In the Assembly Chamber this afternoon, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood referred to a number of North Wales cases concerning inequalities and human rights to emphasise that Wales needs a new way of doing things.
Speaking in the debate on the Equality and Human Rights Commission Wales Annual Review 2015-16, Mr Isherwood said:
“The Commission’s analysis has identified ‘seven key challenges that need to be addressed in Wales over the next five years, and that it will require the substantial efforts of public, private and third-sector organisations and of individuals to reduce these challenges’. In other words, solutions to what the Commission describes as ‘major, entrenched inequalities and human right abuses’.”
“After Conwy Council cut vital services for the deaf community provided through the voluntary sector, I wrote to them stating that a principle of the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act was that individuals and their families must be able to participate fully in the process of determining and meeting their identified care and support needs through a process that is accessible to them”.
“They replied that their response to the Act had instead led to their establishment of an internal integrated Disability Service. The deaf community told me that their independence, human rights and rights to equality were being taken from them.
“In support of an Autism (Wales) Bill, the parent of an autistic teenager wrote last weekend “I do not think that the Social Services and Wellbeing Act is far reaching enough to support these very gifted and special people”.
“After I wrote to Wrexham Council in support of the parent of a son with Downs Syndrome, who highlighted focus in the Act on involving people in how their care and support is decided and provided, the Council replied that the Act is not the legislation under which the tender process must be carried out.
“The Act’s Part 2 Code of Practice recognises that the removal of the barriers facing people should be in line with the social model of disability – consistent with the Welsh Government’s Framework for Action on Independent Living, which emphasises the crucial role of employment in promoting people’s independence, confidence, health and well-being, providing a route out of poverty and enabling participation in society.
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“However, when I recently wrote to Flintshire County Council after a conditional employment offer to a haemophiliac was withdrawn following his medical, they replied that they could find no evidence that the actions taken by them breached any element of this legislation.
“Noting these and other realities, such as the Welsh Government being the only Government in the UK not to maintain funding levels for the Family Fund, supporting low income families with disabled children, it is clear that we need a new way of doing things in Wales.”