Disabled Persons (Independent Living) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Ashley of Stoke, on introducing this Bill. As many have said, he has a long and distinguished record of fighting for the rights of disabled people. On this side of the House, we support the main principles behind the legislation: first, that disabled persons are the best judges of their own requirements; secondly, that disabled people should be able to exercise choice, freedom and control; thirdly, that disabled children should be able to express their views freely in relation to all matters affecting them; fourthly, that independent living support should be arranged so that no disabled person is reliant on support from a child or young person which may impair their educational opportunities; and fifthly, that disabled children should be supported to express their views freely in relation to acts done or decisions made under the provisions in the Bill. The Conservative Party welcomes the opportunity that the Bill affords to discuss some very important issues and acknowledges the case for giving disabled people the right to access and develop services that would enable them to live as independently as possible. The party’s disability agenda has seven key issues. The first is to help people with disabilities to lead independent lives so that they can be helped to exercise greater control over the care that they receive. The second is to recognise and support the role of carers. The third is tackling benefit dependency. The links between disability and poverty need to be fully understood. People with disabilities can benefit from work as much as non-disabled people and will be disadvantaged in the same way if they are unable to break out of the dependency trap. The fourth issue is benefit reform, which should be based on clear principles of accessibility, simplicity, fairness, avoiding means testing wherever possible, removing disincentives to work, and sufficient flexibility to be able to make practical distinctions between those able to work and those unable to do so. The fifth point is to safeguard special schools. Provision for special educational needs requires reform. Statementing—a word I do not like but which is here to stay—has become confrontational and bureaucratic. Special schools have been closed and parental choice has been reduced. Until those issues are addressed satisfactorily, the Government should not force local authorities to close special schools against the wishes of local people. The sixth point is to ensure equality of access to healthcare. That is critical to people with disabilities. The NHS must ensure that it attaches equal value to treating patients with and without disabilities. The seventh point is dealing with the stigma of mental health, which has already been mentioned. We believe that there is a need to recognise the particular problems of those with mental illness on benefits and the challenges that they face when seeking work. We are committed to introducing individual budgets so that people can take care of their own care needs. They will allow people to commission health and social care services jointly for themselves. Under such a system people would be granted full funding for their health needs and then be means-tested for their social care entitlement. Those budgets will especially help the millions of people with long-term conditions, who often feel that care is "done unto them", despite the fact that they often know much more about their condition than the clinicians. David Cameron has had firsthand experience of disability and knows all about the subject. He wants people with disabilities to have the same opportunities as everyone else. As many noble Lords have said, there is uneven provision of services for disabled people across the country. How do the Government intend to deal with that? There seems to be no system in place to cover a disabled person who moves to a different part of the country. They often have to start from scratch and renegotiate a new care package from a variety of different sources. There is a sense of déjà vu about this Bill because, 16 years ago, I introduced the precursor to this Bill, the Disability Persons (Services) (No. 2) Bill. I found Prime Minister Thatcher very supportive. She was always very concerned about respite care, emphasising what a great contribution carers made and how we should do much more to support them. Noble Lords may not be aware that it was the then Mrs Thatcher who emphasised the importance of disabled people by splitting the old Department of Health and Social Security into its two present component parts. As disabled people do not like being called "the disabled", she changed the Minister’s title from "Minister for the Disabled" to "Minister for Disabled People". When I suggested that, she immediately said, "They will want to change all the notepaper", so it was agreed that they would have to use up the existing supply before printing new notepaper. I have always been immensely impressed by how much so many disabled people contribute to society. They enrich it and they are an inspiration to us all. A severely disabled girl, who had liver disease, rickets and renal failure, could not find a job when she left school, so we created a secretarial job for her in my department at Guy’s Hospital. She soon proved to be one of the best secretaries we ever had. She never moaned; she never complained. She had to be dialysed three times a week, and she insisted on being dialysed at night so that she did not need to take any time off work. The effect on the rest of the department was very impressive indeed, because suddenly no one else took any time off work. How could they? Then, unfortunately, she started to go downhill. Sir Roy Calne in Cambridge gave her a kidney and liver transplant, which was an enormous success. She took on a new lease of life. She became ordained, and when she got up to preach, everyone listened to what Emma had to say; she knew what she was talking about. A few years later, she got married. What an amazing transformation. We have friends who adopted a Vietnamese boy of 10, who was born without eyes and thrown, literally, on to the rubbish dump soon after birth. He was rescued and taken to an orphanage, but was neglected there for many years. After he was adopted, he was surrounded by love and attention, and within two years this almost uncontrollable boy had improved so much that he could go skiing. There are many examples in this House of amazing cheerful triumphs over adversity: the noble Baronesses, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, Lady Wilkins, Lady Masham of Ilton and Lady Thomas of Winchester. What an inspiration they are to us. So many disabled people inspire us, too. If altruism is not enough to goad us into striving to improve the life of disabled people, perhaps a touch of realism might help. About half of us will be disabled to a greater or lesser extent before we die, so we need to declare an interest in more senses than one.