We launched our final and summary reports on Wednesday 5 March
2008 at QEII Conference Centre, Westminster. Bill Rammell, Minister of
State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, was one of our
principal speakers. He and DIUS have made a positive
response. The Disability Equality Implementation
Group (DEIG) set up by LLUK to take forward the Commission’s work, is
making good progress.The report had a number of key
messages:
 | There has been a systemic failure in public policy to address the
needs and requirements of disabled staff throughout the lifelong
learning sector to the extent that there is widespread institutional
discrimination, despite some beacons of good practice. Many
organisations and individuals are culpable in this, but there is nothing
inevitable about it. If our recommendations are adopted then there will
be immense gains for disabled staff.
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| Effective, visible and proactive leadership and management are vital
in the process towards disability equality. This is not a matter for
leaders to delegate to others. They should take direct responsibility.
For managers, it is not a ‘bolt-on’ activity: ‘disability awareness’ is
not enough. They must understand the issues and the drive towards
disability equality and play their full part. For everyone in the
sector, confidence about ‘saying and doing the right thing’ is crucial
in making progress to disability equality.
|
| The concept of providing ‘reasonable adjustments’ to meet the
diverse needs of individual members of disabled staff remains very
important; however, lifelong learning organisations now need to take the
next transformational step towards meeting their ‘anticipatory duty’ to
ensure that inclusion is automatic for disabled (and indeed all) staff,
learners and students.
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| The Disability Equality Duty and the Disability Equality Schemes are
an excellent basis on which to make the journey from legislative
compliance to genuine culture change. Successful and genuinely committed
implementation of such schemes, which include full involvement of
disabled staff and impact assessments, will hasten such cultural
transformation. However, exemplary organisations will not be motivated
solely by legislative requirements but by a genuine desire for
inclusion.
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| The principal beneficiaries of our report will be disabled staff and
potential disabled staff in the sector. But implementing its
recommendations will benefit everyone in the lifelong learning sector,
whether or not they are disabled, and goes beyond disability to the
heart of ethical and effective organisational functioning. A culture
that promotes disability equality will inevitably bring improvements and
dignity at work for all. |
We are seeking a number of specific
outcomes in relation to the
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recommendations we have made to lifelong learning organisations and
other ‘stakeholders’ in the lifelong learning sector. We will offer
regular updates to report progress.
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