Campaigns

The Policy and Campaigns Team exists to raise Leonard Cheshire's profile amongst opinion leaders in political and voluntary sectors and influence the development of existing and future legislation.

Our current campaigns include:


entitled.org.uk

If you've been reading the newspapers recently you could be forgiven for thinking that disabled people receiving Incapacity Benefit (IB) were "scroungers" and "work-shy". The recent spate of political attacks in the media and in Parliament has been very worrying and damaging for the many disabled people who receive IB.

Leonard Cheshire is worried that the Government is more concerned with cutting costs than providing suitable support for disabled people who want to go back to work. Incapacity Benefit is an entitlement not a handout. In the same way as maternity pay and sick pay, people receiving IB must have been working and paying National Insurance to qualify. Leonard Cheshire believes disabled people are entitled to this financial support and we have set up an on-line campaign to make the media and politicians aware of the reasons why.

entitled.org.uk has been set up to challenge the lie that disabled people are scroungers or fraudsters. entitled.org.uk is calling for the preservation of disability entitlements which are payments which disabled people are entitled to and not handouts. We are calling on all political parties to stop using disabled people claiming IB as a political football. Visit www.entitled.org.uk to find out more and help us to fight for the support all disabled people are entitled to.


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Bog Standard

Leonard Cheshire has recently carried out a questionnaire regarding the availability of accessible toilets on trains and at railway stations. Our respondents reported that fewer than half of the stations that they travelled from had an accessible toilet that was in a fit state to be used and only a fifth of all trains had usable accessible facilities. The reasons given for not being able to use accessible toilets were: too dirty; used for storage; or vandalism. Some disabled people said that the only way they could be comfortable taking a train journey was not to eat or drink for hours before travelling! Others, in desperation, have had to resort to going to the loo behind bushes or in bottles, which obviously causes extreme embarrassment. Many say the situation is so bad that they simply avoid train travel altogether. We are going to be using your responses to feed back to the Government's consultation on Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations

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Social Exclusion

Social exclusion is a fact of life for most disabled people. We know this because disabled people have told us so for five years running, as shown in our annual reports on social exclusion. These reports have tracked changes in disabled people's experience, as well as non-disabled people's attitudes, which play a large part in creating those experiences. Negative attitudes towards disabled people and low expectations of disabled people have devastating effects on their access to society.

Our reports have attracted attention from the media and government. The Disability Rights Commission, MPs in the House of Commons and other national disability charities have cited them as a significant contribution to the debate on disabled people's experience of social exclusion.

The following reports are available in hard copy only:
  • Access Denied 1998
  • Excluding Attitudes 1999
  • Committed to Inclusion 2000
  • Inclusive Citizenship 2002
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Inaccessible Transport

Leonard Cheshire's latest Social Exclusion Report, 'Mind the Gap' (2003), illustrates how an inaccessible transport system has knock-on effects that limit the work, health and social life of disabled people.

The report found that disabled people miss out on many opportunities due to a lack of transport, including:

  • 23 percent who have had to turn down a job due to lack of transport

  • 30 percent who have missed a vital health appointment at a cost to the taxpayer of £40 million

  • 7 percent who can't see family and friends when they want to, many even missing weddings or funerals

  • 49 percent who haven't been to the cinema in the last year

  • Leonard Cheshire fears that this could underestimate the scale of the problem as the majority of disabled people surveyed had regular access to a car.

We are calling on the Government to introduce its promised disability bill and to address the neglected issue of inaccessible transport as a matter of urgency.

To download a copy of the report: CLICK HERE


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All Aboard! - Access to Trains

At the beginning of this year we asked people to fill out a campaign postcard to their local MP asking the Government to not consider proposals that would mean that disabled people would have to wait another 30 years for equal access to the UK train network. The campaign was extremely well supported and we have now received over 3000 postcards.

Of the options available in the Government's consultation on End Dates, Leonard Cheshire believes that 2020, the soonest option, is the last acceptable date available in the document. However, Leonard Cheshire also believes that the ideal date should be 2017, the same year that buses have to comply with PSVAR (Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations) because this means that both the railways and buses will become fully accessible at the same time. This will enable disabled people to make whole journeys involving both systems. Unfortunately 2017 was not an option offered in the Consultation.

On the 29th March 2004, we arranged for all the postcards to be delivered to the Houses of Parliament in the back of a horse drawn hearse, which we hoped would illustrate the possible impact of waiting over 30 years for trains to become accessible to disabled people.

The Joint committee on the Draft Disability Bill has been investigating this issue and has published a report with recommendations to government.

The report makes a number of recommendations and Leonard Cheshire is pleased to see that its work on transport has been recognised with a number of major recommendations being made in this area.

In particular, the Committee recommends that the Government should agree - without further delay - for 2017 to be the date by when all trains must be accessible to disabled people.

The report is available on the Joint Committee website - just click on the link below:

http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/dddb.cfm

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Primary Health Care

Leonard Cheshire's Social Exclusion Report 'Inclusive Citizenship' (2002) highlighted disabled people's exclusion from essential primary health care services. Their degree of exclusion from doctors' surgeries, dental practices, opticians and pharmacies was alarmingly great compared to that of the general population. Access to primary health services is essential if social inclusion is to be a reality for disabled people. The report found that:
  • Four times more disabled participants than was the case in the general population found dental practices inaccessible.

  • 21% found access to accident and emergency units inadequate. This is over 50% higher than for the general population.

  • 12% of wheelchair users found doctors' surgeries inaccessible, whilst 60% of profoundly deaf people found them so.

Leonard Cheshire considers these findings to be unacceptable and have launched a Primary Health Care Campaign to raise awareness of the problem. Through the campaign we aim to raise awareness of disabled people's difficulties in accessing primary health care services and to encourage primary health care professionals to adopt enabling practices.

At the beginning of 2003 we contacted all Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England to establish what is currently being done to improve this serious access issue. The findings were published in the report 'Fair Treatment?' and highlighted four key areas of concern:

  • Primary Care Trusts are currently giving a very low priority to disability.

  • Emphasis is currently on physical access when communication and behaviour and attitude of staff have been highlighted by disabled people as the major barrier to access.

  • There is very limited availability of Disability Equality Training for primary care staff.

  • PCTs have not consulted with disabled people about both the problems disabled people face when accessing their services and the solutions to those problems.

To download a copy of "Fair Treatment?": CLICK HERE

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