Welcome to our regular disability news update…remember to keep coming back each month for a regular review of all things Inclusion, OT, DDA and disability related!!

Inclusion News:

We have been fortunate enough to work very closely with Lambeth Social Services OT department this month as well as some of the following client’s:

• KCC OT Dept
• Kynixa
• London & Quadrant Housing
• Various Medico-Legal client’s
• LBL OT Dept

General News:

UK ratifies human rights treaty for disabled people

The UK finally ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 8 June 2009. The Convention aims to ensure that disabled people enjoy the same rights as everyone else. Although it does not give disabled people any additional rights, it reaffirms that disabled people should be treated in the same way as everyone else, including rights to dignity, freedom, equality and justice. The UK has been working towards ratification since it signed the Convention in March 2007.

Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Disabled People, said: “The ratification of the Convention is a very significant landmark, for disabled people and for UK Government and society as a whole. Not only does it show the Government’s commitment to equality of human rights for disabled people, but our determination to achieve equality by 2025. Now that we have ratified we can start implementing the Convention, building on the approach towards disability equality set out in our 2005 report Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People. We aim to start the Parliamentary process for ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention shortly.”

Further details are available from the Department for Work and Pensions website:

www.dwp.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2009/june/drc151-080609.asp

Sir Bert Massie disappointed with Equality Bill

Sir Bert Massie, a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Chair of the former Disability Rights Commission, has expressed his disappointment about the new Equality Bill. He believes that far from expanding on the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) as promised, it will actually dilute existing protection from discrimination for disabled people.

The downsides to the new Bill highlighted by Sir Bert include the following:

• there is still no ban on asking about disability prior to a job interview, which may lead to the information being used to unfairly deny someone an interview
• it is often cheaper for service providers to discriminate than not to, because the financial penalties imposed by courts are still relatively low
• while the DDA requires barriers to be removed, the Equality Bill proposes that the wording should be changed to avoiding disadvantage, which could make it easier for people to sidestep their duties
• while the DDA places a duty on public authorities to involve disabled people in the development of policies, the new Bill proposes a single equality duty, which could mean that disabled peoples input is weakened

Read Sir Berts comments on the Disability Now website
www.disabilitynow.org.uk/latest-news2/news-focus/equality-bill-disappointing-says- sir-bert

Inclusion are based around London, Kent, Surrey, Sussex and cover the whole of the south of the UK. We also cover up to the midlands and over towards the south west of the country – please contact us for further details or for free support and advice around any DDA or Occupational Therapy issues.