The Gibraltar Disability Society welcomes the announcement in the Budget Speech by the Chief Minister allowing businesses to claim a deduction equal to the expenditure for works that are carried out to improve inclusion and access up to a maximum of £15,000. Hopefully this will encourage businesses to make the right changes to their properties that will facilitate access for people with disabilities.
The confirmation of the annual increase in the Disability Benefit and the Disabled Individuals Tax Allowance by the rate of inflation is also welcomed.
The Disability Society also tentatively welcomes the announcement of the review to be undertaken regarding Supported Employment schemes with a view to opening these up and utilising such schemes to provide support and opportunities to those that would otherwise struggle in the competitive employment market. With the complete failure of the Supported Employment Company Ltd, something the Society has been very vocal about, our wariness is only natural. The fact that the ministry of employment ignored the offer from the Society to give input and advice when the SECL was first started speaks for itself. Our committee member Mrs Nicole Byrne recently attended the 13th European Union of Supported Employment Conference in Amsterdam. At the AGM of the EUSE Gibraltar was presented as its 21st member country. The Disability Society would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Nicole Byrne who was welcomed as a representative board member of the EUSE which is a Non-Governmental Organisation established in 1993. With regard to the Governments upcoming review on Supported Employment the Society’s offer of advice and input remains on the table.
Nicole and Debbie attended Playtech Charity Info Day. The event was organized by Playtech for their staff to learn about local charities. Playtech staff use some of their spare time and skills to fundraise during the year to support local charities. Thank you to Shimon Akad and Georgina Morello for inviting the Society to take part and for organising such a unique event.
This is the Society’s press release in answer to the recent announcement of a Care Agency Learning Disability Review https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/press-releases/learning-disability-review-3792019-4950
Press Release
The Disability Society wishes to congratulate the Care Agency on its multi-disciplinary group review of services available for persons with learning disabilities. The Society has been working with various Government departments for many years trying to bring about improvements. The fact that the Government has now set up a Working Group consisting of Education, Health and Social Care is a welcome step forward. The issue of paediatric health services ceasing at the age of 16 is an issue that has been raised on many occasions by the Disability Society and we welcome the increase in age to 18. We also wish to remind Government that it is not just those with learning disabilities that this problem affects. Children with physical disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy also need continuity of care with regard to therapists and specialists. Growth can affect conditions into the mid-twenties so it is also very important for adult services to be readied to accept those with all kinds of disabilities which unfortunately at present they are not. The Society has also raised on many occasions the necessity of one or two GP’s that specialise in learning disabilities. Continuity of care is vital particularly for those who are non-verbal. The Society is also still waiting for the GHA to introduce a flagging system for those with disabilities something that was raised many months ago.
The Society welcomes the increase in respite for children – another issue we have long been lobbying for. Also welcome is the increase in budget to employ two new social workers – one for children and one for adults. At present every child or adult should have access to a social worker but we do have concerns that an extra one for each service may not be enough.
Although the Society does agree additional resources are welcomed to support adults with learning disabilities or additional needs access meaningful activities, one glaring omission in this whole review is the lack of any mention of supported employment. It must be remembered that there are many children leaving mainstream education who have mild to moderate learning disabilities but who are not eligible to use the services such as St Bernadettes Resource Centre. Finding employment is top of the list for the majority of those and offering “meaningful activities” comes across as slightly patronising.
On the subject of St Bernadettes Resource Centre we are concerned that there is no mention of the necessity to increase the size of the Centre. After all the welcome building of a new St Martin’s school to accommodate the increase in the number of pupils should be an indication of the increase in numbers of those who will be moving up to St Bs. For a number of years the Society has raised the lack of a speech therapist in the Resource Centre and the fact that the only physiotherapist to attend the Centre has been one from paediatric services. So the news that the review highlights the need for certain therapies is welcome indeed.
This central forum for various government departments is an initial step towards what will hopefully be bigger strides for much greater reforms and the Society looks forward to continuing its work with the government to allow all those with disabilities to achieve their full potential.
The Ministry of Equality are holding a disability symposium “Equality means Business”. This seminar is aimed at the private sector and its focus is to promote how inclusion for people with disabilities makes good business sense, the current law on equal opportunities and advise what adaptions can be made to make businesses more inclusive. Unfortunately the seminar does not include the subject of supported employment which is lacking in Gibraltar particularly since the closure of the Government Supported Employment Company Ltd.
At a time when Gibraltar is celebrating Workers Memorial Day and International Workers Day the Disability Society feels it pertinent to raise the issue, once again, of those with disabilities who are unable to find employment in Gibraltar. Supported employment is an issue which has been raised over many years by the Disability Society. When this Government came to power we wrote to invite the Minister of Employment Mr Bossano to meet with the Society so that we could share our knowledge, expertise and contacts, financial and otherwise, not only from the UK but also from Europe. Unfortunately despite repeated attempts to arrange a meeting we received no reply. One was finally organised by the Chief Minister Mr Picardo but by that time the Supported Employment Company had already been set up and our offer of help was declined. Several years down the line SEC is no more, having closed its doors without, in our opinion, accomplishing any significant progress towards meaningful employment for those with disabilities.
The issue of Supported Employment still seems to be misunderstood by many people. It is not a case of putting those with disabilities in “just any old job”. It is an innovative process that enables employment as an achievable goal for people with disabilities just as it is for non-disabled people in our society. The model uses a partnership strategy to enable people with disabilities to achieve sustainable long-term employment and businesses to employ valuable workers. With the involvement of vocational profiling and a job coach the disabled person and the employers receives the support needed to enable that person to be taken on as a fully entitled employee. Real jobs mean that the terms and conditions for people with disabilities should be the same as for everyone else including pay at the contracted going rate, equal employee benefits, safe working conditions and opportunities for career advancement.
The Disability Society is aware that the Government will state that there are some people with disabilities that have been put in positions of employment unfortunately most with no support. Regrettably they are a minority of those at present, and those in the future, who are desperate to fulfil their full potential, have a valued social role and to be treated as an equal member of our society.
For the second year running Debbie and Nicole manned the Disability Society stand at Gibraltar Youth Day 2019. They even found time to have their photo taken at the Youth Day photo booth! Well done to the organisers and all those that attended.
The Disability Society supported the workers from the disability services at their demonstration outside the Dr Giraldi Home. Concerns about major staff reshuffles resulting in a serious lack of continuity of care was expressed by the Society and Unite the Union. Disappointingly Panorama did not attend to report on the situation and GBC News failed to mention the attendance or press release from the Society. Here is the Society’s statement in full:
“Today having met with Unite the Disability Society is concerned that the Care Agency persists in its failure to comprehend the vital importance of continuity of care. Despite meeting regularly with the Care Agency to discuss issues within the disability services no mention has ever been made of the attempt to move staff in such a catastrophic manner. The Society is sure that disability experts, management and staff on the ground have expressed their concerns over the detrimental effect on the wellbeing of service users such a disruption will have. In 2014 the Society took up the issue of rolling contracts of several staff members in the disability service. We worked closely with Fabian Picardo on this issue and an outcome that was beneficial to the most important people, the service user, was achieved. It appears that financial motives and the use of a majority of agency staff on zero hour contracts is how the Care Agency now wishes to run the disability services. This as we all know and have seen before will lead to a regular turnover of staff and could be seen as completely unethical. The Disability Society and its members will not accept the Care Agency’s apparent attempt to railroad staff and service users into a situation that could, and has been proven, to be dangerous and not in the best interests of the most important people – the service users themselves.”
The Society wishes to give a huge thank you to the Integral Yoga Centre who have given us the generous donation of £2,172.50! The money was raised at the premier of a wonderful documentary “Energy for Life: Talia’s Story” – A mother’s love for her special needs child and her search for answers. Pictured is our Chairperson Debbie Borastero accepting the cheque from Nalanie and Michele from the Integral Yoga Centre. We have also attached links to the GBC news report on the documentary and the documentary itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50c1vZdLsgE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJlQrBP0ZJ8
The Society was very proud to be presented with the Mayor’s Community Group Award. Although the award was accepted by members of the present committee it was done so on behalf of all who served as part of the committee over the past 52 years
