Improving the life chances of disabled people

These pages are the summary of a new strategy which explain how we will improve the life chances of disabled people of working age who live or work in Salford.

We have only listed some of the issues disabled people told us about and some of the actions that we will take.

The full strategy is available at the bottom of this page as an Adobe PDF document and a Microsoft Word document. If you would like it in other formats, please email information.services@salford.gov.uk. You can also phone 0161 793 2865 or use minicom 0161 793 211.

Who is the strategy for?

The strategy is for disabled people of working age who live or work in Salford and have physical and/or sensory impairments.

Local population statistics predict that 13,262 people in Salford between the ages 18 to 64 have a moderate or serious physical disability and that this will rise to 14,378 by 2025. 2012 people aged 18 to 64 have a serious visual impairment.

In 2007 16,505 people of working age claimed Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disability Allowance - this represents 13% of the working age population.

Most disabled people become disabled through accidents, through medical traumas such as strokes or through conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, Arthritis or Diabetes. Medical improvements mean that more seriously impaired babies are surviving birth and more adults are surviving accidents and traumas.

Some impairments are static (such as spinal injuries) while others get worse over time (such as motor neurone disease, hearing or sight loss). Many disabled people need more support as they get older.

Who has written the strategy?

The Independent Living Partnership Board, made up of representatives of disabled people, their carers, statutory and voluntary agencies have worked with partner organisations and including Salford City Council, Salford Primary Care Trust and the voluntary, community and private sectors.

Over 100 disabled people have taken part in consultation meetings, focus groups and individual discussions. We've met with deaf/blind people, Asian women, the Yemini community, Equal in Salford (Salford City Council's disabled staff group), the Deaf Gathering and Salford Disability Forum. A group of disabled people have continued to develop and monitor the action plan.

To all those involved - a big thank you for getting us this far.

Why do we need the strategy?

The disabled people helping us produce this strategy felt marginalised, ill-informed and unable to access services on an equal footing. They felt treated with a lack of dignity and respect. There is a real gap in our communication with disabled people. Most people don't know about the good things that are happening in the city.

Our challenge is to change this.

We have adopted the ‘Social Model of Disability' as a fundamental principle. This recognises that people are not disabled by their impairments (medical conditions) but by barriers. These barriers include:

• The negative attitude of some employers, health professionals, service providers and disabled people themselves
• Policies which do not take disabled people into account
• Physical barriers such as the design of the buildings and transport systems which make it difficult or impossible for disabled people to use them
• Barriers which mean disabled people are not informed, listened to, consulted or involved

We want to remove these barriers so that disabled people are empowered and supported and can participate fully in society.

There are already many initiatives taking place to address the problems disabled people face. The strategy builds on the Local Strategic Partnership's work on the Disability Equality Duty. In 2007 the city's Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee worked with disabled people and their carers from the Independent Living Partnership Board tbluo examine how well health services and social services worked together to deliver good quality services.

What next?

Once we've consulted on this draft strategy, our next steps will be:

• to develop a joint commissioning plan between Salford City Council and Salford Primary Care Trust to make sure the services we purchase and deliver meet the needs of disabled people
• to achieve the action plan through working with partners, and to encourage people to ‘Think Disability' in all their future plans

All services will strive for continuous improvement based on user feedback and we will check that our actions are making a real difference to the lives of disabled people.

The national and local context

The government has published several documents that we've used to guide us. Key messages from these documents are the need to:

• Support disabled people to achieve independent living
• Give disabled people greater choice, control and a louder voice over the way their needs are met so that they are the major drivers of service improvement
• Ensure that services are of high quality and person centred
• Make better use of technology to support people
• Improve the quality of life of disabled people through equal access to universal services - housing, transport, employment, education
• Promote the economic well-being of disabled people
• Maintain the personal dignity and respect of disabled people
• Enabling disabled people to have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and be treated as equal members of society

Our strategy also fits with other strategies being developed and implemented across the city. Our strategy fits with Salford's Community Plan 2006-2016 and its seven themes:

• A healthy city
• A safe city
• A learning and creative city
• A city where children and young people are valued
• An inclusive city
• An economically prosperous city
• A city that's good to live in

Salford's Sustainable Community Strategy 2009-2024 vision is:

In 2024, Salford will be a beautiful and welcoming city, driven by energetic and engaged communities of highly skilled, healthy and motivated citizens, who have built a diverse and prosperous culture and economy which encourages and recognises the contribution of everyone, for everyone.

We want to make this real for disabled people.

What people want from the strategy

The disabled people we've worked with focused on issues under eight themes:

• access to the built environment
• information and communication
• housing
• health
• social care
• leisure facilities
• transport
• employment and learning

Disabled people have talked to service providers about the issues they faced and the actions that service providers might take to address them. These form part of the action plan.

The strategy is built around:

• Independence and recognition
• Involvement and information
• Access and services

Our vision is:

‘To improve the life chances of people with physical and/or sensory impairments by maximising independence, providing full opportunities and choices to improve quality of life, ensuring that disabled people are respected and included as equal and active members of society, and challenging discrimination'.

To do this we will focus on eight priorities, we will:

1. Encourage and support disabled people to live as independently as possible
2. Enable disabled people to be in control
3. Ensure that disabled people are treated with respect and dignity
4. Increase the involvement of disabled people in decision making and encourage active citizenship
5. Provide accessible information and improve communication
6. Improve the quality, range and delivery of service, including housing
7. Work with a range of other agencies to increase the economic well-being of disabled people
8. Improve access to the built environment and open spaces

‘Independent living' underpins everything and this can only be achieved by partnership working.

This page was last updated on 20 September 2011