www.wiltshire.gov.uk

* Wiltshire County Council recognises that the term ‘disabled people’ is the preferred terminology compatible with the social model of disability. We have therefore used this term throughout this document. This is not to exclude people, however, who are covered by the Disability Discrimination Act but prefer not to be referred to as a disabled person.

6.1. Population of Disabled People in Wiltshire

Accurate statistics on the numbers and variety of impairments within the UK population are not available as the issue has only recently been recognised by the Government. There are discrepancies between the definition of what is classed as an impairment or a long-term illness and conditions covered by the Disability Discrimination Act. Wiltshire statistics have not been systematically recorded and therefore are based on estimates.

6.1.1. National Surveys

There are three main sources of statistics in the UK population:

Labour Force Survey (LFS) – collects information on people of working age

Family Resources Survey (FRS) – collects information on adults omitting those in full time education from 16+

Annual Population Survey (APS) – collects data on people of working age.

The Disability Rights Commission combines the informationfrom the LFS and FRS in their regular Disability Briefing report.

LFS/APS/FRS estimate that between 15.5% and 20% of adults in Wiltshire of the total population of 445,150 have a reported disability. The confidence level recommends taking a median of 18.6%. This means that 82,796 people in Wiltshire, approximately 1 in 5 people, have a disability of some sort.

Category	Including	UK	Wiltshire
Musculo-skeletal	upper or lower limb, back or neck	33.1%	27,405
Sensory	visual or hearing	3.2%	2650
Mental Health	depression, schizophrenia	10.0%	8280
Learning Disability		2.8%	2318
Hidden / other	breathing, skin, circulation,diabetes, digestion, progressive illness	50.9%	42,143
		Total disabled people	82,796

6.1.2. Wiltshire Information Sources

The Chronically Sick and Disabled Person’s Register (a voluntary register) total in August 2006 = 13,481

Blind or partially sighted	2402	17.8%	(88% over 60)
Hearing impaired	449	3.4%	(60% over 60)
Learning disability	417	3.1%	(21% over 60)
Mental Health disability	125	0.9%	(66% over 60)
Other (incl mobility)	10,088	75%

Disabled Parking Badge holders (issued to those with a mobility or visual impairment) with renewal every 3 years total in August 2006 = 14,671

Blind or partially sighted	186	1.3%
Mobility	1701	11.6%
Hidden / other	12,784	87%

Wiltshire Wheelchair Service - mobility impaired people issued with a wheelchair total in August 2006 = 5,558

6.1.3. Wiltshire County Council supported client throughput

RAP category*	Apr 03-Mar 04	Apr 04–Mar 05	Apr 05–Mar 06
Learning disability	1649 (9.3%)	1313 (8%)	1241 (8%)
Mental health	2540 (14%)	3278 (20%)	2826 (19%)
Dementia	250	254	247
Vulnerable	14	9	32
Physical	3291 (19%)	4312 (26%)	4467 (30%)
Frailty or temporary	9868 (55%)	7099 (43%)	6007 (40%)
Other physical	26	48	77
Hearing	74	58	57
Visual	67	42	78
Dual impairment	20	19	18
Substance misuse	7	58	63
Total	17806	16490	15115

(* RAP category - the Dept of Health divisions for referrals, assessments and packages)

6.1.4. REAL figures for disabled people in Wiltshire

There is much discrepancy between different sources of information. For example, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf claims that there are 91,000 people in Wiltshire and Swindon who are Deaf or hard of hearing. As you get older hearing tends to deteriorate. This is significant because there are 86,810 people over 60 in Wiltshire. Wiltshire Blind have a database of 1600 blind or partially sighted people who have used their services, but they are aware of several thousand who do not use their services.

There is a register of carers in each district of Wiltshire, but these also include carers of people with a terminal illness and the data is not easily separated with the present databases.

In order to plan services effectively, the recording of accurate statistics is an area in need of attention, both nationally and locally. See Action Plan for details (Section 7).

6.2. The Disability Equality Project Pilot Survey

The Wiltshire Disability Equality Project Pilot Survey has been set up to find out what we can do to make things better in Wiltshire for disabled people. This project involves disabled people and people who support or help them.

6.2.1. Introduction

In order to find out how we can make things better for disabled people we need to find out what issues or barriers are foremost in people’s minds. Many issues can be addressed quickly at little or no cost. Other issues might need a long term planning approach. There may be no issues at all. The only way to find out is to ask the people themselves. The key actions here were:

to carry out a qualitative pilot survey with disabled people who are residents of Wiltshire,
to provide a situation analysis from the customer point of view,
to use the analysis to question the way we provide our services as a starting point for the Disability Equality Scheme Action Plan
to directly involve disabled people in the process.

6.2.2. Involving Disabled People

Talking to groups of people may give some information but talking to individuals gives people a greater opportunity to say what they really think. Personal ‘interviews’ also helps the interviewee to feel valued.

By focusing on the barriers that a disabled person faces, knowledge is gained of changes organisations need to make, in terms of things we can do and things that should benefit a range of different people.

The plan was to talk to a selection of about 40 individuals representing people with different impairments. In order for the discussions to give meaningful information and to identify common themes the ‘impairments’ were grouped as follows:

Mobility Hearing Vision

Hidden Learning Mental Health

These individuals then had the opportunity to continue the cascade by having similar discussions with disabled colleagues and feeding the information back, or simply suggesting colleagues to talk to and seeking their agreement to take part.

It was not intended to include children and young people in this survey as information from these groups has already been collected by ask (www.askwiltshire.org , Research on Young People), the Youth Development Service and the Department of Children and Education.

6.2.3. Discussions

The discussions were based on 5 questions chosen and adapted by members of the council Staff Disability Forum. The idea was to initially extract the most annoying issue and to prompt creative thinking about possible solutions. This was followed by an invitation to propose a change that could be achieved at little or no cost. Finally, concentrating on good practices made it possible to get away from negative issues and end the conversation feeling positive about life.

The 5 questions include the ‘disability’ and the barriers relating to the ‘disability’ to allow people to feel personally involved. This was the choice made by many disabled people who were initially consulted. Where this approach was seen as inappropriate, the discussions were restructured to accommodate individual preferences:

1. How does your disability affect your daily life?

2. Is there any issue or barrier related to this disability that you come across regularly or even daily that really annoys or upsets you?

3. Can you suggest a way this/these could be changed to improve your day-to-day life?

4. Can you think of something small which annoys you that could be put right very quickly without costing a lot of money?

5. Again, thinking about this disability, is there something that is good practice that could be done in other places so that more people can benefit? This could be in your home, your community, or in a workplace.

Over 100 people volunteered to take part in discussions. These people were from:

the County Council Staff Disability Forum and their contacts outside the council
disabled individuals or their carer nominated by community groups
service users who volunteered through County Council service providers
other Wiltshire disabled residents who showed interest in the project.

Discussions were always 1:1, either by telephone or face to face. Email was used if verbal or visual contact was not practical. The community groups included:

MS Therapy Centres	Wiltshire and Swindon Users Network
Kennet Carers	Community Resource Centres
Wiltshire Blind and Partially Sighted clubs	Wiltshire Deaf clubs
MS Society Wiltshire branches	Mental Health support groups
Community Day Centres	Dyslexia Association

6.2.4. The Disability Equality Project Pilot Survey Results

For a detailed report of the findings from this pilot survey refer to Appendix 3

6.2.5. How can we change to make things better?

A summary of the numerous constructive and creative suggestions can be found in Appendix 3. In the main they follow these themes:

Attitudes
Awareness
Understanding and respect
Transport
Highways
Parking
Communications
Employment
Access to buildings
Access to ‘outside’
Information
Help and support
Services (Social)

The first 3 themes, attitudes, awareness and understanding are not tangible ‘things’ that can be easily addressed or measured statistically. There also appears to be a common misperception of being ‘disabled’ or ‘having a disability’ means that you are in a wheelchair. All these issues can only be addressed by continual disability awareness campaigns.

All the comments about issues, suggestions for improvement and examples of good practice have been circulated amongst the relevant service providers within the council. There has been an overwhelming response within the council in that many of the issues either have been, or are being addressed. Whilst this news is encouraging, if the public perception shows otherwise then either we need to communicate our plans better, or the actions need further investigation.

6.2.6. Suggested actions

There are issues that can be dealt with by the council service providers and issues not the direct responsibility of the council or based on the need for cultural changes that should be addressed at a corporate level.

Service Providers

Each department should analyse pilot survey responses relevant to their service provision and identify areas that need

a) Better publicity

b) Re-investigation

c) Further investigation and if justified, actions should be included in forthcoming service plans

d) Addressing immediately because of safety reasons or if the cost is negligible and the impact substantial.

Corporate Issues

a) The County Council can take a lead in organising disability awareness events regularly throughout Wiltshire.

b) The County Council can take a lead in providing all businesses in Wiltshire with access information booklets that show what is required by law, what would be helpful and where these items can be purchased. The research, compilation, printing and delivery of such information could be supported through sponsorship.

c) The County Council can be proud of actions taken to help disabled people and should advertise its successes

Appendix 3 (pdf 96Kb)

Contact Details

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Equalities Team
Development Services
Wiltshire County Council
County Hall
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Wiltshire
BA14 8JN

By Email

equalities@wiltshire.gov.uk

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01225 713000

By Fax

01225 713145

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