Disabled Persons (Independent Living)Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, for introducing this subject today. He would be quite in order to be extremely gratified by the many speeches that he has heard in praise of it. The Second Reading of his Bill has also persuaded my noble friend Lady Verma to speak to us for the first time, drawing on her particular—I am tempted to use the word ““peculiar”” in its 18th century sense—knowledge of caring, carers and the establishments in which they operate. I hope that we will continue to have her advice when these subjects come up, which she will find they do quite regularly in your Lordships’ House. Your Lordships will have heard my starting point in discussions about disability many times, but it does no harm to re-state it. The noble Lord, Lord Addington, almost did so. My fundamental belief is that disabled people are people first and disabled second. From that, it follows that any rights that able-bodied people have are automatically transferred to disabled people. Therefore I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, that it is important that disabled people should be empowered to have access to those rights—in my view, this is really an access Bill as opposed to a rights Bill. The obvious example is access to transport, with which we dealt at length in the Disability Discrimination Bill over the winter of 2004-05. Being able to get about is quite clearly part of independent living. The Royal National Institute for the Blind has made the point forcefully by stating that people are frequently made housebound by their blindness. That brings me specifically to this Bill. I am glad that in its briefing on the Bill, the Disability Rights Commission stated: "““Independent living means ensuring that disabled people of all ages have the same freedom, choice, dignity and control as other citizens at home, at work and in the community. It does not mean living by yourself or fending for yourself. It means rights to practical assistance and support to participate in society and live an ordinary life””." The DRC goes on to say that social services arenot delivering the means for independent living. I certainly agree with that. However, I am not convinced that a change in the law is necessary. When the DRC goes on to talk about means testing, I am in some difficulty for two reasons: first, because all our citizens are means tested before they get access to a whole range of social security benefits, and secondly, because of the inevitable expense that would arise. The Government are rightly proud of the extra moneys they have given to the NHS over the past few years. The problem, as we have all recognised today, is that not enough is being used for the purposes we are currently espousing. It is deflected into other parts of the health service. The Bill and the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, propose a joint fund, locally created between the NHS and social services which would be drawn upon to make the lives of disabled people easier. That also suggests that rather than statutory services, individuals should get a grant to be applied outside the state sector for the services they need. While I accept that the two items, indeed the whole Bill, are, as the noble Lord, Lord Addington, almost put it, a counsel of perfection for disabled people, how practical would these two ideas actually be? How can we be sure that the personal fund would be spent on the things that particular disabled people are assessed as needing? On an NHS/social services fund, I can certainly see the logic in it. However, has the noble Lord thought this through? What percentage would the NHS or the local social services department contribute? Many years ago, as the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, will no doubt remember, I returned from Northern Ireland singing the praises of the four area health boards, which of course combine health and social services in a single entity. Almost total condemnation was visited upon me for suggesting that they should be joined into one statutory service here. I have not reneged on that position. I still believe, although it is not the position of my party, that that is the answer to joint funding, not that proposed in the Bill. I trust that I can now persuade the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, and other noble Lords to join my crusade—which, incidentally, is now supported by the former director of social services in my home county of Somerset. The Bill also covers employment, and I welcome the Government’s belated decision under the Welfare Reform Bill to seek to ensure that weight is given to what people can do rather than what they cannot. No doubt we will be debating this in the months to come and it is hardly appropriate to go into the detail now. Suffice it to say I believe there are people currently receiving incapacity benefit who are perfectly able to undertake at least some paid or voluntary work. In this connection, I note Rethink’s complaintsabout telephone claiming, which it believes may discriminate against some people with mental illness. However, I hope that the Minister will tell us about other methods of claiming. Would the Benefits Agency accept an advocate, especially in a personal interview? The Mental Health Alliance makes this point and I can see no reason why not, nor why a change in the law should be necessary to achieve it. I should emphasise here that as disabled people are a part of our wider society, so any policy that evolves should include them as part and parcel of that policy, not an embarrassing add-on. Disability is not a separate and distinct issue; it should be integral to government thinking. It certainly is as my party develops its policies. People with disabilities have much to contribute to society—as, indeed, we all do—and should be valued for that reason. I know that there are other themes in the Bill that I have not covered—the right to choose where to live, for example—but time marches on. The Bill contains lessons for us all. Some are achievable by administrative means if the will is there. It is the job of parliamentarians, Government, Opposition and Back-Benchers to keep plugging away to see that it does. Others do indeed need the law to be strengthened. I am afraid that this Bill contains both and I await with eagerness the Minister’s identification of which is which.