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Our Strategy for 2007-10
Our Strategy for 2007-10 also been made available in Adobe Acrobat and MS Word formats for downloading. Adobe Acrobat version: Our Strategy for 2007-10 (165kb) Background information about the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee Background information about the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee1. We are the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee or DPTAC). The Secretary of State for Transport set us up in the Transport Act 1985, as an independent body, to give him advice about the transport needs of disabled people. 2. We have a Chair and up to 20 Members. At least half of them have to be disabled people. We were all appointed by Ministers. We have wide experience of transport and disability. We are not paid, apart from our expenses. 3. We give expert advice on many transport issues. We do this to improve access for disabled people. We also carry out independent research on disabled people and their use of transport, with the aim of promoting a more inclusive society. 4. By law we must consider anything that the Secretary of State for Transport asks us to. We can also consider other matters. Our strategy for 2007-101. We are the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC). We were set up in 1986 to provide independent advice to Government on the transport needs of all disabled people (Transport Act 1985). 2. We know that disabled people and those with a long-term illness account for some 17% of the population or about 10 million people, including people with limiting longstanding illnesses. Of these 4.6 million are over state pension age and 700,000 are children[1]. While more children are being born and living with impairments than ever before[2], levels of disability do increase with age. The Department for Work and Pensions estimated in 2004 that in the UK disabled people's spending power is around £80 billion each year[3]. 3. Furthermore, disabilities include physical, sensory and mental and learning impairments, as well conditions such as restricted growth and facial disfigurements. Multiple impairments are common, as illustrated by prevalence figures indicating that a third of disabled people report sensory deficits, a third report learning difficulties, half report mobility problems and roughly as many report impaired physical co-ordination[4]. 4. We appreciate that disabled people are not an homogenous group with identical needs. The needs of people with mental health problems or learning disabilities are often distinct from those of wheelchair users for example. Even among people with similar impairments, needs vary. For example, profoundly deaf people will not benefit from induction loops. 5. We recognise that disabled people live throughout the community. One in four households has a disabled resident[5]. The need for access for disabled people is not limited to specific areas, but is present throughout the wider transport system. 6. We know that disabled people face major, widespread problems and disadvantages with all forms of transport. These barriers can make it hard for disabled people to play a full part in society as equal citizens. Disabled people may not be able to find out where transport starts or stops, or to get there when they have found out. When they get there, they may not be able to access vehicles, infrastructure or information. They may not receive appropriate support, have to pay more for it, or it may take longer, get them to somewhere other than where they want to go, or fail entirely to take them anywhere. They may even be denied travel at all. Disabled people frequently have a lower quality experience when they can travel, for example, the process may be painful or distressing, or they may not be able to take up entertainment or refreshment opportunities. 7. We note that European law uses the term "persons of reduced mobility" to include disabled people, as well as older people, those with children and pregnant women. We note that inclusive and accessible transport benefits many more people than those will have rights under disability discrimination legislation. 8. The Disability Discrimination Acts of 1995 and 2005 created new legal rights for disabled people and placed obligations on transport operators, service providers and those with duties, such as local planning and highways authorities. The Acts set the framework for detailed accessibility requirements that apply to new trains, trams, buses and coaches, including dates by which all vehicles must meet these requirements. There is also an unused power to set similar standards for taxis. 9. The Acts impose a duty to promote disability equality on many transport authorities and regulators. From December 2006, land based transport operators have had to take account of disabled people's needs. Transport buildings, information, and related services and planning and highways functions are also fully covered by Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Acts 1995. This could be extended to air and sea travel. 10. Further legislation is planned. The Discrimination Law Review will lead to a Single Equality Act which the Government has a commitment to introduce during this Parliament. 11. The policy context is also changing at a European level. European legislation is about to give disabled air passengers in Europe new rights, and similar legislation on rail, coach and shipping services is in prospect. In addition, technical standards for vehicles in a number of modes of transport such as rail are increasingly being set at a European level. 12. At a higher level still, the text of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities has been agreed by the UN General Assembly. It has been open for signature by member countries since March 2007. 13. Although this is a great improvement on where this country was only a few years ago, we believe there is much more to be done to achieve our aim. 14. We aim to: 15. Our purpose, through which we shall achieve our aim, is to advise the Secretary of State for Transport on the transport needs of disabled people.
16. Our objectives are: Objective 1: We will provide timely, focused and credible advice to the Secretary of State for Transport on the public and private transport needs of all disabled people. Our advice will be representative of the broad views of disabled people in Great Britain on non-devolved issues. This will be our top priority. The Secretary of State has high level policy advice available from his professional civil servants on social inclusion and accessibility especially now that Ministers have a new Disability Equality Duty. We will take our responsibility to contribute to, comment on and where necessary challenge this advice seriously. There is no substitute for involving disabled people themselves in policy development. We will develop our expertise in this field, engage with others to ensure that they represent a wide range of views of disabled people, and at all times take a pan-disability approach to our work. We are prepared to balance the needs of people with different impairments. In this way, they complement the input of specific disability related organisations. We will continue to develop our expertise in this field. We will take steps to ensure that we represent a wide range of views of disabled people. We will at all times take a pan-disability approach to our work. We will do all we can to develop advice which , while it might not fully satisfy the aspirations of all disabled people all of the time, balances them in a fair and pragmatic way. In this way, we will complement the input of specific disability related organisations. We will work with other organisations as far as we can, to help ensure that our views truly represent a full range of disabled people. However, our role will be different from that of organisations that lobby for change in overtly political arenas. We will be most active in policy formulation before rather than after the government of the day has decided on a way forward, such as putting a bill before Parliament. Our key legal role will be advising the Secretary of State and much of this work will be responding to bodies which the law says must consult us. Often our advice will take the form of written responses to consultations. However, the Department for Transport, its agencies and Transport for London, among others, from time to time will engage us in earlier stages of their thinking. We plan to further raise the profile and extent of our proactive role as a body that is consulted in advance of formal consultation by government departments and agencies. We will explore a range of options. The methods we will use will include widening and deepening our contacts with civil servants, consultants and advisors, especially in the context of the Disability Equality Duty. They also include seeking Ministerial agreement to the principle that our logo or a statement of our involvement could be a required DfT mark of credibility for all consultations in relevant policy areas. In addition, we plan to carry our further research closely linked to the government's own research strategy. Increasingly European legislation will have an impact on the UK legal framework of rights and responsibilities that affect disabled people's use of transport. It is outside our remit to influence European legislation directly. However, we will advise the Secretary of State on legislative proposals that develop in Europe, and which he may be asked to comment on. We may also comment on transposing legislation into UK law. From time to time, we may respond directly to European Union proposals when we are invited to do so. We will know how effective we have been by analysing the difference that our advice has made to government policy, and through regular reviews of our performance carried out on behalf of the department. Objective 2: We will provide guidance and advice to public and private sector organisations that provide, plan for, manage and regulate transport facilities, information, infrastructure, networks and services on how best to meet the varying needs for public and private transport of all disabled people, taking account of gender, race, faith, sexuality, age and other relevant factors. This will be our second priority. Transport operators, statutory and voluntary regulators and local planning and transport authorities will remain responsible for developing their practices, procedures, guidance and effective ways of working to bring about transport services that are accessible to disabled people. They will also need to decide on the effectiveness and efficiency of the measures that they do and do not carry out, and to offer a consistent, clear and seamless service. The Disability Rights Commission and its successor the Commission for Equality and Human Rights will have the statutory role of guidance and enforcement of disability equality duties on public bodies in relation to transport, as well as the non discrimination duties of transport providers. We will not be primarily a source of advice for the transport industry or for disabled people. However, to the extent that our resources and our first objective allow, we will support relevant providers, professions, training bodies, academics and the voluntary sector to ensure consistent and appropriate progress on the delivery of accessible transport services to disabled people. This will cover work on vehicles, communications and infrastructure design, as well as on factors such as staff training and increasing transport options. We will usually do this by setting out basic principles, rather than advising on specific proposals and options. We hope that the effect of the disability equality duty on public sector bodies will be to ensure that they bodies address their transport responsibilities with renewed vigour and commitment and fully comply with the spirit and the law of the Disability Discrimination Act . We also expect that lifting the exemption from Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act from land based transport will have a similar effect on public sector transport managers and regulators, and the private sector bodies that deliver such services as such as buses, trains and taxis. We will know how effectively we have carried this out by evaluating the use made of the guidance and material they we provide and by how well the other stakeholders work with us to produce and disseminate it. Objective 3: We will work to ensure that the public and private sector organisations which provide, plan for and regulate transport facilities, information, networks and services inform disabled people of the developments that they make in accessible transport. This will be our third priority, because it is also the responsibility of others to make it happen. We will do this to the extent that our first two priorities allow. Transport operators, statutory and voluntary regulators and local planning and transport authorities will remain responsible for communicating appropriately, accessibly and in a timely fashion to disabled people on the services that they provide, and on the availability of an accessible and robust grievance procedure. We will from time to time encourage, promote and support this activity, by endorsing initiatives that we have been involved in (in line with our endorsement policy), through our Door to Door website (www.dptac.gov.uk/door-to-door/index.htm), through research and in our responses to consultations by others. We will know how effectively we have carried this out by the extent to which disable people use transport services, and by the type and number of queries received by us and other bodies from disabled people wishing to travel. 17. We will base our advice on four underlying principles, which are that:
18. While our advice will be grounded on these principles, it will also be tested against evidence-based research and consultations by others, and by us where this is appropriate. We have set out this process more fully in the Operating Statement below. 19. We know that some improvements can be achieved fairly easily and quickly. Other changes need time to take effect because of the need for adjustments in laws and regulations or because of the scale of investment that is required. 20. We therefore believe that the government and transport operators should measure and monitor accessibility for disabled people to ensure appropriate progress is being made. We will champion quantifiable improvements in the mobility of disabled people and in the accessibility of transport services, measured by positive changes to the quality of their lives and, where appropriate, factored into central and local government performance and funding indicators. Conclusion21. In this strategy we have set out a framework under which we will establish detailed annual work programmes throughout the strategy period that are consistent with our resources and show how we are moving towards meeting our aim. 22. This strategy will make a significant contribution towards our aim of a transport system that is accessible to all by 2020. 23. In delivering this strategy, we will focus on achieving the outcomes identified under each priority area, and we will use the range of working methods set up in the Operating Statement. It will be essential for us to make full use of our members' experience and knowledge, and cultivate constructive relationships with other stakeholders. Annex A - Operating StatementIntroduction1. Ministers established us, the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) by the Transport Act 1985, as an independent statutory body advising the Government on the transport and mobility needs of disabled people. 2. We will have a Chair, 20 volunteer Members, and a small secretariat of officials based in London, together with a budget from the Department for Transport. We will be realistic about what we can achieve in our role as an advisory body, and the speed with which we can do it. However, we will not underestimate the influence of timely, credible advice. Levels of work3. We will operate on a number of levels:
4. Our broad membership and our practical knowledge and expertise will enable us to operate at all of these levels. We will use a variety of means, including advice to Ministers and officials in the Department for Transport, guidance to industry, responding to consultations, producing publications and websites, and undertaking research. Advice to Ministers and officials5. We will offer our advice to Ministers and officials during meetings, in letters and reports, through participation in research and other steering and drafting groups, and other aspects of our day-to-day work. We will make full use of our location in the headquarters building of the Department for Transport to influence Ministers, officials and advisors. We plan to raise the proportion of pre-consultation work that we will undertake, to ensure that the content of our consultation responses takes as good account of disabled people's needs as it can before the consultation process itself begins. This will save time and effort by disability groups and ensure that the policies being consulted on will be fit for purpose. Responding to consultations6. We will respond to consultations carried out by the Department for Transport and its agencies, Transport for London, European Union bodies, and other statutory transport bodies in England and Wales. However, resource limitations mean we will need to be selective in deciding which consultations to respond to in accordance with our overall priorities. We will respond to investigations by Parliamentary Select Committees where they are consistent with our aim and objectives. We will also respond to consultations by the Scottish Executive and Welsh Assembly Government where they have implications for the rest of the Great Britain, and where there is no other suitable body to advise on the transport needs of disabled people. 7. We will not generally respond to regional or local consultations. We reserve the right to respond by producing general guidance on issues that have implications in specific geographical areas, such as rail utilisation strategies, multi-modal road schemes and road user charging pilot schemes, or by bringing our national guidance to the attention of local consulters. The Mayor for London will be required to consult us, and we will respond where important issues of principle are raised, and to the extent that resource constraints and other priorities allow. 8. From time to time we will respond to European legislative proposals to the extent that our resources allow. We will do this where we have relevant expertise, where the implications for the UK are particularly important (for example where there is existing UK legislation) and where we can complement the work of bodies such as the European Disability Forum. Producing publications9. We will continue to produce and update our own guidance. This may be published under our own name, or badged by others, depending on the purpose of the guidance. We will publish and review our statements of policy where appropriate. Undertaking research10. We will commission our own research where this is necessary to fill knowledge gaps and provide evidence that helps us to develop our policies. We will involve others in developing our research. Our research will always be published free of charge. Working with others11. We will work with other organisations in a number of ways when this helps us to achieve our objectives and within the constraints of our resources. We may hold consultation events to engage others in our work if we consider this to be necessary and appropriate. We will involve others in our research, and in developing our strategy and work programme, and we will freely share knowledge and expertise. We will make joint presentations to Parliamentary Select Committees with other bodies where this adds impact to our advice. We will also look to others to be proactive in working with us. 12. We will support others who are carrying out work that is outside our remit, but which supports it. This could include working with those who: fund and support work for disabled people; provide disability awareness training, and address the complaints of disabled people. These are all crucial to inclusive transport. However we will not undertake this work ourselves. Ways of working13. One of our key strengths is our members' experience and knowledge; another is our secretariat's communication and organisational skills. We will combine these to provide timely and credible advice. 14. To be effective we will at times have to lead the debate and influence not only Government but also other stakeholders and the climate in which policy and investment decisions which affect disabled people are made. Above all, we need to offer practical solutions, not just analysis or idealism. 15. In order to ensure that our advice is not marginalised or overlooked, we will base our recommendations on a supporting analysis that is rigorous and robust. Our advice will be based on research evidence where that exists and, to the extent that resources allow, we will commission research where it is not, and point out its absence to others. Realistic aspirations16. We will keep in mind the constraints of time and finance and of the need for fresh thinking to develop and for new procedures to be put in place before action is possible. We will also be mindful of the lead time for major projects such as the 2012 Olympics and the design of vehicles, planes and vessels. Our advice will take account of this, but it will not stop us from seeking early progress. Working Group structure17. We will maintain working groups in focal areas of interest, and the Chair will appoint Working Group Chairs and Members to these groups. These will include the 2012 London Olympics. We will also adopt short life single purpose teams and other structures where these are appropriate. 18. We will work in partnership with the Government and its agencies, which we will seek to influence by advising on effective solutions to access problems. Working with Government19. Our main liaison will be with the Department for Transport and its equivalents (principally the National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Department for Regional Development). We will have a crucial role in educating and influencing these Departments to address accessibility issues. 20. However, we will only be able to fully satisfy our remit to the extent that we act, and are seen to act, independently of government. This will both ensure our standing within the transport communities and our credibility among disabled people. 21. We will make appropriate connections between our advice on transport for disabled people and other relevant government priorities and strategies inside and outside transport. These could include the Eddington Report, road pricing, the built environment, health, the economy and sustainable development. However we will focus on the key transport priority in our remit. Working with the transport sector22. We will involve representatives of the transport sector in our work through our working groups and research steering committees. In addition to more formal means of interrogation and consultation. However the extent to which professional transport expertise, as opposed to the skills, understanding and experience of disabled people are concerned, are reflected in our membership, are a matter for the Secretary of State for Transport. Working with disabled people23. We will also engage with representative groups of disabled people. This will ensure that our messages complement and reinforce those of other bodies as far as possible, and that our representations have regard to the whole range of views of disabled people. 24. We will use our annual reports, website and other methods to ensure that we makes our work accessible to individual disabled people, and will provide them with avenues of communication to influence it. However we will be realistic as to the level of interest and involvement that we can expect individual disabled people to have in our work, given the strategic and long term nature of most of it. Who we will work with25. We work with a wide range of stakeholders, who often change and change their names. It would not therefore be practical to name them all in a document such as this; but they include:
This list is not intended to be comprehensive but demonstrates the range of stakeholders we envisage influencing if we are to achieve our aim. Bodies not included in this list should not assume that we are not interested in working with them, or that they are any less important than those we have named as examples. 26. However, we will have limited human, intellectual, and financial resources. We therefore need to establish priorities and take care that we do not spread ourselves too thinly. This strategy outlines how we will deliver our objectives by identifying priorities for the 2005-07 period. Work Programme27. We will adopt working methods and practices that focus on specific tasks to achieve our objectives and strategic priorities. 28. Ahead of each financial year, we will agree a work programme identifying the outcomes we wish to achieve in the following year. These will be the milestones that show progress towards our strategic aims. 29. Tasks and outcomes under the other strategic priorities will depend on wider Government policy, other developments and our emerging priorities. We will use our capability for forward planning to ensure that we undertake appropriate tasks. We will seek outcomes that lead to real improvements in accessibility for disabled people over the short and long term.
1: Department for Work and Pensions press notice 9 February 2006 - "Updated estimate of the numbers of disabled people including people with limiting longstanding illnesses, and their associated spending power", at www.dwp.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2006/feb/drc-015-090206.asp. |
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