At the latest Get Involved Group meeting, the Federation of Disabled People hosted a luncheon to welcome Hackney Disability Backup, an organisation of disabled people from Hackney. 

After welcoming the Hackney group, the meeting began immediately with lunch which was well-received by the Hackney members after their long coach trip to Brighton.  After lunch, the Federation's involvement officer Jon Hastie gave a brief talk outlining the work of the Federation and it's Get involved group, describing the work that had already been done on a wide range of issues including taxis, occupational therapy, hospital services, awareness training, and waste collection services.  Jon's talk was followed by the same from Hackney's own involvement officer, Catherine Love (who is also a volunteer at the Federation's Disability Advice Centre), who provided an overview on Hackney's own work on leisure services, transport (including taxis),  transformation of social care and the Olympics!



Following the presentations, the meeting split into five groups, and were asked to list their 5 top priorities for improvements to public services in the coming year.  This gave participants an excellent opportunity to compare the situation in Hackney & Brighton,  and identify areas where the two groups might be able to work together and share information.  The priorities of each group can be seen at the end of this article.

After the group discussions, Jon brought the meeting to a close, giving participants and Hackney members a chance to explore Brighton and take in some seaside air.  Although the weather could have been a bit warmer, the visitors still enjoyed a brief tour around the historic Lanes, before returning to the Friends Meeting House for a return trip by coach.



The meeting was well attended, with about 40 participants, almost evenly split between Brighton and Hackney.  At the end of the meeting, the two groups thanked each other for coming and declare their interest in continuing to work together, with Hackney Disability Backup inviting the Federation to repay the visit by coming to Hackney.  So watch this space!

The next meeting of the Get Involved Group is on Wednesday 22nd September, 2-5pm at Church House, Hove, where we will be discussing, among other things, the availability of disabled parking and abuse of  blue badges.  Please do come along!

Here was what was discussed in the groups:

Issues in Brighton
Parking - abuse of blue badges and use of parking spaces to store building supplies, etc.
Buses - wheelchair users often unable to use buses where spaces already taken by buggies & prams, not enough accessible buses in Whitehawk, bus shelters do not offer protection from the weather
There were also a number of issues which had previously been reported and still remain a problem - including refuse bins taking up parking space, and street clutter
Disability awareness training needed in council and other public bodies
Road calming measures causing traffic congestion
Taxis - lack of accessible taxis with people having to wait over one hour, poor disability awareness (drivers do not ring the doorbell to say they have arrived), no SMS service for disabled people ( would be to do to be useful for deaf people and those with communication issues)
Social care - the amount people are expected to contribute to their own care increasing without explanation, difficulty recruiting PAs
More information sharing and networks needed between organisations
More health and leisure activities needed for disabled people
Independent living not isolated living!

Issues in Hackney
Housing -  assessment is not being done properly and inaccessible homes are being given to disabled people
Lack of counselling and advice for disabled people, particularly in terms of social care.  There is a need for a specialist advice centre for help with form filling, benefits, housing etc.
Transport - problems with availability and inefficiencies of dial-a-ride scheme, availability of taxis and restricted eligibility for taxi card
Parking -lack of disabled parking
Pavements are not "wheelchair friendly"
Concern was expressed by some members about the lack of resources for front-line services, compared to the money available at management level
Disability awareness training needed in council and other public bodies
Road calming measures causing traffic congestion
More information sharing and networks needed between organisations
An emergency number needed for local people