Shadow Social Justice Minister and North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has raised concerns with the Minister for Social Justice that too many Disabled people in Wales are continuing to be denied Direct Payments to meet their care and support needs.
Responding to the Statement by the Minister for Social Justice on ‘International Day of Disabled Persons’, which is celebrated on 3rd December each year, Mr Isherwood, who is the Chair of the Cross-Party Group on Disability in the Senedd and the Senedd’s ‘Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities (CPwD) network’ Champion, also raised the concern expressed by Disability Wales that ‘there is no duty on local authorities to ensure that people are aware of support available’.
He said:
“You state in your Statement that the 'Welsh Government is a staunch advocate of people's right to control their own life, and for many disabled people, receiving Direct Payments can be crucial to achieving this goal'.
Yet, despite the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 supposedly addressing this, and incorporating much of my private Members' Bill, which had been proposed before that on these matters, still only some 3 per cent of the eligible population in Wales is currently in receipt of Direct Payments.
“So, how do you respond to the statement by Disability Wales that, quote: ‘We do not see a clear strategy of Direct Payments supporting disabled people to take them on or to address any of the concerns or barriers to them raised by disabled people. Some disabled people are still not aware of the existence of direct payments, or how they can access them'?
He also said:
“You state in your Statement that, 'Promoting and embedding the Social Model of Disability, in both Welsh Government and public bodies across Wales, is a firm priority of this (Welsh) Government'. How do you, therefore, respond to concern expressed today by Disability Wales that ‘there is no duty on local authorities to ensure that people are aware of support available. There is a lack of easy, accessible, information points to see entitlements’; that ‘despite prior commitments, we still see that Wales is not meeting up to commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People and crucially, we do not have clear information on the time frame for incorporation of the Convention’, and that although they describe the establishment of the Disability Rights Taskforce as good practice, they state that ‘there is an implementation gap between the policy developed and the impact of it on disabled people in Wales’?”
In her response, the Minister said that along with the Deputy Minister for Social Services, who is responsible for Direct Payments, she will be “speaking to Dewis, the independent organisation controlled by disabled people, about how we can improve the take-up of direct payments in Wales”.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Isherwood added:
“Too many Disabled people in Wales are continuing to be denied Direct Payments to meet their care and support needs because of a failure by Local Authorities to promote and support this and a failure by the Welsh Government to require them to do so. The Social Model of Disability is supposed to make the important difference between ‘impairment’ and ‘disability’, where the main cause of disabled people’s problems are not their impairments, but barriers including people’s attitudes to disability, and physical and organizational barriers.”