Pursglove publishes ‘action plan’ of working groups, reviews and awareness-raising

The minister for disabled people has launched a new “disability action plan” that he claims will “help transform disabled people’s everyday lives for the better”, but which includes no new spending commitments or promised legislation.

Tom Pursglove said his draft Disability Action Plan – dismissed today as a “PR exercise” by one disabled people’s organisation – would improve disabled people’s lives and “lay the foundations for longer-term change”.

But a consultation document on the plan asks disabled people to comment on just 12 proposed new policies, all of which are low or zero budget measures.

Pursglove’s Disability Unit says it will launch a review, set up a new webpage, draw up two sets of guidance and two feasibility studies, carry out awareness-raising across several policy areas, hold cross-government discussions, set up a cross-government working group, commission two lots of research, set up two taskforces, and carry out cross-government profile-raising activity.

Pursglove (pictured) says this is the “immediate action” the government plans to take in 2023 and 2024 to move towards making the country “the most accessible place in the world for disabled people to live, work and thrive”.

Among its actions, the plan pledges to raise awareness of assistive technology; commission a feasibility report on hosting the 2031 Special Olympics; and create a new badge for businesses to give their staff to show they have received approved “disability awareness” training, modelled partly on the discredited Disability Confident disability employment scheme.

It also aims to “explore the merits” of setting up a new fund to support disabled candidates into elected office, following two previous funds that successive Conservative-led governments set up and then scrapped.

Other proposed actions are to “consider” increasing fines for service-providers that refuse to admit guide dogs; create a webpage of guidance on creating accessible playgrounds; and improve government engagement with disabled people on emergency planning.

One proposal likely to be welcomed by many disabled activists is a plan to host a high-profile conference on how to ensure measures addressing climate change consider and respond to the needs of disabled people.

There will also be two new taskforces, one aimed at maximising disabled children’s “wellbeing and opportunities” and one at improving support for disabled parents.

Pursglove also wants the government to set up a programme to improve evidence and data on disability; and commission research to improve understanding of “emerging issues and evolving priorities” for disabled people in the next five, 10 and 20 years.

Although the action plan consultation mentions other disability-related actions that government departments are already working on, and lists the government’s “achievements” over the last year, it focuses its questions on just the 12 proposed new actions.

Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice for Inclusion London, said: “At a time of the cost-of-living crisis, when disabled people experience cuts to support and difficulties in every aspect of their life, the actions proposed are not going to make a tiny difference.

“We need transformative, deliberate and resourced actions, not a PR exercise.”

Pursglove told fellow MPs this week in a written statement that the action plan was “another important step” in meeting the Conservative manifesto commitment to “transform the everyday lives of disabled people across the country” and make the country “the most accessible place in the world for disabled people to live, work and thrive”.

Just 24 hours later, it emerged that two separate legal actions were being taken over government-backed plans to close hundreds of rail ticket offices across the country, plans which disabled campaigners have warned would have a “disastrous impact” on disabled passengers and “risk locking disabled people out of the rail network entirely”.

Tony Jennings, co-chair of a rail accessibility panel and co-founder of the Campaign for Level Boarding, questioned how a proposal to explore the feasibility of hosting the Special Olympics would improve disabled people’s lives, when the London 2012 Paralympics failed to do so.

He said the irony of the government launching the consultation at a time when it wants to close nearly 1,000 ticket offices, which will have a drastic impact on disabled people’s confidence to travel by train, “isn’t lost on the disabled community”.

He also contrasted the insignificance of the measures in the action plan with the continued failure of the Department for Transport to force train companies to buy low-floored trains, and invest in a rolling programme of platform adjustments, which would enable level boarding and independent travel for disabled people with mobility impairments.

There are also concerns that the next Conservative government wants to means-test disability benefits as a way of cutting spending, while its plans to scrap the work capability assessment and give new powers to work coaches with no healthcare qualifications have been described as “callous” and “punitive”.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of disabled people across the country are having debt collection action taken against them every year by their local authorities over unpaid care charges.

Disability News Service also reports this week (see separate story) that key digital services used by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to run the disability benefits system are still branded “high risk” on accessibility, a year after secret DWP reports found scores of its websites and other services were failing to comply with public sector regulations.

The Disability Action Plan will sit alongside the government’s National Disability Strategy, which Pursglove said sets out its “longer-term vision to improve disabled people’s lives for the better”.

The government learned last week that the Court of Appeal had overturned a high court ruling that the strategy was unlawful.

When it was published in the summer of 2021, the strategy was described by one disabled people’s organisation (DPO) as “a cynical re-packaging of current polices and current budgets”, while the DPO Forum England said it ignored bold action on increasing benefit levels, supporting inclusive education, combating the disability employment gap, increasing accessible housing, and reforming social care.

The action plan consultation will last for 12 weeks, and ends on 6 October.

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…