Contents

Enabling Information: A report on improving access and raising standards in information services for disabled people and their carers in Scotland.

3 Political Context

3.1 The last 15 years have seen a growth in the political awareness of disabled people, and increasing demands that disabled people are given equal rights with the rest of the population. This parallels the emergence of the social model of disability. The demand for civil rights has been accompanied by the establishment of organisations of disabled people which are increasingly seen as more relevant than the charitable bodies which traditionally lobbied for people with disabilities. The creation in 1981 of the British Council of Organisations of Disabled People (BCODP) as an umbrella group was an important milestone in this process. There is at present no single Scottish organisation of disabled people, but there is an increasing number of local organisations both at Regional level, eg the Lothian Coalition of Disabled People and the Strathclyde Forum on Disability, as well as at more local level.

3.2 Britain has recognised the particular needs of disabled people in legislation, but has avoided any comprehensive civil rights legislation. The approach has been to try to effect improvements in the lives of disabled people without giving them the kind of rights not to be discriminated against which have been given in respect of discrimination on grounds of race or sex.

3.3 In this country the principal legislation dealing with disability has focused on services for disabled people. The National Assistance Act 1948 introduced the provision of local authority welfare services for disabled people. The Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 (as applied in Scotland by the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons (Scotland) Act 1972) amongst other things requires local authorities to identify disabled people in their areas and find out what their needs are and to inform them of the range of services provided. The Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 reinforces the duty on local authorities to assess people's need for services and requires them to provide them with as much additional information as possible about their own and other people's services. Care in the community, introduced by the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990, is also of considerable significance for people with disabilities, and imposes a statutory obligation on social work departments to work with the health authorities and the independent sector to offer choice as to whether care is provided in the community or in residential accommodation.

3.4 There was, until the 1980s, no real attempt to challenge discrimination on the grounds of disability, as there had been on the grounds of race or sex. In 1979 the Silver Jubilee Access Committee report Can Disabled People Go Where You Go? and the report of the Committee on Restrictions against Disabled People (CORAD) drew attention to discrimination against disabled people, and viewed discrimination in a structural context. Pressure for anti-discrimination legislation built up during the 1980s with several private members' Bills being introduced in parliament, which ultimately led to cross-party support for the Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill introduced by Dr Roger Berry in 1994, which did not proceed after the tabling of 82 minor amendments by Conservative back benchers. A similar Bill was introduced in the current parliamentary session by Harry Barnes. As an indication of the level of support for anti-discrimination legislation, and of the way this has changed over the years, it is interesting to look at voting figures in the House of Commons. In February 1983 when Donald Stewart introduced a Private Members Bill, the Disablement (Prohibition of Discrimination) Bill, it failed to secure the 100 votes needed for the Bill to proceed (77 voted in favour). By contrast, Dr Roger Berry's Bill commanded cross party support. Early Day Motion 466 expresses support for Harry Barnes' Bill which secured a second reading in the House of Commons, and in particular for full citizenship rights for disabled people, backed up by a Disability Rights Commission. This Early Day Motion has received the support of 245 MPs to date, across all political parties.

After the defeat of Dr Berry's Bill, a study was published by Liberty (formerly the Council for Civil Liberties) in 1994 claiming that people with disabilities in Britain are living under a system of social apartheid, citing the fact that only 12% of polling stations were fully accessible during the 1992 general election, and claiming that disabled people are denied freedom of movement. This report was submitted to the United Nations' Human Rights Committee (13).

The issue of anti-discrimination legislation remains firmly on the political agenda with the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Bill in the present parliamentary session, and with the Barnes Bill also having received a second reading.

3.5 This political background is important in the consideration of the importance of information services to people with disabilities and their carers because:

• it helps to explain the growth in information services being provided by organisations of disabled people;
• it demonstrates why it is important that disabled people themselves are centrally involved in the development and control of information services, and has led to arguments that disabled people are themselves the best people to provide information and advice to other disabled people;
• it underlines the need for everyone involved in providing information and advice to disabled people to receive disability equality awareness training; and
• as stated in section 1.1 above, information itself plays a key role in the political process, and enables the citizen to participate in the democratic process.

3.6 Local government reorganisation in Scotland on 1 April 1996 will mean that the existing pattern of district and regional councils will be replaced by 32 unitary authorities. This will mean that all local authority services will be delivered by the same authority, and there will be potential for better liaison between departments and scope for streamlining and refocussing information about council services. One consequence of reorganisation will undoubtedly be some disruption of services, or at the very least, a period of stocktaking without any significant development of services. A further consequence of reorganisation will be the effect on the funding of voluntary organisations in the independent sector by local authorities. The voluntary sector is of considerable economic and social significance: 30,000 people work in the voluntary sector in Scotland, and 50,000 serve on management committees. In 1992-93 local authorities funded the voluntary sector to the tune of £90 million.

Citizens Advice Scotland attempted to amend the Local Government etc (Scotland) Bill to require each local authority to draw up an information and advice strategy. This amendment was not accepted by the government. The Working Group does, however, consider that the scope for development of coherent information strategies at local authority level will be greater under the new authorities than it is at the moment.