Hft responds to the EHRC’s disability rights report

LEARNING disability charity Hft has responded to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) new report on disability rights which found that there has been little to no progress in improving the lives of disabled people over the past few years.

Hft’s CEO, Kirsty Matthews, said:

“The report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) confirms what we already know – not enough is being done to support learning disabled people across the UK to live the life they choose. Whether through a lack of funding or the disappointing National Disability Strategy, learning disabled people are being repeatedly failed by the Government.

“One of the many points raised by the EHRC is that ‘a lack of social care provision has led to acute violations of disabled people’s human rights’. Our Sector Pulse Check research, released in partnership with Care England, corroborates these findings; 42% of social care providers have no choice but to hand back contracts due to funding pressures whilst, last year, one-third of all providers surveyed considered closing altogether.

“Providers want to ensure that all learning disabled adults have the right support to live their best life but chronic underfunding, estimated to be around £7 billion each year, has left a catastrophic amount of needs unmet.

“In order to ensure learning disabled adults can continue to access support to live the life they want, and to prevent costly consequences of underfunding, the Government should find a means to sustainably invest in social care in the long term and plug the funding gap. This would go some way to addressing just one of the key findings raised in the report but there is still so, so much work to do.

“How many times do disabled people, charities and other organisations like the EHRC have to raise the alarm before something meaningful is done?”