Registered Charity No. 1093675

Voluntary Sector Forum (“VSF”)

DRAFT Notes of Meeting held on 15th October 2010

Welcome:

Sue Taylor (Chair) welcomed all those present at the meeting and went around the room for people to announce who they were and which organisation they represented. There were 34 people present with a further 34 apologies.

Matters Arising from Previous Meeting:

The main matter arising was an oral update from Sue Sharp re progress on the transport and environment item presented at the last meeting. Sue mentioned that there had been no volunteers for the Transport subgroup of the VSFthat had been suggested. Consequently a note was circulated to the room for expressions of interest and it was also proposed that an invitation should go out from the secretariat to see if any of those not able to attend were interested. When she had a list of participants Sue would convene the group and report back once the first meeting had taken place.With regard to the idea of having a specific conference/seminar on bus transport, Sue reported that this would follow on from the forthcoming Outcome 3 Conference that Guide Dogs were organising in London on 19th January 2011. That event would provide an opportunity to contextualise the issues for industry and provide a platform for moving forward. Hans Cohn said that there were at least 4 groups to his knowledge that had an interest in transport issues and Sue reassured him that any new group would link across any other groups to ensure a unified focus. By then the results of the RNIB’s recently commissioned survey on blind and partially sighted people’s experience of bus travel should also be available.

Sue also gave an update on the Shared Street Judicial Review action and explained that an agreement had been reached to put the action on ice pending the outcome of further research into the effectiveness of the Royal Borough’s proposed delineator. Those trials were expected to commence in November/December with a number of blind and partially sighted people, as well as people with mobility difficulties who would be asked to test out an area configured with the new surface.

Threats to Local Authority Services, Benefits and Access:

Mike Brace and Sue Taylor gave a short presentation listing the range of potential threats and issues to local authority services, benefits and improvements to accessibility. These included the cuts package expected on 20th October affecting all local authorities and their potential reduction in their own services and their commissioning and payment for external services, such as those provided by local societies, recruitment difficulties re rehabilitation workers, the disappearance of key staff from health and social care with responsibilities for sensory issues, the reassessment for a number of key benefits including incapacity benefit and eventually, DLA, plus a whole host of access issues re information, services and the worsening physical state of the environment.

The table groups were then asked to discuss the issues raised in the presentation and to focus on 3 key questions:

- what should be done nationally with groups such as VSF and the key agencies with a campaigning section within their organisation

- what action could be taken locally re maintenance of services and combating further erosion of provision?

- are there any priorities we should be focussing on?

Feedback from Morning Discussions:

Before lunch, members had split into groups to discuss the impact and members' experience of threats (to services), as well as development of an Action Plan. Sue Taylor and Mike Brace chaired the discussion.

Representatives of each of the six tables (who identified themselves):

Adrian Hewitt, St. Dunstan’s

Steven Kirk, Guide Dogs

Emily Brothers, NFBUK

Brian Watts, Talking News Federation

Lesley Anne-Alexander, RNIB

Richard Greenwood, Royal London Society for the Blind

Table Discussion re Impact and Members' Experience of Threats and Development of an Action Plan.

Main Points:

These points were made after group discussion between tables and therefore, do not reflect all members'opinions.

  • It is essential to join up communication within local authorities, as well as local services.
  • We may be too late to change strategy and should look at what we can hold onto.
  • There is duplication in many things we do within VI charities.
  • Local Authorities will interpret central government’s message differently.
  • There are threats in relation to the current climate both from the initiatives of the previous government and the present coalition.
  • This (current financial climate) is a significant challenge, but there are also opportunities to redesign services to still deliver to blind and VI people.
  • There may be a difference of the impact on those that are blind and those that are partially-sighted - will partially sighted people be disproportionately affected by the cuts in central and local Government?
  • The current climate will promote competition in service delivery - more competition would be damaging, as people will be concerned about their organisations closing. We recognise the need to drive out duplication and fragmentation - our sector is probably too crowded - there are 733 blind or partially sighted charities in Britain.
  • It is cheaper to prevent sight loss rather than pay for the after-effects.
  • It is cheaper to include a blind/partially sighted person in work rather than exclude them.
  • We are in organisational mode rather than campaigning mode - this is because we don’t know who to train our guns on. Is this part of the government's plan to divide and conquer?
  • Some did not agree that we are all 'talk' and then go back to what we want to do within our own organisations. UK Vision Strategy is a compromise, but it is the way we will do business with Central Government. The Minister for the Disabled has said our sector is a joy to deal with, because he knows where we are coming from and what we want.
  • Nationally, we don’t feel we can fight every battle and war. An example of where we would find it difficult to agree - some feel it is a good idea to cut benefits, whereas others feel it would be grave decision. We need to measure outcomes. We have to be clear on what it is we are defending and what campaigns we can win.
  • Local - Perhaps we can win every battle by empowering local people with the tools to do it themselves - they identify what is being threatened and then we provide the know-how, template letters etc. MPs take more interest if they receive a letter from a constituent, rather than an organisation.
  • We have to remember that like it or not we live in challenging times - services that are nice, but do not contribute, need to be abolished.
  • Question? Are talking books essential when WHSmiths in a couple of years will provide an audio book and something to play it on?

Impact of Government Change - Presentation by Dan Scorer

Winter fuel payments and free eye tests- Cameron gave a public commitment during the leadership debate to protect these, as well as free bus passes.

However, right-of-centre thinktanks Reform, the Centre for Policy Studies and Policy Exchange are all arguing for cuts to universal benefits

  • Nearly 90 per cent of Winter Fuel Payments go to people who are not in fuel poverty
  • Nearly 30 per cent of government spending on buses goes on free bus passes

Tightening of DLA eligibility criteria e.g. to exclude partially sighted people from lower rate mobility component - DWP Officials are making their first contact with disability organisations about their initial thoughts. There will be a consultation on proposals issued before the end of this year and the reforms to DLA will be in the Welfare Reform Bill to be introduced early next year.

Migration of Incapacity Benefit Recipients to Employment Support Allowance and Possibly onto JSA after Failing to Qualify - The Social Security Advisory Committee should shortly issue its report to DWP on the consultation and draft regulations they issued over the summer, setting out a completely new WCA. All disability organisations had huge concerns about the proposals and we took the opportunity at Party Conferences to meet with the Lib Dem front bench spokespeople and the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee to raise awareness of this key issue and the huge impact it could have were it used to conduct migration from next year. That impact could be even larger numbers of IB claimants failing the WCA and going onto JSA. The DWP estimate of the failure rate using the current WCA is 22%

General Campaigns Updates - Dan Scorer

Nov/Dec- Talking Cash machines: we will be calling on banks to make their machines more accessible. At the moment current actions are being developed.

Action- Case Studies needed for the new talking ATM machines campaigns - if you know of anyone who has experienced problems or has benefitted from talking ATMs please get in contact with Helen Dearman, Campaigns Department:

DLA- This was covered in the update before.

Public Sector Equality Duty - The new combined Equality Duty comes into force in April next year. Government is currently consulting on the specific duties, which in the Disability Equality Duty included involving disabled people in the identification of barriers to achieving equality, producing an action plan and taking steps to achieve those equality objectives.

The new proposed specific duties are very weak and the Disability Charities Consortium (Leonard Cheshire, Mencap, Mind, RADAR, RNIB, RNID, and Scope) has met with Officials in the Government Equalities Office to see where and how we can secure changes. Specifically, we are seeking to ensure that public bodies have to involve disabled people in identifying barriers to achieving equality, that they set more than one equality objective and that they have to take steps to achieve it. Amendments to the draft regulations recently published are currently being written.

Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill - We are working in partnership with Mencap and Scope to highlight the barriers that disabled people face when voting: from problems with voter registration through to the polling station and voting itself. We have tabled a range of amendments relating to the forthcoming referendum on AV in May 2011, to gain reassurances from the government on guidance that will be issued, accessibility of public notices and steps they will take to address concerns highlighted in Scope's 2010 Polls Apart Survey, showing that polling station staff are not aware of,or able to support people with sight loss to use, the tactile voting template.

European Bus and Coach Regulation - Working in partnership with Age UK, Sense, Leonard Cheshire Disability, Guide Dogs, Scope, RNID and RADAR.

The UK government is taking part in negotiations at EU level on the EU Regulation on Passenger Rights in bus and coach transport. A large section of the regulation is dedicated to the rights of disabled passengers and passengers with reduced mobility. It would introduce welcome provisions increasing passengers' rights to access bus and coach services, rights to assistance and the right to have travel information made accessible. It also suggests that drivers and terminal staff should take part in mandatory disability awareness training.

The Regulation was raised on the In Touch programme last week, with Transport Minister Norman Baker MP giving a very cautious position statement, arguing that additional duties on local route bus operators could jeopardise the viability of rural services in particular.

Forthcoming work:

Pupil Premium and forthcoming Education Bill

Welfare Reform White Paper

Response to the Comprehensive Spending Review

Question: Jean Appleton - People who don’t want their pensions paid through the bank - are they able to get it through the post offices?

Answer:DS was not sure, but said there would be another solution to accommodate those that cannot access money through their bank.

Action - Helen Dearman to get in touch with Jean.

Comments - Gareth Davis (NLBD) - Gareth felt that with the new proposed EU regulations for Passengers Rights within bus and coach transportation, the drivers may turn off the audio description.

Dan Scorer agreed this was an important point, but said that the regulation doesn't cover audio description, but reasonable adjustments and a strong focus on staff training.

Mike Brace felt it was important to sustain a good relationship with the bus companies and felt blind and partially sighted people should highlight how beneficial areas of good practise are.

Sue Sharp–National regulations could be changed to get audio and visual information on buses and coaches in this country. Guide Dogs was leading a campaign on this and Sue called on everyone's support. For more information visit Talking Buses campaign on Guide Dogs website at

Higher Rate Mobility Component from April 2011: Who will be eligible? What do they need to do to get it? - Andy Barrick

Clearly the main priority is to ensure that people that are eligible get the higher rate at the date of change April 11th 2011. However, the change also offers us an opportunity to promote other benefits and concessions which support blind and partially sighted people. For example, Attendance Allowance, Blind Persons Tax Allowance and the Blue Badge Scheme.

The DWP are trying to minimise the number of nugatory claims - we therefore need to ensure that information is targeted accordingly.

The DWP will start outbound calls for the 48,000 of those who may be eligible on the 15th November - it is likely to be in alphabetical order.

Of the 48,000 there are 4,000 people who the DWP do not have a telephone number for and so they will send out a form. They will call people three times. If they then can't get through they too will be sent the application form.

It is recommended that people have their CVI's, BP1's or BD8s to hand. This is likely to give a good indication of whether they are eligible and they will need to send a copy into the DWP to check eligibility when asked.

If there are problems deciding who is eligible, an Ophthalmologist will receive a form from DWP to fill out. There are some who may have to visit optometrists on the high street to prove whether they qualify.

It is expected twenty-one to twenty-three thousand people will receive the higher rate of mobility component under the new legislation.

Questions:

Does being registered blind mean you automatically qualify for the higher rate of DLA?

AB: No it’s a sub-group of people, eligibility criteria are noted below:

Eligibility Criteria:

The information regarding who will be eligible is contained in the Regulations (Statutory Instrument 2010 No. 1651)

Someone will be taken as having a "severe visual impairment" and eligible if:

(i)he has a visual acuity of less than 3/60; or

(ii)he has a visual acuity of 3/60 or more, but less than 6/60 or a complete loss of peripheral field and a central visual field restricted to no more than 10 degrees in total.

These two routes to entitlement should cover all those people who come within the following categories of sight impairment:

- no perception of light

- perception of light only

- perception of hand movement: and

- a visual acuity of 3/60 with a total or extensive loss of field.

People who are over the age of 65 on 11th April 2011 cannot make a claim for the higher rate mobility component of DLA, even if they are currently receiving the lower rate and have a “severe visual impairment”. No one with a severe visual impairment will start to receive the higher rate until 11th April 2011

Questions:

Peter Wilkins - some of us are totally blind or have been since birth and won't have seen an ophthalmologist since then - I might not have the relevant paperwork, but I know I'm totally blind, how do I prove I'm eligible?

AB: Your GP will need to be involved if you have no paperwork. He or she may have a copy of your original registration documentation which you could ask for a copy of. Otherwise, you will need to ask him or her to refer you through to an ophthalmic consultant who can certify you to provide the information the DWP requires. (All claimants will need to be registered or certified as severely sight impaired or blind).

The 48,000 you referred to, are they over the age of 65? If they are on the lowest level of DLA, will they be eligible to receive the higher rate now?

AB: The structure of the DLA allowance system does not allow those who are over the age of 65 to claim for DLA or to have a revision of their mobility component of DLA if they are already receiving the lower rate.

Update on UK Vision Strategy - Anita Lightstone:

There are now 50 areas all working to get their strategies in place and to keep them within the radar of Local Authorities and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).