Labour Ministers promise to ensure their party manifesto
includes commitments for disabled children
29 January 2010
Disabled Young People join
Secretary of State Ed Balls to discuss the Disabled Children’s
Manifesto for Change with Labour Manifesto Lead
This week a group of disabled young people
accompanied Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families,
Ed Balls MP to present their Disabled Children’s
Manifesto for Change to Labour Party Manifesto lead, Ed
Miliband MP. The Manifesto for Change is
a document produced in consultation with disabled children across
the country that sets out what they want the next Government to
change. The MPs were asked a series of questions about what they
will do following the next election to benefit disabled children
and young people.
Ed Miliband opened the
meeting commenting that it was very interesting to hear about the
impact that the inclusion of the statement ‘We will ensure that
services meet the additional needs of disabled children and their
families’ in Labour’s 2005 Manifesto had. He also said that he
would go through the Manifesto for Change document and work out how
they could reflect it in the Labour Party’s manifesto. Ed
Balls said he will make sure there are “proper
words” in the manifesto to reflect the Manifesto for
Change.
The Ministers were then asked a series of
questions from the young people attending the meeting about health
care, benefits, sport and job opportunities.
Jade Bracey, Co-vice chair
of the Council for Disabled Children’s Steering Group raised the
issue of variations in health care across the
country. She asked if the Government was going to issue guidance to
result in more consistent health care across the country.
Ed Balls responded that
variations can sometimes be good as it means innovation. However it
can also mean that some people lose out and don’t get proper
services. He said that local health services need to work harder to
make all services accessible, and that this might not
necessarily cost extra money but rather a change in attitudes.
Catherine Capaldi asked
about making benefit forms more accessible, as the
Disability Living Allowance form is currently very long. Ed
Balls responded, saying there were difficulties in cutting
down benefit forms. He stressed there is a fine balance to be
struck between collecting information to ensure those with the
greater need are getting assistance and making the forms
shorter.
Jade Bracey added that it
is often unclear about what benefits you are entitled to and that
the information needs to be more accessible. Ed
Balls said that one way transition to adulthood for
disabled young people could be made easier would be by including
information in careers advice about what benefits disabled young
people are entitled to, travel, courses that are available and so
on.
Adam Stafford asked how
the party would ensures that proposed cuts in local area spending
wouldn’t prevent disabled young people from getting involved in
community activities by taking away the support that they need to
participate?
Ed Balls said that the
Children, Schools and Families Bill that is currently going through
parliament contains a stipulation that every young person should
have between two and five hours of sport every week. This includes
disabled children and so will require schools and community groups
making necessary provisions. Ed Miliband and Ed Balls agreed that
there should be something in Labour’s manifesto around
“Giving disabled children and young people the support they need to
be able to participate in sports and community
activities”.
Lavinia Scott asked how
Labour will ensure that there are good job opportunities for
disabled young people? Ed Balls committed to
writing to Jim Knight and Yvette Cooper about the next steps for
increasing job opportunities for disabled young people.
Adam spoke about how
minimum requirements for academic causes can discriminate against
those with disabilities
Ed Balls stated that these
minimum requirements are there in response to feedback from
businesses about what makes a worthwhile qualification. He said
that whilst he will look into reasonable adjustments in diplomas he
felt that it would be very negative to make the minimum
requirements optional as it would weaken the diplomas and how they
would be used by employers.
If you are interested in getting involved
in making sure that political parties include commitments for
disabled children in their party manifesto then why not
take our latest action?
More from EDCM:
Find out more about the
Disabled Children’s Manifesto for Change
Watch the Disabled
Children’s Manifesto for Change film
Read EDCM's news story
Liberal Democrats make commitments for disabled children on
benefits, SEN and Aiming High for Disabled
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