22. Disability discrimination

Birmingham East, North and Solihull Branch

(MFD) That this meeting of RCN Congress discusses whether disability discrimination exists within the NHS

Debate report

Despite legislation to prevent disability discrimination, speakers in this debate illustrated its prevalence in health care services.  Proposer Christopher Barber related numerous saddening accounts of discrimination towards both service users and staff. However, other speakers highlighted some good practice and asked Congress to celebrate these.

Public Health Forum member Jason Warriner agreed with other speakers that disability discrimination does exist in the NHS. He asked, however, that Congress recognise that discrimination does not only take place in the NHS, but across all care sectors. “We need to challenge disability discrimination before it becomes abuse”, he said. “Let’s give nurses the skills to ask the right questions and truly support those with disabilities”.

Mary Shaw from the Ophthalmic Nursing Forum took the opportunity to remind delegates to bear those with vision impairments in mind in their day-to-day work.

In his right of reply, Christopher said: “I implore you, I beg you to think and reflect on how you engage with those with disabilities, when you return to work. Let’s put a full stop on disability discrimination”.

Background

The Equality Act 2010 (EA10) replaced the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) as well as other anti- discrimination laws and has strengthened many of its provisions across England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has enacted the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 along with a number of other statutes covering specific areas.

EA10 defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on someone’s ability to carry out normal daily activities. This definition includes people with hidden disabilities such as diabetes, epilepsy or mental health.
EA10 protects disabled people from discrimination in a range of areas, including in employment and occupation.

This means that employers must:

• not directly discriminate against a person because of their actual or perceived disability, or because they associate with a disabled person
• not treat a disabled person less favourably for a reason related to their impairment, unless that treatment can be justified. For example, an employer may reject someone who has a severe back problem where the job entails heavy lifting
• not have procedures, policy or practices which, although applicable to all workers, disproportionately disadvantage those who share a particular disability, unless these can be justified
• make reasonable adjustments in the recruitment and employment of disabled people. This can include adjustments to recruitment and selection procedures, to terms and conditions of employment, to working arrangements and physical changes to the premises or equipment
• not treat an employee unfairly who has made or supported a complaint about discrimination because of disability.

The 2011 census revealed 18 per cent of the population reported having a limiting long-term illness and 10 per cent provided unpaid care for someone with an illness/ disability. This approximates to roughly 10 million disabled people in Britain alone of which 6.9million are of working age.

Despite the legislation to prevent and remedy disability discrimination, evidence from a number of sources including the Equality and Human Rights Commission and disability equality campaigning organisations suggest that the day-to-day reality of individuals who have a disability, and those who care for them, is often impacted by inaccessible environments and disabling attitudes and beliefs by service providers.

The 2008 Fair Treatment at Work survey shows that 19 per cent of disabled people experienced unfair treatment at work compared with 13 per cent of non-disabled people. Employment tribunal statistics also demonstrate a rise in discrimination in the workplace, up seven per cent in 2011-12.

Recent investigations into the provision of services for patients with learning disability suggest that there have been systemic failings into the quality of care they experienced.

References and further reading

Department of Health (2012) Government publishes final report on Winterbourne View Hospital London: DoH. Available at: www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/12/final- winterbourne/(accessed 15/03/13) (Web).

Equality and Human Rights Commission (2012 ) Out in the open: tackling disability related harassment: a manifesto for change London: EHRC. Available at: www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/disabilityfi/out_in_the_open_dhi_manifesto.pdf (accessed 15/03/13) (Web).

Papworth Trust (2012) Disability in the United Kingdom: facts and figures London: Papworth Trust. Available at: www.papworth.org.uk/downloads/disabilityintheunitedkingdom2012_120910112857.pdf (accessed 15/03/13) (Web).