Report of the City Solicitor

This report provides an overview of the data and activity in Manchester in relation to disability, linked to inequalities in life chances and the impacts of COVID-19.  This is one of a series of ‘deep dive’ reports that the Committee requested into different aspects of equalities.

The Committee received a report of the City Solicitor which provided an overview of the data and activity in Manchester in relation to disability, linked to inequalities in life chances and the impacts of COVID-19. This was one of a series of ‘deep dive’ reports that the Committee had requested into different aspects of equalities.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Statistical information relating to disabled people in Manchester;
• Work to improve the life chances of disabled people in Manchester; and
• Celebrating diversity.

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

• That the condition of pavements, and roads, was an equalities issue which disproportionately affected disabled people and some other groups such as older people and that decisions on the prioritisation of repairs and maintenance should take into account equality issues;
• That some consultations were not carried out in a way which was accessible to all Manchester residents;
• The impact of austerity measures on disabled people;
• How accessible was this meeting and its papers for disabled people, including people who were visually impaired and the Deaf community;
• What was being done to increase the number of disabled people in senior positions in the Council;
• That the Council should be using the social model of disability; and
• What was being done to ensure that Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) reflected the impact of proposals on disabled people.

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager advised that her team would link up with Age Friendly Manchester and the Highways service to look at what could be done to improve the condition of pavements and she offered to provide Members with an update on this.  She advised that she would also talk to the Communications Team about the accessibility of consultations and would update Members on this.

The Strategic Lead (City Centre Partnerships) advised that the Highways Service and officers in Growth and Development who were working on areas such as the public realm and travel were increasingly taking a more joined-up approach to their work.  She outlined the work focusing on a modal shift, encouraging people to walk, cycle and use public transport more, and advised that improving pavements and pedestrianising spaces were key to this.  She emphasised the importance of consultations being accessible and advised that she was working with officers to look at how this could be improved.

A Member requested that representatives from the Highways Service be invited to a future meeting to discuss equalities issues relating to pavements and roads, to which the Chair agreed.

The Chair suggested that the question about the accessibility of meetings be raised through Committee Services and the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinating Group.  The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager offered to discuss with Committee Services how accessibility could be strengthened.

In response to a Member’s question, the Head of Commissioning for Adult Social Care outlined the range of supported housing accommodation that was available both in-house and externally and offered to provide any further information that the Member wanted.  She advised that people could also be supported to live independently in their own homes, for example, through adaptations or a care package.

The Strategic Lead (Reform and Innovation) reported that workforce equalities issues were being scrutinised by the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee and that they had recently looked at the new Workforce Equality Strategy.  The Chair stated that the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee had previously received an update on this workforce equality work and suggested that a further update be scheduled.

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager recognised the importance of the social model of disability and informed Members that her team would be looking at how they could increase people’s understanding of this.  She reported that strengthening the monitoring and quality assurance of EIAs would be a key priority for her team and she offered to provide further updates on this work.  Elaine Astley from Breakthrough UK reported that the Council had adopted the social model of disability over 20 years ago but that, while this approach was still be used in some individual areas, it appeared that the broader understanding of this across all areas of the Council had been lost.  She emphasised the importance of the social model of disability being understood across the Council and this approach being embedded across everything the Council was doing, in order to ensure the disabled people were fully included.  She cited the example of consultations where, she advised, the Council should be working with disabled people’s organisations and disabled people from diverse communities to identify disabling barriers to participating in consultations and identify solutions.  

In response to a Member’s question about the data in the report, the Strategic Lead (Reform and Innovation) advised that officers had had to use the data which was available to them, which was from multiple sources and, therefore, not consistent; however, she added that work would be taking place next year on the communities of identity report which would enable the Council to obtain qualitative information and a more coherent narrative.

Decisions

1.            To recognise the importance of the social model of disability and this approach being embedded across all areas of the Council.

2.            To invite representatives from the Highways Service to a future meeting to discuss equalities issues relating to pavements and roads.

3.            That the accessibility of meetings be discussed with Committee Services and raised through the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinating Group.

4.            That an update on the work to improve Workforce Equality be scheduled for a future meeting.

[Councillor Wills declared a personal and non-prejudicial interest as an employee of Manchester Metropolitan University.]