Serco Research is asking for Disabled Peoples Organisations’ (DPO’s) and disabled individual’s thoughts on PIP through an online questionnaire.
Questions include where the PIP examinations should take place, at what time and whether disabled individuals or DPO’s would be interested in feeding back on the process.
Have Serco got the contract? Are our views being taken into account? Who knows? But what we do need to know is that Dr Stephen Duckworth OBE, director of the Serco Institute for research, has other connections. He is a disabled man using an electric wheelchair-so we’ll be OK yes? Well no….
Dr Stephen may be disabled, he also supports euthanasia and is a member of the ‘assisted dying’ committee to get the law changed for euthanasia to become legal in the UK. He has advised the government on the misery that is welfare reform, has been involved in insurance companies on disability ( no names mentioned but may begin with the letter ‘U’), has been involved in ‘the work program’ ( an euphemism for workfare’ and other programs) netting £3 bn for his company and has also been involved with a contract earning 100 million a year to help long term unemployed people return to work that was outsourced by the DWP, now didn’t Atos get 100 million a year from DWP contract to do just that? As ‘Fitness to work’ is described as one of his areas of ‘expertise’ it’s all possible. See: https://www.expertsearch.co.uk/cgi-bin/find_expert?5669
And just in case you think we would dare to make this stuff up see links below and scroll down for the original email on PIP
Committee on Assisted Dying
https://www.commissiononassisteddying.co.uk/dr-stephen-duckworth
The link tells us:
Dr Duckworth OBE is the founder and Chief Executive of Disability Matters Limited. He is a board member on the Olympic Delivery Authority, Board Champion for Equality and Diversity and Chair of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee. He also sits on the board for the Employers Forum on Disability and the National Quality Board.
Dr Duckworth was an adviser to Ministers for Welfare Reform and for Disabled People on the provision of disability benefits. He has also been very involved in the work of a group of FSA regulated companies that provide ethical finance and insurance to disabled customers. He was also a member of the Council of the University of Southampton”.
In 2009 the Mail described the ‘assisted dying’ committee set up and bankrolled by Terry Pratchett as:
This private Commission was set up by Charlie Falconer, an outspoken supporter of euthanasia, after three failed attempts in Parliament to change the law on ‘assisted dying’”. Further…
The Commission has made considerable noise about the disabled person amongst their number. While all the major disability rights organisations in the UK (RADAR, UKDPC, NCIL, SCOPE, Not Dead Yet) oppose a change in the law, Stephen Duckworth, Chief Executive of ‘Disability Matters Limited’, actually backs a change to legalisation.‘Disability Matters Limited’ sounds grandiose but it is in reality it was just a private business – which according to the Companies House website was dissolved in the summer of 2010. So who does Mr Duckworth represent?
On Linkedin Dr Stephen describes past work as:
I previously worked as the Strategic Development Director working to secure contracts from the UK government under the £3Bn per annum Work Programme.
Previously I was leading a £100 million contract to help the long-term unemployed people return to work that has been outsourced by the DWP.
So before reading the email do bear these things in mind:
Classification: Serco Public
Please find below, an email from Dr Stephen Duckworth OBE, Director of the Serco Institute for Research.
Serco is very aware that many disabled people’s organisations have expressed concerns about the government’s intentions in relation to Welfare Reform. It appears the Coalition Government is intent on making these changes and as such, it seems inevitable that they will be letting new contracts to introduce reforms such as the Personal Independence Payment in the near future. More information can be found here: https://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/disability/personal-independence-payment/
To achieve their objectives, the government is establishing a Framework Agreement through the Department of Work and Pensions, inviting organisations to bid to deliver health and disability assessments that will enable individuals to access certain benefits and services.
At Serco, we believe passionately in effective public service delivery. It is important to us to put the citizen at the heart of our solution so that individuals and organisations who argue that “Nothing should be done about us without us” are provided with the opportunity to influence the design and shaping of future services that are affected by the benefit reform process.
As an electric wheelchair user myself and with a medical background, I’m very conscious that the views of those with long-term health conditions and disabled people need to be incorporated in the design and delivery of these assessments.
Would you as an individual or your organisation be interested in contributing to Serco’s ambition of involving as many disabled people as possible in developing the solution to all future assessments for disabled people?
If your answer is yes, then please click on the link below to express your interest by completing a short survey about health & disability assessments.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FCK2B8B
We look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Dr Stephen Duckworth OBE, Director Serco Institute