North Wales MS and Chair of the Senedd Cross-Party Group on Disability, Mark Isherwood, has raised concerns that the Welsh Government’s Disabled People’s Rights Plan won’t deliver what it was set out to.
Responding to a Statement on the Plan in today’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood spoke of the sector’s disappointment regarding the plan and called on the Welsh Government to respond to their catalogue of concerns.
Speaking in the Senedd Chamber, he said:
“As Chair of the Cross-Party Group on Disability, I have consulted the sector on this 10-year Plan which, according to the Welsh Government, aims to improve the rights and opportunities of all disabled people in Wales.
“How do you respond to the disappointment they expressed with both the lack of actionable measures within the short-term, and Welsh Government feedback stating that it has taken so long due to co-production with disabled people, when this was less time consuming than the finalisation of the Plan, which is where a lot of time was lost?
“Further, how do you respond to their statement that many of the longer-term objectives lack firm commitments, and their question, ‘how does the Welsh Government intend to ensure continuity and accountability for these longer-term objectives beyond the current administration?’.
Mr Isherwood said that there has also been criticism from within the sector that the Plan does not have concrete targets, making it impossible to hold the Welsh Government to account on progress, and asked “what measurable targets and investment, if any, the Welsh Government will now put in place.”
He added:
“Damian Bridgeman, who Chaired the Disability Rights Taskforce’s Housing and Community Working Group, said the draft document was ‘a smokescreen’ rather than a Plan.
“He pointed to the absence of new money and no mechanism to track delivery of the action plan further, adding ‘Disabled people have been reviewed to death. What we need is action – and there’s none of that here’.
“He criticised the lack of action on some of the most practical, necessary recommendations that came out of the co-production phase of the process, which he said ‘never even made it into the final plan’ because the Welsh Government ‘doesn’t know how to deliver them’.
“So, how will the Welsh Government ensure that this strategy leads to real change rather than becoming, as he put it, ‘a collection of vague intentions dressed up as progress. No targets. No teeth. No real-world accountability’?”
Mr Isherwood also said that while the proposed Plan references neurodivergent people in the context of mental health and justice, it lacks a dedicated strategy or outcomes tailored to their unique experiences in education, employment, and healthcare, and asked what mechanisms are in place to ensure that neurodivergent voices are heard and that their needs planned for and monitored.
He added:
“The sector is concerned that the UK Government’s current Pathways to Work Green Paper proposals risk further disabling people in Wales by compounding poverty and exclusion, and that these cuts may lead to an increase in demand for devolved Welsh services such as health and social care, funded through the Barnett formula.
“How, specifically, will the impact of these proposals be measured in Wales, and how will any resulting pressures on devolved services be funded, particularly in relation to the adequacy of the Barnett formula?
“Finally, although the Plan commits to addressing socio-economic inequalities, the Bevan Foundation’s recent impact report on Pathways to Work indicates that disabled people are at risk of being pushed further into socio-economic deprivation.
“What concrete steps are the Welsh Government therefore taking to mitigate the impact of these UK Government proposals on disabled people in Wales?”