The former Minister for Disabled People Anne McGuire has spoken of her "pleasure” at being elected to co-chair the All Party Parliamentary Disability Group (APPDG).

Ms McGuire, Labour MP for Stirling, held the post of Minister for Disabled People between 2005 and 2008 and gained respect and affection among campaigners for championing disability rights. But she lost her job after a ministerial reshuffle.

She was elected to co-chair the APPDG along with Baroness [Jane] Campbell of Surbiton who was re-elected as Co-Chair.

Commenting on the election, Ms McGuire said: "It's a real pleasure to become the co-chair of the group. I've worked closely with Jane and with others over the years and I think we will have some interesting challenges ahead."

She added: "There is a real role for this group to play in how we work with government to ensure that the progress that has been made on rights for disabled people continues to be made and that we do see the achievement of the aim of true equality by 2025."

Ms McGuire replaces Roger Berry who co-chaired the APPDG before he lost the seat of Kingswood at the 2010 general election.

Baroness Campbell paid tribute to the work Roger Berry had done to promote disability rights over the last 18 years and described him as a "tireless campaigner".

By Sunil Peck

How accessible was your local polling station?

A new report by disability campaigning charity Scope has confirmed that more than two thirds (67%) of polling stations surveyed during the 2010 General Election, on 6 May, failed a basic disability access test.

Some of the examples of poor access included disabled people who had to vote in the street because polling stations weren’t accessible to wheelchair users and visually impaired voters who expressed concerns that they may have spoiled their ballot paper because of problems using tactile voting devices.

Postal voting was also found to be inaccessible for many disabled people.

More than a third of disabled people (35%) interviewed for Scope’s report said they would prefer online voting to existing methods.

The charity believes that reform of the voting system is critical, not only to improve overall access for the future, but also in light of forthcoming electoral reforms which are likely to make voting more complex.

The 2010 survey shows that, despite comprehensive guidance and new legal duties on local authorities, access has not improved since the two previous General Elections in 2005 and 2001 when other surveys by Scope showed similar results.

Director of Policy and Campaigns at Scope, Ruth Scott, said: “Britain’s archaic voting system is stretched to breaking point. It has been failing disabled voters for some time and, as we saw during the last General Election with scores of people queuing outside polling stations, it isn’t working for other voters either.

“During the last decade there has been next to no improvement in the overall accessibility of polling stations or postal voting. There is a pressing need for clearer accountability over how elections are delivered, to help improve the accessibility of current voting methods, as well as expanding these to include alternative methods. Unless this happens disabled people will continue to struggle to exercise their right to vote. In a digital age where people can vote by text for the X-Factor and shop and bank online, our voting system really needs to catch up.”

The Independent Living Fund (ILF) has announced that it will not accept any further new applications for the rest of the year.

An ILF spokeswoman said the decision was not connected with government funding cuts, as it had received a three per cent increase in its budget for the current financial year.

The ILF – which is funded by the government and supports disabled people with high support needs to live independently – had already announced in March that disabled people who wanted to apply for financial assistance would now have to be working at least 16 hours a week. But that announcement led to an unexpectedly high number of new applications at the start of the new financial year.

The ILF has now decided to fund 600 of those new applicants but said it would not be able to accept any further new applications for the rest of the year.

It had budgeted to make 1,000 new awards this year but was only able to fund 600 because the new awards were at a "much higher cost" than usual. The ILF also blamed its decision on the rising costs of support. The ILF said the measures taken would "ensure that the existing 21,000 ILF users' awards continue at their current level".

But it also said it would not be able to increase any individual's existing funding, other than providing "additional support to meet some of their employer responsibilities, and in response to certain changes in their income".

Patrick Boyle, chief executive of the ILF, said: "Our first priority is the 21,000 disabled people we currently support to achieve high quality independent lives. Our trustees have acted quickly in their decision to protect this group and to meet their responsibility to manage within budget. We are committed to continuing and developing the excellent service we deliver to our users, allowing them greater flexibility in how they choose to manage their funding."

News provided by John Pring at http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/

People with learning disabilities receive worse healthcare than the rest of the population some doctors and nurses believe, according to a charity.

Mencap has found almost half of doctors and a third of nurses from a poll of poll of 1,084 think this is the case.

It is urging health trusts to sign a charter which sets out the rights of people with learning disabilities and the responsibilities of hospitals.

The government says that removing inequalities is a priority.

Mencap's research - conducted by ICM among more than 1,000 doctors and nurses within - also revealed 45% of doctors and a third of nurses had witnessed a patient with a learning disability being neglected or being denied their dignity.

Four out of 10 doctors and a third of nurses surveyed thought that people with learning disabilities were discriminated against in the NHS.

Despite enjoying legal protection, the survey found learning disabled people were being failed because more than a third of health professionals had not had appropriate training.

Yet a majority of doctors and nurses admitted to needing specific guidance on how to meet the needs of learning disabled patients.

Health passport

Disability legislation requires health care providers to make "reasonable adjustments" to accommodate disabilities and long-term health conditions.

In the case of learning disabled people, a reasonable adjustment might include: allowing more time for consultations, using a patient's preferred method of communication and using their hospital passport.

A hospital or health passport is a document carried by a patient that includes key information about their condition, their likes and dislikes and things that they feel are important.

"Healthcare professionals have recognised they need more support to get it right when treating people with a learning disability," said Mencap Chief Executive, Mark Goldring.

He said that the charity's campaign called - Getting it Right - aims to ensure that ignorance need never be the cause of a learning disabled person's death.

"Our charter sets out a standard of practice and will make health trusts accountable to people with a learning disability, their families and carers."

Twenty-six year-old Emma Kemp had a 50% chance of surviving the cancer with which she was diagnosed, according to her mother, Jane. But hospital staff were apparently worried that her learning disability would make her difficult to treat, so they decided not to treat her. Eventually, Mrs Kemp agreed that her daughter should receive palliative care.

'Misled'

"She was denied her chance of life by doctors who discriminated against her," said Mrs Kemp.

Mrs Kemp asked one of her daughter's doctors what would happen if Emma hadn't had learning disabilities and she was told that treatment would begin immediately.

"When I agreed that Emma should only receive palliative care treatment, I did so because I was then told that Emma only had a 10% chance of survival and that it would be cruel to treat her," she said. "I now know that this was not true; that I was misled into agreeing with the decision that cost my daughter her life."

The Getting it Right charter asks health professionals to:

· Ensure that "health passports" are available and used

· Ensure that all staff understand the Mental Capacity Act

· Appoint a learning disability liaison nurse in hospitals

· Ensure that every person with a learning disability is able to have an annual health check

· Ensure that all staff have learning disability awareness training

· Ensure that patients' families and carers are listened to, respected and supported

· Provide information in a format that is accessible to people with learning disabilities

· Display the "Getting it Right" principles for all to see

The Department of Health says that, while improvements have been made, there is still "much to do".

"Health remains one of the three priorities for the government's learning disability strategy," a spokesperson said.

By Geoff Adams-Spink
Age & disability correspondent, BBC News website.

Plans to introduce medical assessments for disability living allowance claimants, announced in today's Budget, may not reduce the benefits bill, as intended.

The proposal, unveiled today by chancellor George Osborne, will be introduced for new and existing claimants from 2013 and is designed to save £360m in 2013-14 and £1,075m in 2014-15.

However, the Office for Budgetary Responsibility, set up by the coalition to scrutinise public spending and taxation, identified disability benefits as one of three areas where the impact of policies announced today by Osborne were uncertain.

Currently, DLA claimants must complete a 59-page form and submit supporting medical evidence for their claim.

In his speech to the House of Commons, Osbourne said the proposed assessment would be "a simple process rather than the complex forms [disabled people] have to fill out at the moment".

However, Mark Shrimpton, deputy chief executive of disability charity Radar, said: "They are making a gut reaction but they have no understanding of what the real impact will be."

Mark Shrimpton added Radar could not support yet another assessment regime arguing there should be a single point of access to all benefits. He said: "Neither the taxpayer nor disabled people should support these multiple, expensive, exhausting and unnecessary burdens of bureaucracy."

Neil Coyle, director of policy at Disability Alliance, said it was "highly likely" that the assessment used would be the much-criticised work capability assessment, which is used to determine eligibility for employment and support allowance, the replacement for incapacity benefit.

Coyle said the WCA was "generating significant concern for its inability to recognise the impact an impairment or health condition has on a disabled person's life".

Osborne said three times as many people claimed DLA now as 10 years ago.

However, Rich Watts, director of operations at the Essex Coalition of Disabled People, responded on his blog, Arbitrary Constant, that this reflected the fact that more disabled people were living independently than in residential care. He said "effectively cutting DLA risks reversing this rise in independent living".

Osborne also announced that housing benefit will, from April 2011, be paid to disabled people requiring an extra room to support a carer.

He also promised that full proposals on welfare reform will be announced by October this year, when the government publishes its spending review, which will set out public expenditure limits for 2011-12 to 2014-15.

By Vern Pitt

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne has announced that Disability Living Allowance will be subject to a medical assessment.

Presenting his emergency budget to the House of commons, the chancellor made the announcement in the part of his speech dealing with benefit reform.

He said that since its inception, the number of people claiming DLA had quadrupled. He then announced that the benefit, which is made up of a care and a mobility component would be frozen and that from 2013 entitlement to receive the benefit would be based on a new medical assessment for new and existing claimants.

Mr Osborne said that he believed this approach would make things easier for those claiming DLA than the current system of forms which he said people found difficult to understand.

But reacting to the announcement, Neil Coil of the Disability alliance told Disability now that His organisation was “deeply concerned” that medical assessments will be used for assessing eligibility for DLA which was introduced to meet the additional costs associated with living as a disabled person..

He said, “It is likely that the assessment used will be the highly criticised Work Capability Assessment which is generating significant concern for its inability to recognise the impact an impairment or health condition has on a disabled person’s life.”

He said the move raises fresh concerns over the government’s on-going approach to reform of the benefit system which is being led by Lord [David] Freud.

“Lord Freud has also announced a DLA review to examine why only 17% of DLA recipients are in work. The combined changes are a significant concern and Disability Alliance is seeking further information from the new Government on both at the earliest opportunity.

New research has found that more than three guide dog every month in the UK are being attacked by other dogs.

The research, published in the magazine Veterinary Record, found that almost two-thirds of the attacks were made on dogs that were in a harness and working with their blind or visually-impaired owner or a trainer. More than three-fifths of the attacking dogs were off their lead at the time.

The researchers identified 100 attacks between November 2006 and April 2009. Excluding cross-breeds, almost half of the attacking dogs were bulldogs, mastiffs, bull terriers, pit bulls and Staffordshire bull terriers, even though such breeds make up just six per cent of the UK dog population.

More than two-fifths of the guide dogs needed treatment by a vet, and in a fifth of cases, either the guide dog handler or a member of the public was injured. The performance or behaviour of nearly half of the guide dogs attacked was affected, with two dogs no longer able to continue in their work.

And in only six cases did the owner of the attacking dog apologise. In eight cases, they left without saying anything, even though many of the handlers were "shocked and distressed", and unable to see if their dog needed treatment. Most of the attacks took place in public places between 9am and 3pm.

The charity Guide Dogs said: "The numbers of dog attacks on guide dogs in the UK is concerning and we fear that many incidents go unreported.”Certainly our research shows that owners do not usually report attacks to the police. Such incidents cause trauma to both the guide dog and its blind or partially sighted owner, often adversely affecting their partnership and therefore the person's mobility."

The charity said it had urged police chief constables across England and Wales to "treat all such attacks most seriously", while dangerous dogs laws in Scotland have already been strengthened.
And in Northern Ireland "there has already been a case where an attack on a guide dog was seen as an extension of an attack on its owner", the charity added.
Guide Dogs said aggressive dogs should be kept on a lead "and muzzled if necessary".

NCIL is very concerned about the current position of the ILF. We were already aware that the Fund was to be effectively closed to new applicants but it comes as a further shock that existing recipients of the Fund will not be able to apply for an increase should their support needs increase.

The ILF has made a significant contribution to improving the lives of disabled people for getting on for 25 years. It’s ‘getting a life’ approach in meeting the high support needs of disabled people has been invaluable. Inevitably the continuation of the Fund is being called into question. Whether the Fund continues in some shape or form or comes to an end we would want to make the following points to preserving independent living for disabled people with high support needs.

• We, and our organisations, must be involved in any discussions about the future of the ILF before any plans are made and decisions taken. (Note that although the ILF always sought to involve NCIL in the past, this had not been the case for the past two years.)

• We do not think that closing the ILF and transferring its funding to local authorities will be a solution to the current funding crisis. We remember what happened in 1993 when a new Fund was introduced which restricted eligibility and introduced the requirement for substantial local authority contribution. At that time, in order to compensate local authorities, resources were transferred to them. As the money was not ringfenced very little of it ended up benefiting disabled people.

• Whatever happens to the ILF the ethos of independent living and having choice and control over how our support needs are met must be preserved.

• In our view the high support needs of disabled people should be met nationally and that it is unfair to expect local authorities to meet these needs from their limited resources.

These are very worrying times for disabled people. NCIL will be doing its utmost to try and ensure that there is no adverse impact on disabled people of whatever is the future for the ILF is.

Progress towards teaching children to have positive attitudes towards disabled people has been slow and 'patchy', according to a new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Many primary school teachers admit they ‘could do better’. Lack of resources or insufficient training has led to teaching that is often inadequate and lacking in confidence, claim researchers.

"Some of the reasons for the lack of positive promotion of disability in primary schools are; uncertainty about how to fit disability equality into the curriculum or a reluctance to talk about disability for fear of highlighting 'difference' " says the study.

The Disability Equality in English Primary Schools Project, led by Dr Angharad Beckett of Leeds University, focused on the extent and nature of teaching for disability equality, whilst also examining children's understanding of what it means to be disabled.

In December 2006, a legal duty was placed upon public sector organisations to promote equality for disabled people. Primary schools were supposed to have a Disability Equality Scheme (DES) in place by December 2007, which included their plans for promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people.

The study found that only 30 per cent of respondent schools had a DES in place that included this dimension and teaching about disability equality was often the ‘poor relation’ compared to other equality issues such as ‘race’.

"When we talked to children about the lives of disabled people, many were appalled about how society effectively disables people, excluding them from key areas of life. Most children appear to have a keen sense of what is socially just, and consider the way that society treats disabled people to be very 'unfair',” Dr Beckett said.

"The challenge is how to encourage and support already hard-pressed teachers to start talking to children about disability and to promote positive attitudes towards disabled people. Schools are not the only agents with responsibilities here. The family and the media also need to play their part but they are certainly well placed to challenge disabling attitudes and help build a more enabling society.”

Encouragingly, schools said they would value more visits by disabled people's organisations and where schools knew how to embed disability into the curriculum, this teaching was not considered ‘burdensome’.

This is important because the findings of the study suggest the need for a proactive approach. Children in the study (aged 6/7 and 10/11) admired famous disabled people, such as Stephen Hawking, but misunderstandings about disability were commonplace.

Younger children tended to believe that disabled people would not be able to have partners or marry, while many children of both age groups did not think disabled people could be employed. Both age groups suggested that disabled people could not or should not have children because they might 'pass on' impairments.

The research concluded that local authorities and head teachers need to be more aware of children’s misconceptions and of their responsibilities to challenge these; teachers need more training. In addition, Ofsted inspections could be extended to include assessment of schools’ progress with regard to the Disability Equality Duty.

A society that doesn’t properly support disabled people hurts itself, according to the new Minister for Disabled People, Basingstoke MP Maria Miller.

Speaking at the annual Independent Living Awards in Manchester, the Minister took the opportunity to introduce herself and her previous work improving access for disabled people in Basingstoke, her involvement with the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign and her ambassadorial role for Deaf Parenting UK.

“My contact with these organisations reaffirmed my belief that Britain can be a world leader when it comes to being family friendly,” she explained, “and that we have to support families no matter what barriers they face.”

She insisted: “If a society doesn’t properly support its disabled people, it doesn’t just hurt those individuals. It hurts their families. It hurts their communities. And it hurts the society itself.”

Although admitting that the few weeks since her appointment had been ‘very busy’, and ‘full of meetings and briefing to get me up to speed’, she said she was excited ‘to be getting out and getting to know the dedicated groups and individuals making a real difference in the lives of disabled people’.

Reaffirming the Coalition Government’s determination to give disabled people ‘greater choice and control over their own lives,’ Maria Miller confirmed her support for the Right to Control initiative and insisted she wanted the initial ‘Trailblazers’ across England “to be as creative and innovative as possible, to maximise the difference they make to people’s lives” and to benefit from the expert advice of disabled people and disability organisations.

In her speech the Minister also touched on welfare reform, insisting: “Disabled people should have the same choice, control and freedom as any other citizen. That, to me, seems self evident but, all too often, the opposite is true.”

She praised the organisations involved in the Awards and insisted that their work had “a critical role to play in helping us build stronger communities, a fairer society, and a better Britain.”