Campaigning

'RIGHTS NOT CHARITY'

Under the slogan of the British movement of disabled people, SCIL joins the campaign for Rights Not Charity. As a member of the British Council of Disabled People (B.C.O.D.P), SCIL supports disabled people's right to comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation (A.D.L) which will outlaw the restriction of opportunities disabled people face daily. Opportunities that non-disabled people take for granted. We are not satisfied with current legislation which falls short of securing disabled people's rights and will continue the campaign until we are satisfied with the legislation in place.

CAMPAIGNING ISSUES

SCIL recognises that of itself even A.D.L will not ensure these rights and that we must continue campaigning on specific issues to bring down the barriers to full participation in social, political and economic life on disabled people's terms. Environmental barriers which deny physical access to buildings, public transport, information and services; attitudinal barriers which perpetuate negative images and stereotypes of disabled people; organisational barriers arising from the way major institutions (the family, education, employment, local government, health and social services etc.) are structured and operate through policies and practices which fail to offer equal opportunities to disabled people. Through the coming years we will need to reinvigorate our campaigning and give it a higher profile.

Whose life is it anyway? The future of Independent Living Conference Wednesday 19th October 2005

The 'Whose life is it anyway?' Conference was called by organisations of Disabled People concerned with the future of the Independent Living Movement. The procurement process is undermining the viability of Centres for Independent Living (CIL's) and other user-led organisations.

The conference was attended by over 60 representatives of CIL's and their supporters. It was decided to parallel this conference with the 2005 Annual LGA/ADSS Social Services conference 'Changing Lives, Building Futures', in order to enable us to secure the attention and support of those people who can affect change, locally and nationally.

Conference notes that the user-led movement is experiencing serious difficulties due to procurement process, which is resulting in local user-led organisations losing contracts to other organisations that are not accountable to local users.

Many of our organisations have been closed down, and many of the advances in the user-led movement in recent years have been lost. Local user-led organisations should be valued for the important role they play and not have their existence jeopardised by the procurement process. Peer support and advocacy are ingredients critical to user empowerment.

Conference welcomes the key points of the "Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People" report by the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, recent social care Green Paper and other policy documents.

Conference notes that Government recognises the Social Model of Disability and is committed to securing a CIL in every Local Authority by the year 2012.

Conference strongly supports this position, but believes that this is only achievable with the support and encouragement of existing user-led CIL's and makes the point that these organisations must comprise of local Disabled People who are democratically accountable.

Conference notes Patricia Hewitt's speech to the 2005 LGA/ADSS conference, which focused on the importance of active citizenship and self-help.

Conference wishes the ADSS to recognise the groundbreaking work done by user-led CIL's over the last 25 years in developing independent living schemes, particularly Direct Payments. In order for the Government to implement its policies of active citizenship (Older Persons Strategy, Disability Equality Strategy), service users need to be an important part of the process, and this needs facilitating. User-led organisations were at the forefront of developing Direct Payments and all other innovative social policy developments over the last 25 years.

Conference recognises that Local Authorities need Government funding for supporting user-led initiatives such as CIL's. The availability of user-led organisations shouldn't be left to the mercy of Local Authority financial pressures.

Conference agrees that the holistic approach of user-led organisations, which sees Direct Payments as one element of Independent Living, has been very successful, and is an essential part of the empowerment process, consistent with the principles of Best Value.

Conference resolves:


To form a National Action Group to secure the long-term future of Independent Living as defined by Disabled People.

To seek to secure the commitment of the ADSS to recognise, support, negotiate and consult with this body.

To seek the active and immediate support of the ADSS to put a halt to the procurement processes that are killing user-led organisations, and to develop alternative and sustainable solutions.

To seek the active and immediate support of the ADSS to demand of Government the proper financing necessary to implement recent Government initiatives concerning the empowerment of Disabled People.

For more information contact Ian Loynes

Freedom Drive II - Strasbourg 5th-9th September 2005

In September, nine people from SCIL travelled to Strasbourg to take part in the 2nd Freedom Drive.

Once again we were saddened and at times embarrassed that not one other organisation of Disabled People in the UK could be bothered to send participants to this important lobbying event.

The purpose of the event was about raising awareness of independent living at the European Parliament level; taking the message to the politicians,. Approximately 150 people came from all over Europe. In particular Ireland (who organised most of the event), Norway, Sweden, Austria, Spain, France, Italy and a few from elsewhere. The Freedom Drive lasted three days covering three main areas of work:

On the first day we lobbied our UK MEPs (who we had arranged to meet before we left the UK); meeting and talking to as many UK European Parliamentarians as we could .

The main event on day two was a Freedom Drive march and a rally outside the
Parliament building to draw attention to our independent living demands. Then, later on in the afternoon we attended a meeting with the Parliamentary Disability "Inter-Group" which is their main policy making discussion group. We made speeches and tried hard to help the MEP;s to understand our issues and to accept that Disabled People can and should be enabled to make their own decisions in life, just like everyone else.

The third day was a visit to the European Court of Human Rights. We wanted to raise awareness of independent living issues and discuss the opportunities for Human Rights Legislation. The Irish solicitor we met said clearly that she felt that the door was very open for these kind of challenges and she said she was surprised that hardly any Human Rights cases on the basis of Disabled People were coming forward, particularly on the issue of Disabled People being put in residential care against their wishes.

What do we get out of the Freedom Drive? Networking with our brothers and sisters from all over Europe, seeing old friends and making new ones. Drawing strength from that as individuals and as groups. We also gained a better understanding of how the legal and political system works and raised awareness of our issues with people who have the power to make the changes that all Disabled People need.

For each one of us from SCIL it was about reminding ourselves what it is that we are trying to achieve in our work. Sometimes the daily grind makes us lose sight of the ultimate purpose of our organisation. It was an inspiring experience, it was about sharing our common goals. The whole SCIL group came home inspired and motivated which was definitely worth the effort of going.

An important part of the message we got from MEPs was that we need to keep plugging away at this once every couple of years. You're only going to get anywhere if you actually follow it through, all the ongoing issues. This is certainly something we intend to do at SCIL and we will shortly be organising a follow meeting for all those that went from SCIL.

The biggest thing about the Freedom Drive Movement is that we were inspired by the experience; talking to each other, learning from each other and realising that we share a lot in common. We can work together. For SCIL we worked fantastically as a team, every member contributed well, filling in gaps left by others.

SCIL should be proud, more and more these days we are leading the way in Disability Politics.
Strength In Unity!

Campaigning Project This project allows us to identify, co-ordinate and organise Disabled People to campaign against issues which result in discrimination.

The project is funded for 3 years by Comic Relief

Contact:   E-mail: info@southamptoncil.co.uk

Address:  Unity 12, 9-19 Rose Road, Southampton, SO14 6TE Telephone:  023 8033 0982 Text phone:  023 8020 2649 Fax:  023 8020 2648

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