My Lords, I rise to speak in support of Amendment 219, in the names of the noble Baronesses, Lady Howe and Lady Wilkins, and the noble Lord, Lord Low. The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, has already said that this amendment would ensure that local authorities and their partner NHS commissioning bodies promote and secure inclusive and accessible education, health and social care provision and that they consider disability at every stage, be it the planning, design, commissioning, funding, delivery or evaluation of such services.
I am very pleased to say that some of this is already in process. Suffolk County Council is already leading the way in this area and is working with the disability charity Scope to provide Activities Unlimited, a brokerage service which works closely with parents and other agencies to encourage mainstream services to be more inclusive and accessible. Activities Unlimited has recognised that there is significant demand for services from families with disabled children who have personal budgets to spend which is not currently being tapped into. Activities Unlimited works closely with parents and other agencies, not only in commissioning services and identifying new high quality service providers, but involving them in the evaluation process as well, using feedback from families to support improvements to services and signposting families towards the most appropriate support. When local services are inadequate or where uptake is low, Activities Unlimited signals a need for improvement, shifts resources towards more effective services and eventually withdraws public support from underperforming services.
Through forcing services to work in a more competitive economy, a better quality of mainstream provision is ensured whereby consumer demand supports the best quality providers. Through increasing provision for disabled children and young people, families have a genuine choice between providers. This has produced real outcomes for both families and the local authority. By increasing the availability of local inclusive and accessible services, such as youth clubs, swimming pools and play centres for families across Suffolk, the
council has not had to provide any expensive emergency respite care for disabled children. Indeed, this is such a successful service that Scope is going to be working with Blackpool and Leeds to set up a comparable brokerage service.
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I am keen to emphasise that this amendment is not designed to place even more burdens on local authorities that already face many significant challenges in this economic climate. Recognising the changing role of local authorities, this amendment does not place on councils a duty to provide inclusive and accessible services but rather places on them a duty to promote and secure such services. The amendment provides the much-needed catalyst for local agencies—both statutory bodies and those in the voluntary sector—to improve the quality and provision of mainstream services for families with disabled children.
I ask the Minister at the very least to include this duty in the code of practice accompanying the Bill and to ensure that the necessary measures are put in place so that the significant demand from families with disabled children for inclusive and accessible services is met.