In News

Following the Queen’s Speech, the new Conservative Government has now provided details on how it plans to fulfil the major disability policies that were included in their pre-election manifesto.

The policies covered social care, hospital parking charges, disability benefits, hospital parking charges and a new national disability strategy. The Queen’s Speech did also briefly mention plans for reforming the Mental Health Act during this government’s term. The full briefing document containing details on these policies can be found here.

Further details on the new national disability strategy will be published later this year, and the government said it would be “ambitious” and would support disabled people “in all aspects and phases of their life” including housing, transport and education. There will also be a green paper looking at how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its benefits system “can best help disabled people”.

The briefing document released at the start of the year commits the government to a further reduction in the disability employment gap, following the reduction of 5.6 percentage points over the last six years, although a target has not yet been published, the document does repeat the previous government’s pledge to increase the number of disabled people in work by one million by 2027.

It also confirms the manifesto pledge to double the minimum length of a personal independence payment (PIP) award from nine to 18 months unless the claimant tells DWP their needs have changed. It is hoped that by doing this, the number of repeat assessments for claimants can be reduced. 

When it comes to social care, the government has repeated its pledge to provide an extra £1 billion funding in every year of this parliament, and to consult on a two per cent precept that will allow councils to raise another £500 million for adult social care in 2020-21. However, the document does confirm that there are no plans for long term reform of England’s social care system. It does however lay out plans to seek a cross party consensus on the issue. The document also confirms that the government intends to spend £74 million over three years to provide further capacity in community settings for autistic people and people with learning difficulties who are currently in long-term hospital settings.

Robert Jenrick, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, has announced that the government will continue to pay local authorities the Former ILF Recipient Grant, which was due to end in March. It is thought to continue at the same level as that for 2019-20.

The Queen’s Speech also promised to end hospital car parking charges “for those in greatest need”, including disabled people.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock, has said that from April, all hospital trusts in England would be expected to provide free parking to groups including holders of blue parking badges, and outpatients who have to attend regular appointments to manage long-term conditions.

He said: “Currently, the situation varies from hospital to hospital. Instead, from April, across the country those with the greatest need – such as disabled people, parents staying overnight with sick children in hospital, and NHS staff working nightshifts – will no longer have to pay for parking.”

When it comes to changes to the Mental Health Act, the Government has said that it intends to produce a white paper early in 2020 which will respond to the review of the act which took place in December 2018. The review was criticised for falling “significantly short” of recommending full human rights for people in mental distress.

The government says it needs to modernise the act to ensure that people in England and Wales “have greater control over their treatment and receive the dignity and respect they deserve”.

It promises that those subject to the act “will receive better care and have a much greater say in that care”, while it will “reform the process for detention, improve care and treatment whilst someone is detained and give them better support to challenge detention”. The government also promises to improve the legal treatment of people with learning difficulties and autistic people and make it easier for them to be discharged from hospital.

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