Contents

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

1 Fundamental Principles

The Working Group believes that it is important to start from ways in which the delivery and dissemination of information to disabled people can be improved at local level. Most of the information that most people want is local, and it has been shown that people want to get information and advice locally and also want information to be "wrapped in a person". The recent concern with information services for disabled people has arisen out of a concern with developments at local level, notably the extent to which local authorities are meeting their statutory duty, and the rapid but piecemeal development of services in the voluntary sector. The Citizen's Charter initiative underlines the importance of information about services, consultation with users, and quality standards. The introduction of community care has had the effect of focusing attention on the desirability of multi-agency working and collaboration between the independent and statutory sectors.

The Working Group considers that there is a great deal of agreement about the ingredients of a good information service, and many examples of good practice which can be drawn on. The principles described in this section should be the basis on which all information services are based, and in particular, the basis for the local information strategies which the Working Group considers would significantly improve the pattern and quality of information services at local level. The content of some of the standards described in section 3, below, are based on these principles.

1.1 The social model of disability

The social model of disability should be the basic philosophy underlying all information and advice services aimed at disabled people. The effect of adopting the social model of disability will be to focus attention on:

• how to remove barriers which limit access to information;
• how to provide a service which will enable people to access the goods and services to which they are entitled;
• how the service can help to overcome the barriers to those services, for instance by providing an advocacy service; and
• the importance of disability equality awareness training and race equality awareness training in reducing attitudinal barriers.

1.2 Services should be user-led and accountable to users

It is a fundamental principle that any service provided, whether by the voluntary or statutory sector, and whether at national or local level, should be planned and shaped so as to meet the needs of users of that service. The Citizen's Charter states that there should be regular consultation with those who use services. Users' views about services and their priorities for improving them should be taken into account. To achieve this goal it will be necessary to:

• find out what people need both by consulting users about the service they want, and by other means;
• ensure that mechanisms exist to continually feedback the views of users about the service provided; and
• involve disabled people and their carers in the management and delivery of the service.

The involvement of users is therefore vital at two stages - at the planning stage, and in the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the service. In addition disabled people and their carers may seek some degree of control over the service, and the experience of NDIP is that the active involvement of disabled people has been critical in the success of information services and federations. The extent of the involvement of disabled people in managing services and as employees providing information and advice has grown considerably during the course of the project, and can be seen as a positive outcome of the project.

1.2.1 Users of disability information include not only disabled people themselves but also carers and service providers of various kind