Disability Policy

Our Commitment to Disabled People

Leicestershire County Council is committed to equality of opportunity for disabled people and to ending discrimination. The passing of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 has given a new focus to our work and has led to the development of this policy statement.

The policy sets out our commitment to disabled people. Work to turn the policy into practice is already well under way across the Council.

Our Objective

We want disabled people living and working in Leicestershire to be able to realise their full potential. We will make progress towards this by:

Removing barriers and changing the attitudes which prevent disabled people from gaining access to employment with the County Council and to the services provided by the Council and its agents.
Working in consultation with disabled people to this end.
Acting as an example of good practice to encourage other organisations across Leicestershire to similar efforts.

Guiding Principles

We believe that disability is a social issue and that an impairment becomes a disability because of the social and physical barriers that the individual faces. Our efforts will be focussed on removing these barriers.

We are guided by the following principles:

Anti-discrimination - such that disabled people are not subject to discriminatory practices
Equality of opportunity - for disabled people in every aspect of their dealings with the County Council
Independence not dependence - enhancing the independence of disabled people and increasing the choices available to them.
Individual needs - recognising that the disabled person is an individual who, like all others, has his or her own needs, abilities, rights and responsibilities.
Accountability - such that the responsibility for securing equal treatment and removing barriers rests both with the Council as a whole and with individual decision-makers within it.
Integration - such that services for disabled people are provided as part of an integrated whole, not separately.
Involvement in decision-making - so that disabled people, or their advocates, are consulted before decisions which affect them are made.

Providing Access to County Council Services

We aim to remove the barriers to obtaining the Council’s services and will seek to ensure that the services provided are those that are required. To help achieve this we will:

Consult disabled people appropriately about their needs, and levels of satisfaction with the services they use, and seek their views on how new facilities are provided or designed.
Appraise our own services, with the help of disabled people, to remove barriers to access.
Train our own staff, particularly managers and all those who are in contact with the public, so that they are more aware of the barriers placed by society in the way of disabled people and can communicate effectively with them.
Provide information about our services clearly and in a variety of formats accessible to disabled people.
Improve educational access for disabled adults to complement the provision already made for disabled young people.
Influence agents providing services on our behalf to take similar initiatives.
Encourage other organisations across Leicestershire by setting a good example and publicising it.
Monitor our performance against agreed targets and seek continuous improvement, reporting annually in a public report to Committee.

The County Council as an Employer

The Council’s Equal Opportunities Policy already demonstrates our commitment to achieving equality of opportunity for disabled people in employment. We will build on this in:

Recruitment - by encouraging applications from disabled people and ensuring that the short-listing and interview process gives them equal opportunity.
The working environment - by taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the working environment does not prevent suitably qualified disabled people from taking up or staying in employment with us.
Career development - by ensuring that disabled people have the same opportunity as other staff to develop their full potential within the Council.
Retention of newly disabled staff - by ensuring that any employee who becomes disabled is fully supported in maintaining a role appropriate to his or her experience and abilities.
Work experience - by ensuring that work placement opportunities within the Council, particularly for young people, are made available for disabled as well as non-disabled people.
Staff training - by making staff throughout the Council, and particularly those involved in recruitment and selection, more aware of the circumstances of disabled people.
Monitoring our performance against agreed targets and seeking continuous improvement, reporting annually in a public report to Committee.