MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS FOR BETTER SUPPORT FOR DISABLED PEOPLE USING PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND FOR MORE EFFECTIVE MONITORING OF LOCAL AUTHORITY SPENDING ON SUPPORT FOR DISABLED PEOPLE

MIKE HEDGES AM ASKS FOR BETTER SUPPORT FOR DISABLED PEOPLE USING PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND FOR MORE EFFECTIVE MONITORING OF LOCAL AUTHORITY SPENDING ON SUPPORT FOR DISABLED PEOPLE

Speaking after Plenary, Mike Hedges said….. I welcome the work the Welsh Government already undertakes but there is more to be done – and some of it will not cost that much money. Transport is an issue for all sections of our communities but more so for disabled people. Some small changes as outlined in my speech would make a huge difference to disabled people

Regarding the Independent Living Grant – it is a shame that this is no longer available as it made such a difference to people’s lives. It is however available to Local Authorities within other grants. It is therefore important that we ensure that the spend on these activities doesn’t drop; currently there is no effective monitoring of the spend – there should be and I hope that the Cabinet Member acts upon my suggestion’

           

Can I first of all welcome the Welsh Government's statement? I'm sure no-one would disagree with the Welsh Government's commitment to help disabled people to fulfil their potential and achieve their ambitions and dreams—everybody should be able to do that. I agree that this is no easy task, because it requires us to work hard to remove barriers that get in the way of such ambitions.333

As the Cabinet Secretary said, there are 75,000 disabled people in Wales who are actively seeking work or would like to work. That's almost 2,000 per constituency. Can I declare an interest? My sister, who is one of your constituents, is actually one of them.334

Does the Cabinet Secretary agree that unless we have quotas or a financial incentive, then employers and personnel departments will not change their attitudes? We're going to have to either incentivise them or do something to them. It's pointless saying, 'We want you to employ more disabled people'—we've said that for decades, and they haven't. So, I think we need to do something much more active than we have.335

Can I just talk about transport? We have a series of simple actions that could make life easier for those with disabilities to travel, such as public transport announcing stops and the removal of pavement clutter to help those with sight loss; public transport showing the next stop to help those with hearing loss; wheelchair access to public transport; road crossovers; and more than one wheelchair user being able to use a bus at any one time. These are not asking a lot, but they would make huge differences to the lives of a lot of people who suffer with disabilities.336

On the independent living grant, I belong to that large number of people, including in our party, who are disappointed that it ended. What I will ask is—. I don't think it's going to be coming back, so I'm not going to ask whether you'll bring it back, because I think the answer is going to be 'no', but can I ask that the Cabinet Secretary, whichever one it happens to be, asks that local authorities report their spending in that area? So, although it's not a specific grant, it'll get reported back how much each local authority spends on it, and that'll be reported in such a way that it becomes available to all of us. So, if our local authority is spending less than they did previously, I think many of us would want to take it up with them.