Report of the Executive Director of Adult Services

This report provides an update on progress with Our Manchester Disability Plan (OMDP), including the recent refresh of the Plan and the new Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for the Social Model of Disability.  There are also updates from each of the current OMDP workstreams to report on topics discussed and the progress achieved as well as a progress report on the Council’s Disability Confident scheme.

The Committee received a report of the Executive Director of Adult Services which provided an update on progress with the Our Manchester Disability Plan (OMDP), including the recent refresh of the Plan and the new Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for the Social Model of Disability. It also included updates from each of the current OMDP workstreams as well as a progress report on the Council’s Disability Confident Scheme.

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included:

• An update on the Health and Social Care Workstream;
• Children and Young People update;
• Work and Skills update;
• Transport update; and
• The Disability Confident Scheme.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Educational attainment of young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND);
• Delays in pupils with SEND receiving an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and what support was available to parents of disabled children;
• The importance of considering mental health as part of the work on long-term health conditions and the social model of disability; and
• The problems some disabled people faced in accessing their own local area, for example, due to people parking cars across dropped kerbs and pavements and that work should take place with the Highways Team to address this.

The Chair commented that the Lead Member for Disability had been unable to attend the meeting but read out some comments she had wanted to make.  These highlighted the breadth of the work taking place outside of the Board structure and through all the workstreams.  Her comments also highlighted the work taking place to improve the accessibility of the Peterloo Memorial and to improve the Council’s internal systems as well as initiatives taking place across the city such as Purple Tuesday the following week where the Christmas markets would open earlier and district centres like Wythenshawe would be supporting a quiet hour where loud instore music would be turned off and there would be more visible support for disabled shoppers.   

The SEND Lead outlined the work taking place to improve educational outcomes for pupils with SEND, advising that her service reported regularly to the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee on this.  She informed Members that there had been a significant increase in application for EHCPs so the Statutory Assessment Team which dealt with these applications was being re-designed to meet the demand.  She suggested that progress on this be included in a future report.  She informed Members that parents could access an impartial information, advice and support service and could also receive support from volunteer Parent Champions.  A Member commented that he would welcome updates on the timescales for the EHCP along with examples of any cases where the process had not worked well for the young person so that the Committee could identify areas for improvement.

The Public Health Specialist advised that other Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) topic papers were being worked on which focused on mental health and that these were documents which were being updated and would be cross-referenced.

The Strategic Lead (Commissioning) reported that the problem of obstructions on pavements was something that had been raised by many disabled people as an issue for them.  She advised that a public awareness campaign was needed to highlight to the general public how this impacted on disabled people but that this would requires some resources.  She confirmed that her team would engage with the Highways Team on this issue.

Decision

To note the report.