Disability Working Group
Satellite Group 3 Meeting Note 23 May 2005
Group 3 - communication; consultation; education and training; citizenship; disability equality training; public attitudes.
Attendance:
Claire Keggie, Scottish Executive: Student Inclusion and Access
Christopher Crockett, Inclusion Scotland
Lionel Long, Update
Vicky Milne, Scottish Executive: Civic Participation
Sandra Manning, Scottish Executive: Additional Support Needs
Euan Page, Disability Rights Commission
Sheila Williams, Capability Scotland
Stuart Aitken, Sense Scotland
Lilian Lawson, Scottish Council on Deafness
Margaret Hurcombe, Scottish Accessible Information Forum
Graeme Bryce, Scottish Executive: Equality Unit
Sally Witcher, Independent consultant (first half of meeting only)
Apologies received from:
Brenda Walker,
SHST
Kate Wallace,
SAMH
Melanie Weldon, Scottish Executive: Post School Transitions
Introduction
1. Claire Keggie welcomed the group members to the first of the satellite group 3 meetings. Those attending introduced themselves and said a little about their areas of interest.
2. Clarification was sought on how such a broad range of issues came to be grouped. Graeme confirmed that this had been done by the core group following its meetings in October and January. The core group had recognised that the range of issues in the group was wide but had seen connections between them.
Key Themes/Priorities
3. The group spent some time discussing what was meant by the broad terms used in the title such as 'education', 'training', 'communication' and 'citizenship'.
- Education covered pre-school, school and post school age ranges. Issues included access to education and content of education as well as disability awareness of teachers. Many members of the group commented on the importance of disability awareness training of teachers and that teacher training should ensure this.
- Training could cover access to training courses, content of training course, access to information about training and disability awareness of those delivering training.
- Communication was about access to information but was also wider than that and could cover accessibility of TV and radio broadcasting. Lilian commented that there were also important issues about how deaf people could access information in the event of civil emergencies.
- Lionel suggested that perhaps the purpose of the Disability Working Group in its totality was about enabling active and useful citizenship. It would be important to look at the roles of disabled people in policy making bodies but it might also be essential to ask disabled people how they feel about citizenship.
4. The group also considered whether consultation and communication, as significant cross cutting issues, should in fact be looked at by all other satellite groups or perhaps by the core group alone. Sally pointed out that it was unlikely that the core group would take on any substantive areas of work itself. The satellite group concluded that it would, at this stage, try to cover all the issues which it had been tasked with.
5. Given the broad range of issues the satellite group considered that it could not, at this stage, pick out key themes or make priorities. There was instead a need to gather background material and information and then take stock before prioritising.
Information and Research needs
6. The group agreed that a number of background papers were needed to inform the process as follows:
Consultation
- A paper from Vikki, who works in the Scottish Executive's Civic Participation research team, covering the guidance that exists at present on consultation and the Scottish Executive's review of methods of civil participation.
School education
- A paper by Sandra, who works in the Scottish Executive's Education Department, covering current practice on teacher training, as well as recent developments in legislation and the new duties in relation to school accessibility strategies, the additional Support for Learning Act and the Disability Discrimination Act.
Further and higher education
- A paper from Claire who works in the Scottish Executive's Lifelong Learning Group, covering access to further and higher education.
Training
- A paper looking at disabled people's access to mainstream training provision. And also considering disability equality training.
Communication
- Margaret from
SAIF would provide a summary of the work SAIF has done around accessible information and a list of the resources and material available from SAIF.
- Lilian from the Scottish Council on Deafness to provide a paper on wider issues of communication.
Citizenship
- If possible, a paper was needed looking at participation by disabled people in public life including their involvement on policy making bodies.
Public attitudes
- Graeme from the Scottish Executive's Equality Unit to prepare a paper with information about the findings of the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey and looking at the Executive's 'See Me' mental health campaign.
- Stuart from Sense Scotland to look into Anti-Social Behaviour orders and their impact on disabled people.
Communications methods
7. The group agreed to communicate via e-mail. All papers would be submitted to Graeme, who would then circulate to everyone one week in advance of the next meeting.
Activities and roles
8. The group did not wish to split into smaller sub-groups to consider separate issues. All those participating had an interest in the full range of issues being looked at and did not want to miss being able to comment and feed in on all.
9. It was agreed that Christopher from Inclusion Scotland would Chair the group. Lilian or Lionel would act as deputy and chair if Christopher was unavailable.
Timetable
10. The timetable was agreed, although it was noted that some people, including Christopher, would not be able to attend on 23 June.
11. It was also agreed that 2 hour meetings would be too short and the Equality Unit was asked to make all meetings of group 3 into 3 hour meetings.
Action Points
- A range of background papers to be submitted to Graeme no later than Tuesday 14 June (see paragraph 6 above). Any papers unattributed at para 6 will be pursued by the Equality Unit.
- All attendees to prepare for the next meeting and arrive ready to take stock on the information provided and begin to develop priorities.
- Equality Unit to arrange that all meetings are extended to 3 hours.