Standards For Disability Information And Advice Provision In Scotland
5. The Standards and Disabled People or Their Representatives
This section of the Standards is designed for disabled people or their representatives. It outlines the minimum service that you should be able to expect and how to complain and campaign if these are not met.
In the introduction to the Standards we outlined the timetable for implementation of Part III of the DDA. This is clearly important as it gives considerable impetus to the acceptance and incorporation of Standards into service providers' management and service planning. Indeed, this was one of the factors that prompted the development of these Standards.
However, we all know that it is relatively easy for the Government to give people rights in legislation. It is often much harder for people to access these rights and for them to impact upon their daily lives - that is one of the main reasons why information and advice services exist.
The purpose of this section is to tell you the minimum service standards you should be able to expect from organisations providing information and advice and from the local authorities and others that plan and fund these services.
In these Standards we aim not just to tell you what you can expect to receive by way of services, but how you can become involved in the delivery, management and planning of these services.
But please remember these Standards will be nothing but wastepaper without your active involvement in implementing them. Both the planners of information and advice and the organisations providing them will only be able to respond to your needs fully if you make your demands to be treated as full members of society clear to them.
The final part of this section looks at how you can get involved and ensure that all disabled people can access good quality information and advice when it is needed.
These Standards include what you should be able to expect from agencies that have "signed up" to the Standards and what you should be able to expect in local authority areas that have accepted the Standards.
5.1 Reception Standards
To become a service user of any information and advice provider you need to be able to access the service. You should be able to expect individual organisations to provide a service that:
- Is clearly defined in terms of the types of information and advice that it provides and the ways in which it provides them
- Provides its service in a physically accessible building
- Is available at a time that is appropriate to you.
5.2 Process Standards
Once you have gained access to that service you need to be confident that you will be treated with respect by people who have the skills to assist you. You should be able to expect individual organisations to provide a service:
- Where staff have the knowledge to meet your requirements for information and advice
- Where staff have been trained in disability equality issues appropriate to your personal circumstances
- Where information will be available in a variety of formats, and, where this is not immediately available, it can be provided to you within a time agreed between you and the information provider.
5.3 Standards Of Service
You also need to be assured that the organisation has the policies and procedures in place that are likely to ensure that the advice you receive is accurate, timely and appropriate. You should be able to expect individual organisations to provide a service that:
- Works in your interests rather than in its own interest. This may mean that it is an "independent" organisation and not controlled by any vested interest, be that perceived or real. Or, if it is part of a larger organisation, such as a local authority, that this is made clear to you, and that any limits to the advice that they give you, such as the possibility of taking action against the local authority, are clearly explained to you
- Has adequate policies and procedures to safeguard your confidentiality
- Provides you with access to information that the service keeps about you
- Has adequate information resources to meet your needs
- Has adequate case management systems to ensure the smooth running of any casework that they undertake on your behalf
- Has adequate relationships with other service providers to ensure that if you are referred from one agency to another you continue to receive a seamless service.
5.4 When Things Go Wrong
Should you not be happy with the service you receive the individual organisation should have:
- A complaints procedure that is simple to use and which allows you to continue using the service. (Details of the complaints procedure should be made available to you in an accessible format)
- The means to compensate you for any loss arising from their negligence or poor advice
- A means of informing you of any changes that they have introduced as a result of your complaint.
5.5 Getting Involved
As a service user, individual organisations should have a means of keeping you informed about:
- Current services
- Plans for the future.
In addition, the organisation should have a means of consulting you about:
- The services provided
- The ways in which services are delivered
- The place from which advice is delivered
- The priorities for future services.
As a disabled person, carer, or the parent of a disabled child your local authority should have established a means of informing you about:
- Its plans for the provision of information and advice.
And a means of consulting you about:
- Problems and shortcomings in current services
- Future priorities for the development of information and advice.
In The Standards & Localities we have suggested that each local authority should establish or support a disabled persons' forum to oversee and advise upon the implementation of these Standards. You should be invited to participate in this body.
In addition, if you are not satisfied with the range of services provided in your locality, or feel that, as a result of your impairment you do not have adequate access to information and advice services, you should voice these concerns through that group.
Your local authority should be able to provide you with details of how to contact this group. If no such group exists, in the first instance, you should contact SAIF.