Standards For Disability Information And Advice Provision In Scotland
2. Acknowledgement
The Scottish Accessible Information Forum (SAIF) would like to thank Michael Bell Associates (MBA) and the Federation of Independent Advice Centres (FIAC), who in partnership have developed these Standards on our behalf and according to our specification.
We wish to acknowledge the support of the Scottish Consumer Council that hosts SAIF, and the Scottish Executive Health Department, Community Care Division, which funds our work.
SAIF would also like to acknowledge the contribution to the development of the Standards by a wide range of individuals and organisations.
In particular, we would like to thank those disabled people who participated in the focus groups held by the consultants, and Grant Carson at the Centre for Independent Living in Glasgow and Bill Fisher at the Lothian Coalition of Disabled People who set up these meetings.
SAIF's Standards Working Group directed this project and provided valuable guidance throughout. The Standards Working Group comprised:
- Grant Carson
- Jean Dunlop
- Kate Fearnley
- Kirsten Anne Ferguson
- Shirley Young
In addition, the hard work and commitment of Steve Harvey and Sarah Smith, SAIF's project workers, have been of great assistance. Many thanks also to Kirsty Aird of the SCC for her desk top publishing skills.
We would also like to thank all 188 organisations that responded to our postal questionnaire.
In addition, a number of agencies participated in seminars for service providers organised by the consultants. We wish to acknowledge the contribution of:
- Capability Scotland
- Children First
- Contact Point for East Dunbartonshire
- Deaf Children's Society
- Disability Scotland
- Disabled Persons' Housing Service
- Edinburgh CAB
- Edinburgh Information Forum
- Enlightened Action for Epilepsy
- FAIR
- Glasgow Social Work Department
- Grapevine
- Lothian Health
- Making Connections Unit
- National Federation of the Blind of the UK
- POINT Project
- Well-being Initiative
The Standards are designed as a practical tool for agencies, funders of services, representatives of disabled people and, most importantly, disabled people themselves. We will be happy to hear your views on the Standards, and a feedback sheet is contained at the back of this publication.
In the production of these Standards, there was much debate about the relative roles of disabled people and of carers, as service users and in consultation on the provision of services. Some agencies have, in the past, tended to involve carers and other representatives of disabled people in consultation processes to the exclusion of disabled people themselves.
In this document, we seek to ensure that services consult with disabled people themselves on all the issues that affect them. There will clearly be a need in some instances to consult with representatives of disabled people, such as carers, parents of disabled children or advocates, where the disabled person cannot participate. For example, this may be necessary for people who are severely mentally incapacitated, although every effort should be made to gain their participation if possible. Separately from this, carers and parents of disabled children are often service users in their own right, and should be consulted as such.
Mike McCarron
Chairman
SAIF
November 1999