The document is ecdp's monthly bulletin for April 2012. It includes [1] an invitation for members to share their views on how health and social care captures users' experiences, [2] information on a partnership with Skills for Care to provide employer resources, and [3] local news items about payment cards for personal budgets and changes to disabled parking in Colchester.

1. April 2012
This update includes
Monthly Bulletin 35 articles on the following
topics:
Dear Members,
Welcome to the April edition of the ecdp monthly
email bulletin. ecdp news
This month we are working to understand how 1. Health and social care:
the views of health and social care users can effectively capturing your
best be captured so their experiences and views views and experiences
can be considered when decisions which will 2. Working with Skills for
affect them are made. Care to give you the
information you need as
We are hoping many of our members will share an employer
their thoughts and contribute their voice to this 3. ecdp’s CEO talks about
important work. You can do this in two ways: Remploy on BBC Essex
4. Fulfilling Potential:
The first is to complete ecdp’s short online emerging themes
survey, which takes just five minutes to complete: published by the
ecdp survey – How to capture your views on Government
health and social care
The second is to attend one of four focus groups
being held across the county. The first group is
this Thursday 5 April, from 6pm-8.30pm at ecdp’s
local news
offices in Chelmsford.
5. ECC introduces Payment
All attendees will be paid £20 for their time and Card for Personal Budget
we will cover reasonable travel expenses. A Users
buffet will also be provided. 6. Leap Against Stigma
conference
Full information and a list of the other meeting 7. Fair Access to Colchester
dates are available in the article on page three. If needs you!
8. Ability Action Southend:
you can’t make it to a meeting, there are other
April 2012: Monthly Update 35 Page 1 of 19

2. Monthly Bulletin 35 – April 2012
ways to share your views, too:
‘Positive about Disability
 You can tweet us by sending us a message Day’
to @ecdp on Twitter
 You can share your views with us on
Facebook here:
www.facebook.com/essexcdp national news
 You can share your views on our website
Forum: www.ecdp.org.uk/forum 9. Disability Rights UK –
 You are also welcome to share your views Holiday guide for disabled
with us via email (send your thoughts to people
rwatts@ecdp.org.uk) or on the phone (call 10.Survey for Personal
01245 392 324). Assistants
11.Travel Support Card for
If you’d like to ensure you receive information people with hidden
about the research work we’re doing, or if you’d impairments
like to make sure your voice is heard, please
contact: Rich Watts on rwatts@ecdp.co.uk or
01245 392 324.
We very much hope you will consider taking part
in this work, and hope to hear from you soon.
Best wishes,
Rich Watts
Director of Policy & Development
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
Page 2 of 19

3. ecdp news
Health and social care: effectively
capturing your views and experiences
ecdp has been asked by Essex County Council to
find out how to best capture your views and
experiences of the health and social care systems.
This is to ensure that your views and experiences are
reflected in the way decisions about health and social
care in Essex are taken.
We hope you will take this opportunity to have your
voice heard and share your lived experiences in this
work. We’re very keen to ensure this work covers as
many different groups of people across Essex.
Over the next six weeks, we will be running meetings across different
locations in Essex. This will be your chance to:
 Let us know why you might want to share your experiences to make
the health and social care systems better
 Share with us the best ways for them to do this – such as meetings,
surveys, online, social media, drop-in sessions, focus groups etc.
6pm-8.30pm, Thursday 5 April, ecdp (Chelmsford)
11am-2pm, Tuesday 10 April, Tendring CVS (Tendring)
11am-2pm, Tuesday 17 April, Firstsite (Colchester)
11am-2pm, Thursday 3 May, ecdp (Chelmsford)
If you can attend one of these meetings, we will be able to pay you for
your time (£20) and travel.
If you would like to attend, please contact Faye on
fsavage@ecdp.co.uk or 01245 214 023.
There are lots of other ways to get involved, including through the
online survey. For more information, please see the ecdp website:
ecdp – Health and social care: effectively capturing your views
and experiences.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35 Page 3 of 19

4. ecdp news
Working with Skills for Care to give you
the information you need as an
employer
ecdp is delighted to be working with Skills for Care to support disabled
people in Essex and beyond who employ their own staff to access
Skills for Care’s useful and time-saving resources.
Skills for Care wants to ensure that the people who work for disabled
and older people in providing care – often paid for by Direct Payments
or Personal Budgets – have the right skills and qualifications to do so.
We know Direct Payments can be a very beneficial way of arranging
your social care. But we also understand that it can sometimes take
time to get the right information to feel fully in control.
This is why ecdp is working with Skills for Care to ensure their useful
information is made as available as possible to you. We also want to
make sure you have the opportunity to let Skills for Care know how
useful their resources are: what is good, what can be improved, and
what new things you might like to see.
How we will do this
Over the next four months, we will be telling you much more about the
resources that Skills for Care have. We will be using our website
(www.ecdp.org.uk), our monthly bulletin, our quarterly magazine and
our social media (Twitter, Audioboo and YouTube) to keep you up-to-
date on the support available and how you can access it.
We will also be holding three dedicated focus groups in April, May and
June. This means you will have the chance in person to find out from
Skills for Care about the work they do, and let them know how it could
be improved.
We are also keen to let you know about a very useful source of
information that Skills for Care has developed: it is called a “Social
Care Data Set”, and it can tell you the types of skills you can expect to
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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5. ecdp news
find for carers in Essex, what types of qualifications they might have,
and all sorts of other useful information you might need to help you
make a good decision when looking for your next carer / Personal
Assistant.
Keep in touch
If you would like to ensure you receive information about the work we
are doing with Skills for Care, or if you would like to take part in the
planned focus groups, please contact: Rich Watts on
rwatts@ecdp.co.uk or 01245 392 324. We will be able to pay people
for their time and travel in being involved in this work.
You can find out more about Skills for Care and what they do here:
Skills for Care.
About ecdp’s payroll support service – ecdp pass
Our payroll service – ecdp pass – supports disabled and older people
with employing Personal Assistants (PAs). ecdp pass provides a vital
support system for people who want the independence that a Direct
Payment / Personal Budget / cash payment can give them, but for
whatever reason feel they need some support to do so.
We have a personalised payroll service to meet user’s individual
needs through offering as much of a tailored service as possible. This
includes payment facilities, quarterly returns to Councils, staff
recruitment and checking, and PA training. To find out more about
ecdp pass please visit the ecdp website or contact them on 01245
392 320.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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6. ecdp news
ecdp’s CEO talks about Remploy on
BBC Essex
Last month, ecdp’s CEO – Mike Adams – was invited onto
BBC Essex to talk about the recent announcement
concerning the proposed closure of Remploy. You can listen
to the interview on BBC Essex here: Mike Adams on BBC
Essex
There were a number of key points that Mike made:
 We have sought to capture the views and lived experiences of
disabled people locally to inform our views
 Older disabled people, whose experiences were in the main of
segregated institutions, sometimes feel the dedicated workplaces
approach was the best to take. But the next generations don’t find it
acceptable that they should be treated differently or separately, and
want the same access to opportunities – in employment, in education,
in volunteering – as non-disabled people
 We are reassured by the commitment that all of the money saved by
changes to Remploy is being reinvested into Access to Work – an
employment support programme we know works
 This will ensure more disabled people get employment support: the
cost to government for someone to work at Remploy is £25,000, whilst
the cost of Access to Work is £2,900 per individual. Furthermore, this
is good not only for the individual but good for the economy: for every
£1 invested in Access to Work, it returns £1.48 in tax and National
Insurance contributions
 We understand there is a significant package of support in place for
people leaving Remploy. This will be for a transition period of 18
months and this support will be additional to existing work support
programmes. Furthermore, people will be able to take this resource
directly through a Direct Payment, rather than having to use pre-
determined support, so it will be personalised
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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7. ecdp news
 We hope user-led organisations – like ecdp – up and down the
country will play their part in this transition
 We must remember that the recommendation about Remploy is just
one part of a significant number of other reforms made by the Sayce
review. We strongly encourage people to look at the whole report in
the round, and not focus simply on Remploy
 We feel it is important not to be making political points about the
changes to Remploy. Governments have been looking closely at
Remploy for a number of years – for example, the most recent round
of Remploy closures was in 2008 when 28 factories closed.
ecdp responded in full to the Sayce review in October 2011. You can
read our response here: ecdp response to the Sayce review
Mike Adams was a member of the scrutiny group of the Sayce review,
which meant he could share ecdp members’ views in the development
of the review as well as afterwards.
ecdp membership
Did you know that ecdp membership is free to disabled people
who live or work in Essex?
As well as this monthly update, you will receive a quarterly
magazine and the opportunity to provide your lived experience
to help shape our work.
For more information, please contact using the details at the
start of this bulletin.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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8. ecdp news
Fulfilling Potential: emerging themes
published by the Government
At the beginning of March, ecdp submitted a response to the
Government’s engagement exercise to inform the new
disability strategy.
ecdp worked with disabled and older people from across
Essex to produce the response, which you can read on our
website in a number of formats: Fulfilling Potential - ecdp
response
The picture to the right is a ‘graphick’, drawn during a focus
group of young disabled people and people with learning
disabilities.
The Fulfilling Potential exercise was covered by BBC radio 4, including
interviews with ecdp members.
You can watch a short video of our Chief Executive, Mike Adams,
reflecting on Fulfilling Potential and the contribution of ecdp members
on our website.
Over 500 responses were received by the Government. Emerging
themes have been published by the Office for Disability Issues (ODI)
and were discussed at an event attended by disabled people, disabled
people’s organisations, and officials from across Government on
Thursday 22 March.
You can read some emerging themes from the responses on the ODI
website.
If you would like any further information on Fulfilling Potential or you
would like to share your thoughts, please contact Faye by email
fsavage@ecdp.co.uk or phone 01245 214 023.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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9. local news
ECC introduce Payment Card for
Personal Budget Users
Essex County Council (ECC) is launching a Payment Card
as a new way for people to receive their Personal Budget.
The aim of the card is to give people greater choice and
control over their support and can be used in a number of
ways to meet the needs agreed in their support plan. This
might include paying a care agency or personal assistant,
paying for leisure activities, support services or transport.
The card is a Visa card with a chip and pin, much like a bank card.
This means the card can be used to make payments using the chip
and pin facility, over the internet and by phone; it can be used for one-
off or regular payments. However, there is no bank account and the
card is pre-loaded with the amount ECC has agreed to pay each
month in your Personal Budget, so you cannot spend any more than
the agreed amount.
A leaflet explaining the Payment Card and how it will work for users, is
available to download as a PDF: Essex County Council - Payment
Cards Leaflet.
To share your thoughts on the payment cards, please contact ecdp’s
Lived Experience Officer by email: fsavage@ecdp.co.uk or phone:
01245 214 023.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35 Page 9 of 19

10. local news
Leap Against Stigma Conference
North Essex Partnership Foundation Trust (NEPFT) is hosting a
conference on Monday 14 May about tackling stigma related to mental
health issues. The conference will include guest speakers from the
Royal College of Psychiatrists.
More information and a booking form are available to download from
the ecdp website: ecdp – Leap Against Stigma: booking form
If you have any questions or require any further information, please
contact Luisa Hart at NEPFT by phone: 01245 546 441 or email:
luisa.hart@nepft.nhs.uk.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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11. local news
Fair Access to Colchester needs you!
Changes are being made to Colchester Town
Centre which will include removing access to the
central blue badge spaces on the High Street and
Head Street between 10am - 6pm, and replacing
them with existing spaces in the car parks
surrounding the town, a great distance away.
The Road Traffic Orders to make these changes
have been published and 30 March is the deadline
to respond to the formal consultation.
Fair Access to Colchester is putting a response together to try and
explain the impact the changes will have on people with
disabilities/mobility issues, older people and carers.
To do this we are undertaking a one-page survey, which you can use
to share your views on the proposed changes
You can access the survey here: Fair Access to Colchester survey
Are you a person with a disability/mobility issue, or a carer?
Fair Access to Colchester is looking for people with different
impairments to undertake a more in-depth interview so we can explain
the impact it will have on your ability to reach the town centre.
People would include:
 People with chronic pain
 People with breathing difficulties
 People with a long-term condition
 People with a visual impairment
 Plus any other group it will impact upon.
If you are interested in taking part, please contact Fair Access to
Colchester: Fair Access to Colchester
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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12. local news
Respond to the consultation
You can also respond to the consultation as individuals. The proposed
Road Traffic Orders can be found here: Engage Essex
You can respond to them here: TRO Comments, East Area Highways
Office, 910 The Crescent, Colchester Business Park, Colchester, CO4
9QQ or email them to TRO-commentseastarea@essex.gov.uk.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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13. local news
Ability Action Southend: ‘Positive about
Disability Day’
The event is between 10am-4pm on Friday 13 April in the Outpatients
Area of Southend General Hospital. The day will include the following:
 Free information, advice and guidance
 Meet local disability activists
 Disability benefits entitlement advice
 Tell us your views on Hospital Services and disability access
 A chance to ask questions
 Light refreshments available
You can find out more about the day via Ability Action Southend’s
Facebook page: Ability Action Southend on Facebook.
Find ecdp online
For up-to-date news on the work we are doing at ecdp,
find us online…
 Our website: www.ecdp.co.uk
 Our Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/ecdpfacebook
 Our Twitter page: http://twitter.com/ecdp
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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14. national news
Disability Rights UK - Holiday guide for
disabled people
Disability Rights UK have published their Holiday Guide for
disabled people looking for a break in the British Isles.
Since Disability Rights UK (formerly Radar) started producing a
holiday guide over 30 years ago, there have been substantial
improvements in the regulations and legislation affecting the
provision of accessible accommodation and the other services
needed by disabled guests. There are many people within the
tourist industry who have a real interest in catering for disabled
guests and this number is growing all the time.
Written by and for disabled people, this is an essential read for you
and the people who support you to help find out more about accessible
and inclusive holiday experiences. Whether it is a day trip out or an
adventure holiday, you can use this guide as a support tool and
resource to help plan your time away.
Disability Rights UK compiled this Guide to help you prepare for a
holiday and find the information you might need to make sure that your
destination and accommodation is suitable. The Guide is divided into
two parts; the first provides general and practical advice and guidance
to help you organise your trip and includes a list of organisations and
resources you may find useful. The second half of the book offers you
an armchair tour around the British Isles, to help you decide where you
might want to go and let you know about some of the local resources
available to you in each region.
Visit the Disability Rights UK website to order a copy or download a
PDF version of the guide, here: Disability Rights UK - Holidays in the
British Isles 2012.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35 Page 14 of 19

15. national news
Survey for Personal Assistants
The size and structure of the adult social care sector and
workforce in England is a report produced by Skills for
Care on an annual basis and aims to provide a
comprehensive overview of the adult social care sector and
workforce.
The information in this report will be of interest to a wide variety of
stakeholders, including Local Authorities, Central Government and
Adult Social Care Employers.
As part of this report Skills for Care require an estimate of the number
of jobs carried out by people in personal assistant roles.
National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC) data is used
for the majority of the report however coverage of people who employ
their own care and support staff (through direct payment or other
means) is still relatively low and therefore cannot be used to accurately
produce these estimates. Therefore, Skills for Care are running a
survey to gain an understanding of how many jobs personal assistants
have.
The questionnaire is designed for personal assistants to complete and
should only take a few minutes. All responses will be completely
anonymous and we will not ask for names or contact details of
respondents.
This information will be used by Skills for Care to estimate the number
of people that have more than one job in the adult social care sector. It
will not be used for any other purposes.
The survey is available here: Personal Assistants - Multiple Job
Survey. The survey should be completed by 5pm on Friday 4 May
2012.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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16. national news
Travel Support Card for people with
hidden impairments
Transport for London (TfL) have launched a travel support
card, designed to make it easier to get help from staff on
buses, the DLR, London Overground and the Tube.
You can show the card to staff when you ask them for help
or if you have a problem while you are travelling. It is for
anybody who has a hidden impairment, but may be
particularly helpful for people with learning difficulties.
There is a blank space inside the card where you can write
down information about your journey and the type of help
you may need.
You can download a printable version of the travel support
card or you can order the card by contacting London Travel
Information on 0843 222 1234.
A short guide to using your Travel Support Card is
available here: How to use your travel support card.
London Transport Accessibility
Transport for London (TfL) has produced a report providing details
on how the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) Accessibility Plan
will be taken forward. Publication of the report follows a four month
period of public consultation in summer/autumn 2011. The report is
available in a number of formats on the TfL website: TfL –
Transport System Accessibility
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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17. national news
Hate crime action plan: Challenge it,
Report it, Stop it
The Home Office has published ‘Challenge it, Report it, Stop it’, the
government’s blueprint to tackle hate crime. It aims to bring together
activity by a wide range of government departments - working with
local agencies, voluntary organisations and our independent advisory
group - to meet three key objectives:
 preventing hate crime happening by challenging the attitudes
and behaviours that foster hatred, and encouraging early
intervention to reduce the risk of incidents escalating
 increasing the reporting of hate crime that occurs by building
victims’ confidence to come forward and seek justice, and
working with partners at national and local level to ensure the
right support is available when they do
 working with the agencies that make up the Criminal Justice
System to improve the operational response to hate crime.
We want a more effective end-to-end process, with agencies
identifying hate crimes early, managing cases jointly and
dealing with offenders robustly
In the Ministerial Foreword of the report, Lynne Featherstone, Minister
for Equality states:
All crime is wrong, but that which is motivated by a particular
characteristic of the victim - whether it’s their race, faith, sexual
orientation, gender identity, perceived disability or anything else -
is particularly corrosive. Tackling hate crime matters, not just
because of the devastating consequences it can have for victims
and their families, but also because it can divide communities.
You can read Lynne Featherstone’s full speech from the launch of
‘Challenge it, report it, stop it’ on the Home Office website: Lynne
Featherstone speech on hate crime.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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18. national news
Our members will be aware of ecdp’s work with members, examining
disability hate crime in Essex. This work found that there were four key
areas to address in order to tackle disability hate crime, forming the
USER model:
 Understanding – there needs to be a greater understanding of
disability hate crime
 Signposting and Support – services which signpost and support
disabled people when they are victims of hate crime should be widely
available and well coordinated
 Education – to ensure wider change for disabled people, we believe
education work should be focused on three particular groups of
stakeholders: disabled people themselves, professionals and wider
society.
 Reporting– we believe stronger processes for reporting will increase
the number of investigated and prosecuted cases.
 ecdp’s welcomes many aspects of the Government’s approach
outlined in the blueprint, broadly reflecting many of the changes ecdp
called for within this model:
We agree that a local approach to tackling hate crime in communities,
based on the lived experience of those within in them, is the right one.
Indeed as Disabled People’s User-Led Organisation (DPULO), ecdp
believe we are well placed to work with our members to understand
and utilise their lived experience to address disability hate crime,
working with key partners including the Police and Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS). It is good to see the report reference the important role
DPULOs have in addressing disability hate crime.
Many of the professionals with responsibility for dealing with hate
crime told ecdp that there was not an adequate understanding of
disability hate crime. The first action in the blueprint aims to increase
understanding of hate crime through analysis of existing data, such as
that collected by the British Crime Survey.
Our members strongly called for an approach which prevents hate
crime by challenging negative attitudes about disabled people through
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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19. national news
education.
During the Fulfilling Potential discussion our members also told us they
hoped to see the Paralympics used to improve attitudes towards
disabled people longer term. This is also recognised in the action plan.
Given the constructive and varied suggestions for improving the lives
of disabled people - including through changing attitudes and
behaviours - our members and many other disabled people across the
country made during the Government’s Fulfilling Potential discussion,
it is good to see that the resulting Disability Strategy and actions to be
taken, will also inform work around disability hate crime.
The report recognises disabled people as one of the groups who are
least likely to report hate crime when it affects them and aims to
improve reporting for all victims through better partnership working
(joining up signposting and support) and building confidence.
April 2012: Monthly Update 35
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