Anger over ‘disgraceful’ Network Rail plan for more inaccessible footbridges
The organisation that runs most of Britain’s railway infrastructure is installing more inaccessible footbridges across the country, in apparent breach of its duties under the Equality Act.
Earlier this month, Network Rail – whose directors report to transport secretary Mark Harper – defended its decision to install an “innovative” new “FLOW” railway footbridge that is completely inaccessible to many disabled people, at Wistanstow, Shropshire.
Its decision caused shock and anger among many accessible transport campaigners, with one describing the move as throwing access “under the bus”.
Only last week, Disability News Service (DNS) reported that the equality watchdog had taken action under the Equality Act against both the Department for Transport (DfT) and the rail regulator over concerns that cuts and reforms to train services were making the network ever more inaccessible.
But DNS has now been passed details of plans by Network Rail to build at least two more inaccessible footbridges in other locations in England.
In Wokingham, Berkshire, Network Rail is set to replace two run-down inaccessible bridges at a point where the railway line splits into two near the town centre.
But the planned new single footbridge that will replace them will also only be accessible to pedestrians who can use steps, unless the local council can obtain the necessary funding and planning permission for an accessible version by August.
In a letter to Wokingham Borough Council, Network Rail said the construction of an accessible bridge was “deemed to be unviable at this time” but that the bridge “has been designed to allow for modification to make it fully accessible should this become a possibility in the future”.
And in its planning application to the council, it argued that it had “no demonstrable, positive duty” to provide an accessible structure because the previous combination of a level crossing and a footbridge were also inaccessible.
Network Rail is also planning to install an inaccessible footbridge at Copmanthorpe, near York, as a replacement for a level crossing.
The local parish council has complained that the new bridge will be inaccessible to many people, and it has asked for an alternative design that uses ramped access.
But Network Rail has used a similar argument to the one it used in Shropshire, arguing that the crossing was not currently used by anyone with reduced mobility because of rough terrain on either side and that an accessible bridge would cost millions more pounds to build, while the ramps would be “visually intrusive”.
Meanwhile, in a post on social media, Network Rail’s chief executive Andrew Haines praised the new inaccessible footbridge design that has been used in Shropshire – which he said was “one of the most beautiful things we’ve built in the railway for many, many years”, and said he hoped to reduce its cost “to a position where hundreds of communities can benefit from it”.
Network Rail runs most of Britain’s railway infrastructure, including 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts, and its aim is “to ensure [its] policies and actions support the wider strategic policies” of UK and Scottish transport ministers.
The UK government’s Inclusive Transport Strategy “sets out the Government’s plans to make our transport system more inclusive, and to make travel easier for disabled people”.
The strategy also says that one of its five main themes is: “Improving physical infrastructure – ensuring that vehicles, stations and streetscapes are designed, built and operated so that they are easy to use for all.”
Accessible transport campaigner Doug Paulley said Network Rail’s decisions were “a disgrace”, and that he was now considering taking legal action over the Copmanthorpe plans.
He said its approach “puts to bed the idea that physical inaccessibility on the railway is due to ‘19th century architecture’.
“They’re building new inaccessible structures in 2023. This isn’t due to legacy.”
He added: “Once again, disabled people and our access needs are treated as totally unimportant.
“It is transparent that access has not been any serious consideration in developing this bridge, and it is such a massive insult. I am utterly enraged.
“This must not be allowed to happen.”
Another accessible transport campaigner, Sam Jennings, said the comment by Haines, which she spotted on his Linked In account, “confirms that while disabled people are tax-paying members of the public, we are deemed lesser right from the top down.
“This is why there is such an issue with disability discrimination – it’s cultural, from the top down in the rail industry, when chief executives celebrate inaccessible design and then the industry pushes back so hard when challenged.
“Public transport is for the public. We are all taxpayers (regardless of our incomes) and we should all have access to public infrastructure and services.
“Anything less than this is discrimination.
“The rail industry needs to realise it’s not the 1970s anymore – the world has changed and we all have a right to access transport and live our lives freely without being othered and excluded and #DisabledByTheRailway.”
Tony Jennings, co-chair of a rail accessibility panel, and a member of the Campaign for Level Boarding, said it was important that Network Rail was pushed on the issue, “else they may persevere with inaccessible design, which will exclude disabled people for decades, isn’t fit for purpose and is totally unacceptable”.
He said: “As a mobility scooter-user, I find it incredulous Network Rail are not adhering to their own inclusive design principles.”
Network Rail claims its designs follow principles such as putting people “at the heart of the design process, ensuring they can use the railway safely, easily and with dignity”, that it “acknowledges diversity and difference and is responsive to people’s needs”, “offers choice where a single design solution may not work for everyone” and “provides buildings and environments that are convenient and enjoyable for everyone”.
Jennings said: “Regrettably, they are treating equal access as an afterthought and are simply not listening to disabled people or recognising they too enjoy the countryside and that all terrain mobility aids exist.
“There are 50 accessible Miles without Stiles routes in the Lake District National Park that I enjoy.
“Why are disabled people’s equal access requirements being ignored in the Network Rail inclusive design process, resulting in social exclusion?”
Adrian Betteridge, from Wokingham walking and cycling group WATCH, who told DNS about the Wokingham plans, said: “It’s an appalling decision by Network Rail to try and build a new bridge at great expense which is unusable by anyone who may have difficulty with steps.
“They are choosing to ignore their own corporate documentation which recognises the importance of accessibility to make a small saving, on a bridge which they claim will be in place for the next 120 years.
“Wokingham Borough and Town Councils are both willing to facilitate and contribute towards an accessible bridge, and it’s good that Network Rail have engaged in discussions about this, but they have yet to make an unequivocal statement that they are equally committed. This kind of behaviour belongs in the past.”
Network Rail declined to explain how installing inaccessible new footbridges complies with the government’s Inclusive Transport Strategy.
It also declined to clarify its chief executive’s social media comment, or to confirm that it believes it has no duty to improve access when replacing an inaccessible bridge, how it justifies this position, and how many new inaccessible bridges it is planning to install.
But a Network Rail spokesperson said: “Network Rail is a big, responsible company that must follow current legislation and is reviewing current proposals for new footbridges.
“The new ‘flow bridges’ will have a fully accessible version before any roll-out of the production model.
“At the moment we have one prototype installed to test proof of concept.”
A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesperson declined to say if the government was concerned about the series of inaccessible bridges Network Rail was building.
But he said: “Public bodies are required to take due regard of the needs of people who share protected characteristics, including disability, under the public sector equality duty.”
DfT has also made it clear that the rail industry has a legal obligation to meet current accessibility requirements whenever it installs, renews or replaces infrastructure and that it will work with the Office of Rail and Road and take enforcement action if these standards are not met.
16 February 2023
Campaigners to quiz Paris 2024 on disabled fans’ safety after Champions League ‘disgrace’
A disabled-led charity is to write to organisers of next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris to raise concerns about the safety of disabled visitors, following a damning report into last year’s UEFA Champions League final.
An independent review into the “disgraceful” events around last May’s final between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France found that failings by football’s European governing body UEFA and French authorities caused “suffering for many fans” through severe congestion and almost turned into a “mass fatality catastrophe”.
But the Stade de France is also due to host next year’s athletics events at the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as the Olympics rugby sevens and the two closing ceremonies, while the stadium will also be hosting 10 matches, including the final, at this year’s Rugby World Cup.
Level Playing Field (LPF), the disabled-led charity which represents disabled supporters in England and Wales, told Disability News Service yesterday (Wednesday) that it would write to the organisers of both the Rugby World Cup and Paris 2024 to seek reassurances.
Owain Davies, LPF’s chief executive, said: “Like any situation where a negative experience happens, there is rightly a fear will it happen again.”
He said LPF will ask the organisers of both events to “learn from the unfortunate events in May 2022”.
The independent review (PDF), published this week, cleared Liverpool fans of responsibility for the events before, during and after last May’s final, even though they had previously been blamed for the dangerous levels of congestion by UEFA, French ministers and others.
French police used tear gas and pepper spray on locals and football supporters near the ground, and “failed to protect supporters from widespread street violence in the vicinity of the stadium”, the review found.
Many disabled fans attended the game, and among those giving evidence to the review was Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association (LDSA), which provided “harrowing personal statements” from disabled supporters.
Among their concerns were a lack of signage about accessible gates and priority lanes, which meant disabled fans had to join the regular queues at the turnstiles, while there were also “multiple reports of stewards not being aware of accessible services at the stadium”.
The tear gas and pepper spray used by police in several areas outside the stadium affected many disabled fans, says the review report, with some ending up separated from their companions and “placed into extremely dangerous, vulnerable, and frightening situations”.
In his evidence, Ted Morris, LDSA’s chair, said: “In my opinion, it was only thanks to the restraint and actions shown by [Liverpool] supporters… that a major disaster and probably a death were averted. No one in authority helped our disabled supporters.
“The saddest thing about this is that our disabled fans have arrived in Paris to attend a football festival, but at that very moment, they are in the middle of a carnival of horrors, which will leave them with long-term mental scars.”
Daniel Seaman, who is blind, and his wife Kate, fled the ground before the end of the match and heard what they thought was a gun firing and witnessed bottles flying through the air.
They found themselves in an underpass which the police had blocked at one end, and then felt the crowd pushing against them from behind.
Kate Seaman told the review: “We both admitted afterwards that [the Hillsborough disaster] was all that was in our minds.
“We both had thoughts that we were not getting out of that underpass alive.”
Morris said the authorities had “treated disabled fans like animals” and the treatment they received “will be to the eternal shame of all those in authority who were there to protect us, they were responsible for our safety, but they failed.
“It was a complete dereliction of duty.”
LDSA has raised multiple concerns about the treatment of disabled supporters, including inadequate transport; police methods “caused severe distress to disabled supporters, leaving them fearing for their lives”; crushes and crowd surges “left disabled supporters fearing for their lives”; a “complete lack of accessible signage”; no trained accessibility stewards on the entrance gates; and accessible toilets that were unfit for purpose.
LDSA also said that on arrival back at La Plaine Stade de France rail station, French police “indiscriminately gassed, and pepper sprayed disabled Liverpool fans who had been running for their lives”.
LDSA said in its statement that the “heavy-handed approach of the Police is a stain on France, and it is only because of the exemplary behaviour of Liverpool fans that there wasn’t a loss of life”.
The review panel said it agreed with the conclusions drawn by LDSA, and was “sympathetic to the comments made”.
In addition to its wider conclusions about the event, the review said the service provision for disabled supporters “fell far short of that which should reasonably have been expected” and that “UEFA failed to adequately ensure the event met its obligations toward disabled supporters”.
It said that the “severity and magnitude of the negative experiences of disabled supporters” at last year’s final was “beyond the capacity of this review to fully assess”, and it was clear that “such failures and experiences are not isolated” to last year’s final.
The review panel also said that the “continuing failure” to meet minimum standards for disabled supporters showed the need for “an urgent dedicated review” to address the improvements needed ahead of future UEFA events, including this year’s Champions League final.
Davies told DNS: “We hope that the organizers of the upcoming [Olympics and Paralympics] and Rugby World Cup take the situation seriously and ensure that the recommendations outlined in the report are considered and there are suitable plans in place which reflect this.
“We expect organisers to give assurances which will build back confidence for disabled fans.
“We are pleased however with how much detail the independent report has gone into with the experience of disabled fans and worked closely with Liverpool DSA in gathering this insight.
“As a charity our mandate is to cover events in England and Wales. We have been involved in the event through Liverpool’s participation in the Champions League final.
“We will share official access information in the build up to the events for traveling English and Welsh Fans.”
A Level Playing Field spokesperson said earlier: “In the 21st century, we should not expect there to be a shortfall in the service provided for disabled supporters; there is – quite rightly – an anticipatory expectation bestowed on service providers, which means they are required to deliver an inclusive, reliable, but most of all, safe matchday environment.
“None of these requirements were met.”
Following last year’s final, Level Playing Field called on UEFA to take its obligations as a service-provider seriously.
It said UEFA now needed to ensure there was “clear and meaningful engagement with all stakeholders, including disabled fans, to deliver these going forward to ensure that there is never a repetition of the events we saw at the Champions League final”.
Ted Morris also gave evidence on behalf of disabled Liverpool fans at a hearing last June as part of an inquiry by the French Senate, where he highlighted the “shocking and, at times, terrifying experience of disabled supporters”.
The Senate’s report also cleared Liverpool fans of blame.
In a statement published this week, Morris said: “One of the lessons that must be taken from this report is that in terms of making European football accessible, UEFA has much work to do.
“We ask that they work with us and seek our expertise to address these injustices and give young disabled supporters from all corners of Europe hope that one day they can follow their football team in the same way that non-disabled children can.
“Equality and fairness should not be a fight; it must be a right.
“In 2023 and with the knowledge of the terrifying experiences disabled supporters experienced in Paris, this is not and should not be an impossible dream.”
16 February 2023
Neurodivergent parents ‘often blamed for behaviours of autistic children’, says report
Neurodivergent parents and single mothers are frequently blamed for the behaviours of their autistic children, and even subjected to safeguarding inquiries, when they try to seek support from services, according to new research.
The report, based on a survey of more than 1,000 families of autistic children*, shows a “very real fear” among neurodivergent parents about disclosing to social services and other professionals that they are themselves autistic.
The findings suggest that safeguarding procedures, which can even lead to the child being placed in care, or a criminal investigation into the family, are more frequently being taken against lone mothers and neurodivergent parents than other parents surveyed.
Some of the parents who took part in the survey said their children had died while in inappropriate placements.
The authors say the blaming of parents for the difficulties their children are experiencing at home or school is a “widespread phenomenon” and appears to be “a systematic way of dealing with parents seeking support” from school staff.
They say it has created “a climate of real fear among parent carers”.
The report, Parental Blame and the Pathological Demand Avoidance Profile of Autism, focuses on the experiences of parents with autistic children who are believed to have pathological demand avoidance (PDA), which “presents as an anxiety-driven extreme avoidance of everyday demands, and a need for control which permeates all aspects of daily life”**.
Many parents are blamed for their child’s refusal to attend school, are told to seek support with their own mental health because of their insistence that their child has PDA, or are accused of inventing or exaggerating their child’s needs, or of emotionally harming or neglecting their autistic child.
One of the authors of the report, Alice Running***, is an autistic woman and mother of two autistic children; the other, Danielle Jata-Hall, is the mother of three neurodivergent children.
Their research follows their own experiences of being “subjected to misaligned scrutiny and blame by their respective local authorities”.
Nearly nine in 10 (88 per cent) of those who responded to their survey said they felt blamed for some part of their child’s behaviour or lack of progress.
And more than half (53 per cent) said professionals supporting their child had raised concerns about their own mental health.
Many reported that they were consistently told by professionals that they were at fault for their child’s behaviours, with many parents told they were a safeguarding risk to the child.
The report found that this appeared to happen more often to single parents and those without a professional background.
One parent said: “Every time I raise an issue my child is having [or] request further support, the school directly reply with a safeguarding concern.”
A mother who responded to the survey said: “A teacher told the school my child was not autistic and that probably her mother was harming her.”
Another parent said: “I sent information to my child’s social worker who then turned it round saying I’m looking to label my child and cover up my abuse.”
Out of 1,016 respondents to the survey, 111 families (11 per cent of respondents) had been subjected to some element of formal safeguarding procedures which stated that they were at fault for their child’s behaviour.
These safeguarding procedures included child protection inquiries, children being placed in care, and even prosecution of the parents.
Of these 111 families, 64 were lone mothers, and 85 identified themselves as neurodivergent.
One said: “Dealing with the [special educational needs] team has broken us. All we want is provision which meets her needs, and we are treated as though everything is abuse… and not a basic right.”
Another said: “I feel as if they’ve pushed me to the brink… I started off being honest and transparent about all the difficulties… I wouldn’t tell them if my head was hanging off now.”
More than half of the parents and carers who responded to the survey themselves identified as neurodivergent, and of those who chose not to reveal that status to the professionals working with their child, three-fifths (59 per cent) said they would fear repercussions from those professionals if they did so.
Running and Jata-Hall say their findings show the need for improved education among professionals about both neurodivergent parents and autistic children with PDA.
Running said: “There have been some devastating stories shared with us.
“In some instances, mothers have had their children removed from their care, and in others, children have died whilst in inappropriate placements.
“There is a climate of fear amongst families with autistic-PDA children, with many being too scared to ask for the disability support their children are entitled to.
“Families are experiencing real trauma because of engaging with support services.”
*More than 90 per cent of respondents were from the UK; the authors also point out that, due to the survey design and how it was publicised, families who have been subjected to parental blame may have felt more motivated to take part than those who have not
**More than 98 per cent of respondents said they believed their autistic child had PDA
***Alice Running writes about autism, and blogs at www.theautvocate.wordpress.com, and her book, Helping Your Child with PDA Live a Happier Life, is published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Danielle Jata-Hall blogs at www.pdaparenting.com and is the co-author of the children’s book I’m Not Upside Down, I’m Downside Up: Not a Boring Book About PDA
16 February 2023
Disabled citizens produce ideas for more accessible communities
Disabled people have developed a series of solutions to address the daily discrimination caused by the inadequate, inaccessible and unsafe infrastructure they face as they move around their communities.
Among solutions across nine key areas are calls for long-term funding to maintain and improve pavements; an end to pavement parking; and improved access to mobility aids.
These and other solutions are included in the new Disabled Citizens’ Inquiry report, the result of a six-month inquiry led by the walking and cycling charity Sustrans, in partnership with the disabled people’s organisations Transport for All (TfA).
The solutions to address barriers disabled people face when walking and wheeling around their local community were developed in two-day workshops of disabled people, and tested with experts, many of whom were also disabled.
Their ideas were then put through an Ipsos survey to nearly 1,200 disabled people across the UK.
Among other solutions they produced are improvements to walking and wheeling crossing points across roads and cycle paths; better engagement with disabled people around walking and wheeling policy and practice; and more accessible digital wayfinding and journey planning tools.
They also call for improved access to off-road routes such as canal towpaths, routes through green spaces and the National Cycle Network (which is looked after by Sustrans); and improved integration of walking and wheeling routes with public transport hubs.
And they say disabled people should have a choice to live within easy walking or wheeling distance of services and amenities, with the survey finding that 88 per cent of disabled people believe a planning system which ensures more essential services within walking or wheeling distance of where people live would help them to walk or wheel more.
One of the disabled people who took part in the workshops, Dennis Queen, from Manchester, said: “Although access to buses, trams and trains in Manchester has improved, nobody’s thought about how you get to them from your house.
“We need honesty and dialogue to understand that it’s not just about the accessibility of buildings and buses, it’s about how we get to them in the first place.”
Another of the workshop participants told the inquiry, which was funded by the charity Motability*: “You’ve got to take a whole approach.
“It’s one thing to set a flat fare [for buses] but if you can’t physically get to the bus stop because you’ve got a mobility impairment then service levels and everything else don’t matter.
“Your public transport journey starts the minute you […] leave your house.”
The survey found two-fifths of disabled people (41 per cent) often experience problems reaching their destination because of the accessibility of the environment around them when walking or wheeling, increasing to 55 per cent of those with mobility impairments or learning difficulties, 58 per cent of deaf or hard-of-hearing people, and 64 per cent of those who are blind or visually-impaired.
The survey also found that nearly one in six disabled people cannot access the mobility aid they need to walk or wheel, with disabled people of colour almost twice as likely (27 per cent) to be affected compared with disabled white people (14 per cent).
And more than half of disabled people (52 per cent) said the rising cost of living was affecting their ability to make essential journeys to places such as shops, healthcare services, education or work.
Caroline Stickland, TfA’s chief executive, said: “Transport for All’s role was to ensure that disabled people’s voices were at the heart of this ground-breaking inquiry.
“From co-designing the study, to facilitating pan-impairment workshops, to generating recommendations, disabled people were involved at every stage.
“Not only does this give the government a uniquely clear and actionable picture of what we as disabled people need to make walking and wheeling more accessible, but it also provides a blueprint for how our community must be engaged with every mode of transport going forward.”
Xavier Brice, chief executive of Sustrans, said: “Our report clearly demonstrates that understanding the barriers disabled people experience getting around their neighbourhoods is imperative in creating an equitable society.
“Putting disabled people at the centre of discussions about how we plan and create spaces where we can all move around easily and safely is vital.
“The UK government must listen and take action to create places planned around people, not cars.”
*The charity Motability is a Disability News Service subscriber
16 February 2023
Disabled people ‘at the heart’ of new accessible transport centre
Disabled people are “at the heart” of a pioneering new centre that will research and develop accessible transport solutions, its launch event heard this week.
The new National Centre for Accessible Transport (NCAT) aims to improve the accessibility and reliability of road, rail and air transport for disabled people.
Its research and agenda will be led by disabled people, and it aims to amplify the voices of disabled people in all its decision-making.
The project is led by Coventry University, alongside the disabled-led Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC), the charity Designability, innovation accelerator Connected Places Catapult, cross-party thinktank Policy Connect and engineering consultancy WSP UK.
They have been awarded £20 million over seven years by the charity Motability* to develop and run the centre, which is based at the university’s National Transport Design Centre.
The new centre aims to transform the sector’s understanding of disabled people’s experiences of transport, through carrying out research and developing accessible transport solutions.
Stephanie McPherson-Brown, a disabled postgraduate researcher at NCAT who is researching disabled people’s experiences of public transport, particularly those with reduced mobility, told yesterday’s (Wednesday) launch event: “I have never felt like I could take my independence for granted and it’s something that’s very important to me, but also comes with a lot of challenges.”
She said the impact of inaccessible transport affects not just getting to work, or school, or the hospital, but also the ability to socialise, see friends and “to be spontaneous just like everyone else”.
She said: “I live in Scotland, so there’s so much on my doorstep and it should be accessible to me to just say I’m going to be completely spontaneous today and go somewhere that I want to go.
“Those are the things that really help to improve things like social inclusion and to harbour a sense of self-esteem.”
She said it was important that the centre’s work was being led by disabled people.
She added: “I just feel I can’t actually describe how important this work is and the honour I feel to be a part of it, and also the excitement to just see it grow.”
Professor Paul Herriotts, NCAT’s director, told the launch event that there were “world-class people in user-centred design” at the university, and he added: “What we have found is that it is critical to put users at the heart of the design and engineering process.
“When we work with the end users from day one, and understand their needs and wants and abilities, and then work with them to co-create solutions, then we will have successful outcomes.”
RiDC, which specialises in inclusive research involving disabled consumers, will play a key role in ensuring that disabled people are at the heart of the centre’s work and shape “accessible transport solutions”.
This will include developing and managing a new Community for Accessible Transport, a pan-impairment panel of disabled people which will help set the centre’s agenda by providing evidence and insight through surveys, focus groups, testing, and research design.
Dr Phil Friend, chair of RiDC, said ahead of the launch: “We know, from our research and lived experience, how crucial travel is to being able to live independent and fulfilling lives.
“NCAT has been developed to ensure that it is disabled people themselves who advise on the solutions and services they need in this area.
“Our role in the coalition is to provide high quality research from the lived experience of disabled people – which will inform decision-making in UK government, industry and civil society.”
The disabled peer and accessible transport campaigner Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson said before the launch that it was a “really important endeavour”, and that she hoped it would “challenge the status quo and ensure disabled people have the same right to travel as everybody else”.
She said there had been some positive changes to inclusive transport in her lifetime, but it “has not gone far enough”.
Research by Motability (PDF) has found that disabled people make an average of 38 per cent fewer trips than non-disabled people – with an average of 20 journeys a week for non-disabled people, compared with about 12 for disabled people – with no reduction in this gap over the past decade.
Motability’s analysis shows that completely closing this gap for disabled people in the UK would deliver benefits worth about £72 billion a year.
Rachael Badger, director of performance and engagement at Motability, said: “While some progress has been made in terms of making transport more accessible, we want to see that gap closing, and we want to see change on a larger scale to make transport more inclusive.”
*Motability, the charity which oversees the company that runs the disabled people’s car scheme, is a Disability News Service subscriber
16 February 2023
Council must make ‘radical’ improvements to housing, after trio of cases
An ombudsman has called for “radical” improvements to a local authority’s housing policies after three cases in which it failed two disabled tenants and a child with a damp and mould allergy.
The Housing Ombudsman spoke out this week just a year after it published a special report into the same council, which called for action on a “myriad of issues” following concerns about complaint handling and a series of formal investigations.
The ombudsman has made five severe maladministration findings against Labour-run Lambeth council, across the three latest cases.
In one case, the parent of a child with a damp and mould allergy reported that mould had formed after a bathroom leak, but the council repeatedly failed to carry out the repairs.
The mould caused her child’s skin to crack and bleed due to an eczema flare up.
In the second case, contractors carrying out delayed ground-floor adaptations left the disabled resident without a functioning bath or shower for three weeks, while he needed buckets of water to flush away waste, and he and his son were left with no taps in the bathroom.
The third case saw a resident with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia left without heating and hot water for a “significant period” during the winter – exacerbating their pain – although it is not clear how long this lasted because of record-keeping failures.
Fazilet Hadi, head of policy for Disability Rights UK, said: “It is horrific that time and again we hear that disabled people are living in uninhabitable housing.
“Where this is public sector or arms-length management housing, it beggars belief that local authorities are not keeping housing stock in fit repair and its conditions are actively exacerbating people’s impairments and poor health.
“Nobody should be living in damp or cold premises or premises with black mould.
“Councils need to place a higher priority on ensuring that tenants are safe in their housing.
“And national government needs to ensure that councils have the funding to do this.”
Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said: “The distress and inconvenience experienced by its residents was considerable, and some actions were disrespectful of residents and lacked empathy for the impact on them.
“It is critical for the landlord to make changes to prevent similar failings affecting other residents.”
He said there had since been “constructive and positive engagement” from the council’s senior leadership, but he added: “I recognise it will take time to embed change and expect it to continue to use the learning from our special report and these cases to radically improve services for residents.
“I also welcome the landlord’s response on its learning from these cases and the changes being made to improve its service.
“I would encourage other landlords to consider the learning the cases offer for their own services.”
Lambeth council said it had been “working intensively with the Housing Ombudsman over several months to resolve the issues he has raised with us.
“We are committed to tackling any issues raised, to ensure we provide the best possible service to all our tenants.
“In the three cases identified by the Housing Ombudsman today, we fully accept that the service we provided fell below our usual standards.
“We have apologised to the tenants for this and, in line with the judgement, we have paid compensation in recognition of the inconvenience and frustration these tenants have experienced.
“We have also resolved the original problems reported at each property.”
The council said it had “invested hundreds of millions of pounds in improving our council homes and estates in recent years” and would “ensure that we learn the lessons from these cases to improve the service provided to all tenants in the future”.
16 February 2023
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
GPs will be urged not to sign people off work in a bid to cut long-term sickness in next month’s budget, it is claimed. Insiders claim Jeremy Hunt and top officials are looking at ways to cut the number of people on long-term sickness following the Covid pandemic. But it has sparked alarm that people with conditions like Long Covid will be forced back into work when they are not well enough. According to The Telegraph, the Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions are investigating ways of driving down sickness figures, with 2.3 million signed off with long-term conditions last summer: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/jeremy-hunt-planning-tell-gps-29226709
A disabled woman says she feels imprisoned and forgotten after care staff shortages led to her losing her independence. Anna Trotter, 35, was told she would be moved to a care home for two weeks as a temporary measure. Yet over four months later she is still there. Anna had been living at home with the help of domiciliary care workers who visited her four times a day for half an hour each time. The agency contracted by the NHS to provide the care workers found it was financially unviable, due to the lack of other service-users in the area: https://news.sky.com/story/woman-says-she-feels-imprisoned-after-carer-shortage-forces-her-into-care-home-12808891
A stroke survivor was threatened with court action after refusing to pay a £3,185 homecare bill, as he alleged he received as little as 10 minutes care on visits supposed to last 45 minutes. Adrian Robson took a stand over the care arranged by North Yorkshire County Council which he says left him uncleaned after using the toilet and has caused his wife to all but give up work to care for him. The case comes amid growing concern about England’s strained care system: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/09/he-was-still-dirty-stroke-survivor-fights-homecare-bill-over-visit-lengths
The lives of disabled employees are at risk due to a lack of knowledge on evacuation procedures in the workplace, a disabled campaigner has said. Sarah Rennie called for clear government guidance and codes of practice for businesses to ensure the safety of their mobility-impaired employees as well as site visitors. Her comments came after the findings from a survey of UK businesses suggested a lack of awareness and preparation for the evacuation of mobility-impaired members of staff: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/government-grenfell-tower-west-midlands-high-court-b2281606.html
16 February 2023
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
