DWP pledges equality for disabled people
1 Dec 2006 04:00 AM
By 4 December, all public sector bodies have to set out how they plan
to promote equality for disabled people when the Disability Equality
Duty comes into force.
The DWP has published its own Department- wide disability equality
scheme today together with its gender equality scheme and a progress
report on its race equality scheme. Each of its main businesses - The
Pensions Service, the Disability and Carers Service, the Child
Support Agency and Jobcentre Plus - are also publishing their own
disability equality schemes. The Department's Ministers and its
Permanent Secretary are today visiting DWP offices throughout the
country in order to make their own personal contribution to the
launch of the schemes.
John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said:
"The new Disability Equality Duty is a ground-breaking step on the
route to the Government's vision of achieving equality for disabled
people by 2025. I am particularly pleased that my own Department is
today publishing plans both for the Department as a whole and for its
individual businesses".
"Discrimination of any sort is unacceptable. Yet the truth is that
many disabled people still face barriers in all walks of life which
prevent them from reaching their full potential. My Department will
do all that it can to enable them to do so".
Permanent Secretary of DWP, Leigh Lewis, said:
"The Department has a responsibility for implementing and promoting
diversity and equality in our day-to-day dealings with our customers;
with each other; and with our partners. We are already committed to
doing so but our priority now has to be to turn our good intentions
and our plans into reality for 2009 and beyond."
In preparing its own plans DWP held a number of events for customers
and local representative groups to gather their views on our
businesses. It also ran workshops involving large numbers of disabled
customers and met with leading disability charities to find out their
views. Our customers told us about a number of areas where they would
like to see improvements:
* we need simpler letters and instructions and we need to make better
use of telephones and typetalk;
* we need more staff training in both general disability awareness
and for specific conditions;
* we need to join up our services better to avoid customers having to
provide the same information to several different parts of the
Department;
* we need to review how we involve our disabled customers in setting
our priorities and in the improvements we want to implement;
* we need to spread the excellent practice that can be found at local
level across the whole of the Department.
The Department's plans reflect these priorities and commit us to
improving our services accordingly.
Members of the public can, from 8 am today, see DWP's diversity
equality schemes, which include our disability equality action plans,
on our website, www.dwp.gov.uk. They are also available in a range of
accessible formats such as audio, braille and easy read versions. To
order a copy, call 0800 132 660 or email
orders@dwpequalityschemes.co.uk
Notes for editors
1. Visits by Ministers and senior DWP officials will be made on
Friday 1st December.
2. The DED is part of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. There
are four key elements to the duty, which require organisations to:
* eliminate unlawful disability discrimination and disability-related
harassment;
* promote equality of opportunity for disabled people
* promote positive attitudes; and
* encourage disabled people to take part in public life
3. The Prime Minister's Strategy Unit report 'Improving the Life
Chances of Disabled People', published in January 2005, set out the
Government's strategy for disabled people. For information on
progress in delivering this strategy, please visit
www.officefordisability.gov.uk.
Public enquiries: 020 7712 2171
Textphone: 020 7238 0788
Website: www.dwp.gov.uk