Marcus Bell, Director, Equality Hub, Cabinet Office – Supplementary written evidence (YDP0001)

ACCESS TO PUBLIC SERVICES FOR YOUNG DISABLED PEOPLE

Thank you once again for inviting me, Alison Ismail and Alex Gowlland, to give evidence to your committee last week on public services for young disabled people.

We said we would write to you with further details about a number of issues raised during the session.

On collecting data about court cases under the Equality Act 2010, the Equality Hub is not resourced to systematically monitor all Employment tribunals, county courts, and the higher courts.

However, legal divisions across government do take into account the developing case law in this area. The Equalities Centre of Excellence (CoE) within the Government Legal Department specialises in equality law, and provides government lawyers with training and guidance on equality law, taking into account the developing case law in this area.

On Equality, Advisory & Support Service (EASS) data, the Equality Hub receives weekly updates from EASS about trends in the enquiries the Service receives from the general public. The Hub does not publish the information it receives in the reports, but EASS sends the same reports to the independent equality regulator for England, Scotland, and Wales, the Equality & Human Rights Commission, and EASS sometimes uses the information in its own public newsletters. As well as information about user enquiries, the Service regularly sends the Hub information about customer satisfaction, interactions with interest groups, and other aspects of contractual performance.

The update also breaks down the week’s enquiries by sector, region, and protected characteristic, and picks out recurring topics. Sometimes the topics are broad, and sometimes they are as specific as - for example - an event at a single supermarket. Last week, the Service answered 266 enquiries, 205 of them about disability. Of the types of disability the Service monitors, cancer was the most recurrent, accounting for 39 of the 205 enquiries. 126 of the total 266 enquiries were about work and 64 were about services.

On the recruitment of Regional Stakeholder Network (RSN) Chairs, the RSN is a voluntary network set up in 2019 to make it easier for disabled people to feed in their lived experience and insight directly to the government. The RSN's main objective is to provide meaningful opportunities for disabled people to share their views and inform government on issues that they feel are important.

There are 9 regional groups covering England -

●       North West

●       North East

●       Yorkshire & the Humber

●       West Midlands

●       East Midlands

●       South West

●       South East

●       East of England

●       Greater London

Each regional network is led by a local Chairperson, who is appointed by the Disability Unit (DU). Seven Chairpersons were appointed in December 2022 and further, targeted recruitment has since taken place in the East of England and Yorkshire & the Humber regions. Chairpersons are appointed in open and fair competition and candidates submit an application form in which they are asked about their lived experience of disability, how they are passionate about driving change for disabled people, and what they hope to achieve in the role of Chairperson.

Chairpersons meet with their members at least quarterly and total membership across the nine regions is currently around 150 people. Members apply to join their network and admittance is at the discretion of the Chairperson. DU officials meet with the Chairpersons as a group and individually each month. During these meetings, Chairpersons share their members' views on issues affecting them regionally, and they also work together on national issues. The RSN Chairpersons are currently engaging with several government departments (for example the Department for Work and Pensions on the Buckland Review of Autism Employment) to feed in their members' views to help inform future disability policy.

The Chairpersons meet the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work quarterly. At the most recent meeting on 5 June 2023, they shared their members’ views on Cost of Living, Social Care and Accessibility.

On engagement with disabled people, ensuring the voice of disabled people is properly heard is a priority for the government. We regularly engage closely with disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, and charities that collectively deliver services to millions of disabled people, as well as building relationships with individuals and organisations with specific lived experience and/or subject matter expertise.

In the Disability Unit, our strategic stakeholder network is centred upon four distinct groups, whom we engage with routinely at official level. These groups also meet regularly with the Minister for Disabled People to share their priorities and feedback on government policy impacting disabled people. The network includes:

●       The Regional Stakeholder Network (RSN), a cross-England network of disabled members of the public - as well as their families, carers, and communities - who amplify the voices of disabled people and disability organisations in their regions. There are currently over 100 members of the RSNs across the country, organised in 9 regional areas;

●       The Disability Charities Consortium (DCC), which brings together leaders from nine of the UK’s leading not-for-profit disability organisations [Scope, Leonard Cheshire, National Autistic Society, Mind, Mencap, Sense, Royal National Society of Blind people (RNIB), Royal National Society for Deaf people (RNID), Business Disability Forum (BDF)];

●       DPO Forum England, an independently-led collective group of over 30 Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs) working with thousands of disabled people across England; and

●       The Disability Access Ambassadors (DAAs), a cohort of senior business leaders across 20 different sectors, who encourage improvements in the accessibility and quality of services and facilities in their sector for disabled people.

We are aware there are gaps in our knowledge of the size and makeup of the disability sector, and that we are not always hearing from the full diversity of the community. We therefore keep under review how we can strengthen our engagement with the sector. We are keen to find opportunities to work with the sector in designing and delivering impactful policies to improve disabled people’s lives.

The Disability Action Plan (DAP) is the Disability Unit's priority for the coming year, and will set out the immediate action the Government will take in 2023 and 2024 to improve disabled people’s lives, as well as laying the foundations for longer term change. We will run a full public consultation on the plan in summer 2023. The consultation will be accessible to ensure all disabled people who want to take part can do so. The consultation documents aim to encompass a comprehensive range of accessible formats, catering to diverse needs. The accessible formats to be provided include the following: full-screen BSL video / BSL inset video with subtitling and voiceover, easy read format with web accessibility features, large print materials, Braille documents, audio CDs and English to Welsh translation. Additionally, we will establish an email address and a free-phone number to facilitate direct input from the public to the Disability Unit. Furthermore, an online platform will be created to enable individuals to actively participate in the consultation process.

In order to foster greater engagement with strategic stakeholders will be invited to these events, as well as subject matter experts in relevant fields.

I hope you find the information above helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any further questions.

13 June 2023