Contents

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

5 Characteristics And Problems

5.1 The experience of the Working Group and its sub groups suggests that there is, in the area of disability information, an impressive amount of enthusiasm and commitment on the part of many individuals. Many of them are working in the voluntary sector and involved in a constant struggle for funding and recognition. Some organisations in the voluntary sector depend on this commitment to raise the profile of the service offered and to create links with the statutory sector. There are many examples of organisations in the voluntary sector proactively addressing the information needs of disabled people. This contrasts with the more reactive stance sometimes adopted in the statutory sector, although as described in Part 2, section 3.1 above there are many examples of local authorities taking information seriously.

Criticisms of a more reactive approach sometimes taken by statutory agencies emerged in responses to the Working Group's statement, for example a submission which contrasted the service and support received from the Lothian Coalition of Disabled People and its Grapevine project, with the difficulty experienced in getting information and help from the Employment Service's Placing Advisory and Counselling Team (PACT). Disabled people felt that they had to take the initiative to discover the latest aids and equipment , and then persuade the Disability Employment Adviser that this was what they needed.

Meanwhile there are encouraging developments in the private sector, particularly in relation to the privatised utilities and banks, that more information is being made available in suitable formats.

It is important to sustain and encourage the enthusiasm and commitment which exists in the voluntary sector, in such a way as to recognise the position and value of the voluntary sector in the overall structure.

5.2 Without repeating the various characteristics already identified above, the Working Group considers that:

• there is a lack of consistency of provision across Scotland;
• statutory agencies do not give information a high priority;
• there are problems in the relationship of the statutory and the voluntary sectors; and
• there is rivalry for funding both between groups in the voluntary sector and between groups in the voluntary and statutory sectors.

5.3 In addition it does appear that the position in Scotland is not dissimilar to that found by Coopers and Lybrand in 1988. Provision is fragmented and compartmentalised and characterised by the following:

• There is no systematic assessment of users' needs.
• Provision is not consumer driven.
• There is a lack of evaluation and feedback: too few organisations ensure that the information provided can be acted upon.
• There is a proliferation of a large number of specialist providers with few links between them.
• An absence of quality standards and performance indicators.