Two members quit government’s ‘tokenistic’ network because Disability Unit is ignoring disabled people

Two disabled leaders have quit the “stakeholder network” set up to ensure that the voices of disabled people are at the heart of the government’s work, after months – and even years – of “inertia” and a failure to respond to their input.

They have spoken out to raise serious concerns about the work of the Disability Unit and the current government’s commitment to listening to disabled people.

They have both described to Disability News Service (DNS) how the government’s Disability Unit repeatedly failed to even acknowledge information they provided about the barriers disabled people are facing in the north-east of England over months and years.

In her letter resigning as a member of the north-east regional stakeholder network (RSN) last Thursday, Claire Andrews said she and the disabled people’s organisation she works for “no longer believe this government is listening or meaningfully consulting with us”.

Andrews, a development manager for Difference North East, has been a member of the network – whose members are not paid for their work – since last July.

She wrote in her resignation letter that Difference North East did not believe that “the government’s current way of involving disabled people in decision-making is fit for purpose.

“We think it is inaccessible, unprofessional, and unresponsive and more importantly, it does not represent the needs, issues or wishes of disabled people.”

She told DNS that the RSN was “tokenistic”.

She said: “It feels as a disabled person very disrespectful of lived experience and our local knowledge that it’s just not being considered at all, particularly because members give so much time to it.

“For local people and organisations to be so willing to share feedback and share local expertise, and to have it entirely disregarded, it goes against what this network was supposed to achieve; but it feels very representative of the current political agenda towards disabled people.

“We are stood there saying we will work with you, we want this to be better, but I honestly feel they are not listening.”

She added: “There are big things going on that are impacting disabled people in the north-east, and there are no updates, there is no transparency.

“This network’s main purpose is to champion the rights of disabled people, it’s supposed to centre their voices and views to make sure they are at the heart of UK government, and right now there are huge proposals going on and we have no updates, we haven’t been considered.”

In the last eight months, the web page showing details of quarterly meetings between RSN chairs and Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, has been updated just once, with the minutes from the December meeting – which focused exclusively on employment – added on 10 April.

The north-east RSN has had a temporary chair since the last permanent chair resigned in December, but Andrews stressed that the problems are being caused by the Disability Unit, although the failure to appoint a permanent chair has not helped.

She has emailed the chairs of all nine RSNs to call on them to consider their own positions and join her in resigning.

She also told DNS there had not been a single in-person consultation event in the north-east on the government’s much-criticised Pathways to Work green paper, with the nearest events taking place in Leeds and Glasgow.

Members of the north-east RSN have not received a single update on Pathways to Work, despite the national consultation, which closes next week, she said.

Difference North East is now setting up a new disabled-led group (PDF) that Andrews hopes will provide a much-stronger voice for disabled people in the north-east, and one that she hopes the government will have to listen to.

Another member of the north-east RSN, Jo Cole, who had been a member since the RSN was set up by the Conservative government in 2019, resigned her membership in February in response to the growing “inertia and lethargy” she had witnessed over the years.

Cole, co-founder of disability charity Neuro Key, which carries out research and provides information, advocacy and peer support to neurodivergent people and those with neurological impairments in the north-east, said she believed the Disability Unit was simply ignoring the input of RSN members, and certainly those from the north-east.

She told DNS that the Disability Unit had been “controlling the agenda” and ignoring the information RSN members were sending them.

She said: “It’s all well and good holding online meetings, but what are you going to do about the issues, and there was never any response, never any feedback, absolutely nothing.

“The regional stakeholder network was set up as a tick-box exercise and I do not engage with tick-box exercises.”

She believes the network is “defunct” and was “deliberately made that way” and that the new Labour government realised almost immediately after winning power “how appalling it was”.

Cole has been sending case studies and briefings to the Disability Unit since soon after she joined the network in 2019, but she said she never received so much as an acknowledgement, let alone a response to her evidence.

Much of that evidence concerned the “untenable” level of harm being caused to disabled people by the social security system and the inaccessibility of the public transport system.

Other members, including Andrews, have also sent information to the Disability Unit without receiving a response.

Just hours after DNS asked the government to comment on their concerns, and the lack of an in-person consultation event in the north-east, the Department for Work and Pensions quietly announced that there would now be one next Thursday (26 June), which was announced with just eight days’ notice.

A government spokesperson said in a statement: “We are committed to championing the rights of disabled people and working with them so that their views and voices are at the heart of everything we do.

“The Regional Stakeholder Network (RSN) is integral to ensuring that disabled people are able to regularly share their regional insights with the government on disability issues.

“We remain committed to working collaboratively with the RSN to make sure disabled people’s voices are fed into the work of the government.”

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…