Disability agenda launched: a much needed reminder

Britain has got better for many disabled people over the past decade yet more work is needed as, in some cases, things have got worse. Bert Massie writing in the Guardian spelt out some of the issues which I abbreviate here.

Photo: view across from Bread Street to Whiteshill/Farmhill

There are now more disabled adults of working age in relative poverty today than a decade ago; and only half of all disabled people are in employment, which drops to 20% for those with mental health problems. A third of all people without formal qualifications are disabled. The lack of services and support impacts on families and places them at high risk of poverty. One in three children living in poverty has a disabled parent, while the children of disabled parents in Bangladeshi families face an 83% risk of growing up in poverty. There are 6 million unpaid carers, a figure set to rise to 9 million within the next 25 years. They are mostly women, often out of work, impoverished, in poor health and likely to experience poverty in retirement.

Many families of disabled children say they are at breaking point, with only one in 13 getting support from social services. The chances of working have retreated for many mothers of disabled children, who just can't afford to pay £10 an hour childcare and attend huge numbers of assessment.

As someone who has experienced disability personally and in my previous work it is great to see this issue being brought to the fore with real plans about the ways forward. The Agenda calls for family-centred policies that start from the point that disabled people and their families need real opportunities and access to services that support them to take risks, escape poverty, and become resilient to it. It gives suggestions on how to improve the skills of disabled people; of how we can improve the housing conditions of households with disabled members, a quarter of whom are living in conditions that do not meet the Decent Homes Standard. It identifies how we can reform social care to give families the means to organise their lives, participate socially and economically, and get on. It identifies how health inequalities might be narrowed to stop disabled people needlessly dying earlier than their fellow citizens. The agenda is in effect also about all those who experience disadvantage.

The Agenda is launched just when the UNICEF report comes out showing this country ranks last in its care of children, out of 21 advanced nations - making it the worst place to grow up in the developed world. One interesting fact that to me is very telling is that the UK had the lowest inequality in 1979 in Europe and by the early 2000s had almost the highest - in contrast the Netherlands who came out best in the survey have stayed about the same.

We could also talk of the loss of playgrounds, the endless TV adverts and messages, but discussion around this can perhaps be for another day....