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The recent Comprehensive Spending Review set the government's priorities for the next three years. However, the ODI is committed to reporting progress towards the 2025 vision of equality for disabled people.
To do this, the ODI has to work out how the impact of the changes being made on the lives of disabled people can be measured. It is essential to monitor whether progress is being made in those areas which are most important to disabled people themselves. This work will also help to inform the development of strategies to realise the 2025 vision.
The ODI consultation, 'Equality for Disabled People: how will we know we are making progress?', set out to involve disabled people in a debate about what equality for disabled people means and how progress towards our goal of equality should be measured. The consultation ran between February and May 2007.
The consultation asked:
A summary of responses to the consultation is set out in Disability Equality: how will we know we are making a difference?
This initial set of measures, summarised in the tables below, cover areas suggested in consultation responses where:
Annex two of this report provides supporting information on these measures as well as baseline information against which progress to 2025 will be measured.
Future ODI annual reports will track progress against these measures. This will enable everyone to see clearly whether real progress is being made on the issues which matter most to disabled people.
"While the benefits of employment are important in their own right, educational attainment is likely to significantly improve an individual's life chances, both in terms of earning potential and inclusion in society."
"Discrimination in the workplace remains common and can take many forms, and can often manifest itself as a denial of opportunity or a feeling of ostracism on the part of the disabled person. Monitoring discrimination is a key strategy in combating inequality."
"[Equality] means being able to access all aspects of life that non-disabled people can access without being penalised by extra costs or having to jump through extra hoops.
"For example, full access to public transport .to have access to shops and the products displayed in shops, stalls and showrooms . to be able to go and play and watch sport with everyone else."
They do not cover all areas that disabled people have told us are important to measure. One reason for this is a lack of information available to measure many of the things that disabled people have told us are important.
The ODI is working with partners across government to fill these gaps. For example, the Office for National Statistics Omnibus Survey will include a set of questions around the extent to which people have choice and control over the support they need to go about their daily lives. These questions are currently being tested and it is expected that data on this can be collected and reported in 2008.
More generally, the ODI has been working with people across government who currently collect information to help them include disability data in their collections.
For example, following discussion with the ODI, the government's citizenship survey (which is sponsored by Communities and Local Government) has been enhanced to allow for questions to be analysed by disability and health status. This will enable the participation of disabled people when compared with other citizens to be measured.
The Department for Transport's National Travel Survey will also include information on disability (rather than only mobility difficulties) from 2007. The longitudinal disability survey of Great Britain, highlighted in the previous chapter, will also provide a great deal of new information for measuring progress towards disability equality.
The Equalities Review, published in February 2007, called for action to address the collection of equalities data. In response to this, the Office for National Statistics has led a cross-government review to make recommendations for improvements to equalities data.
Further information will also become available through Government's new performance management frameworks. The Department of Health intends to publish measures of outcomes across the range of health and adult social care services that seeks to encourage performance improvement. It allows Government to set out the strategic priorities, whilst giving local bodies flexibility to focus on local priorities that patients and users have said are important, and how these are implemented. A high-level Equality Monitoring Group has also been set up to look at ways to improve data to promote equality.
With more information available, the ODI will be able to report on progress in more of the areas that disabled people have said are important. However, information may still not be available on everything mentioned in responses to the ODI consultation. There are some areas in which an indicator cannot be provided because there is no clear consensus over what would represent progress towards equality.
We would welcome your feedback on the measures we have set out in this chapter and in the supporting annex.
The ODI will continue to involve disabled people of all ages, as well as other stakeholders in this work. This will enable the measures of equality to be adapted over time to ensure that they remain relevant to disabled people and make best use of the information available.
Page last reviewed: 11 August 2008