Contents

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

Part 5 The Way Forward

The Working Group believes that this report should be used in two ways.

1. 1 The report describes the principles on which local information services and possible local strategy groups should be based, and outlines the content of national standards which the Group believes can be used:
   • as a basis for a local strategy;
   • as tools by which national and local services can assess the service they are providing;
   • by generalist advice services to assess the extent to which they are meeting the particular needs of disabled people; and
   • by service providers to assess the extent to which the information they provide about their service meets the standards. The principles and standards should be further developed:
   • to provide a benchmark for existing and future services (this work would be commissioned by the advisory body); and
   • to provide practical guidelines for use by local authority strategy groups and information and advice forums (this work could be commissioned by the Scottish Office).
2. 2 The report recommends various changes at national level, and the Working Group suggests that the way forward in this area is a process of consultation on:
   • l the advisory body; and
   • l the Scottish disability information service.

The method of conducting this consultation could be:

• on the basis of this report, or on the basis of a consultation document based on this report;
• through consultative seminars or conferences, or by means of written responses.

The consultation would cover such things as

• how the advisory body should be appointed;
• what the functions of the information service should be; and
• how the information service should be established.

It is difficult to overemphasise the importance of consultation as a means of gaining the support of the main players in the disability information field. If any new structural arrangement does not have the support of these players it will be a waste of time. An imposed solution is unlikely to work. Equally importantly it must also have the support of disabled people.

Following on from this consultation, the advisory body should be convened as soon as possible so that the process of establishing a new framework for information services for people with disabilities and their carers can be put in place, and the specification of the information service can be drawn up, and tenders invited.