry ‘Withdrawal of Cheques and the Cheque Guarantee System’.
5. Stakeholder engagement, feeding concerns back into the Commission, for example on the failure of JobcentrePlus to meet the reasonable adjustment requirements of disabled jobseekers.

Education– Lead: Michelle de Oude

1. Informed the Commission’s response to the Government consultation: Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability.

Inquiry into disability-related harassment – Lead: Mike Smith

1. Worked with the Commission to produce and launch the Commission’s Inquiry into disability-related harassment report: ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’.
2. Engagement with senior stakeholders including Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executives and Directors of key Government departments to ensure sign-up and support of the Inquiry’s recommendations.
3. Promotion of the findings from ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ and the Commission’s follow-up work through media interviews and presentations at external events.
4. Advised on the development of a toolkit to enable disabled people and their organisations to hold public bodies to account for their actions and commitment to tackling disability harassment.
5. Supported engagement with disability organisations and sector leads to shape the Commission’s ‘Manifesto for Change’ report.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communications – Lead: Andrew Lee

1. Developed a communication strategy to support the Committee’s work plan for 2011/12.
2. Supported the development and consultation on the Commission’s strategic plan for 2012-15, attending consultation events, and advising on how to reach ‘seldom heard’ groups.
3. Supported stakeholder engagement through the Inquiry into disability-related harassment.
4. Advised on accessible communication between the Commission and the Committee.
5. Worked with the Commission’s Media Team to respond to key policy and legal-related disability issues.
6. Responded to the Government consultation on successor arrangements for the Disabled Person’s Transport Advisory Committee.
7. Sponsored the development of the Commission’s E-Learning Web Accessibility Project.

Internal Audit of the Disability Committee – Leads: Mike Smith and Kirsten Hearn

1. Worked with the Commission’s Regional team to undertake an audit of Disability Committee cocuments to ensure information is available and accessible for the formal review of the Disability Committee in October 2012.

Meetings