Disability Act England

Disability Act England

Disability Act

• The disability in UK is defined under the Equality Act 2010.
• The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.
• The Equality Act 2010 defines disability as having a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. A mental impairment includes mental health conditions (such as bipolar disorder or depression), learning difficulties (such as dyslexia) and learning disabilities (such as autism and Down’s syndrome).
• The Equality Act 2010 protects you from discrimination. It provides legal rights for you in the areas of: employment; education; and dealing with the police; access to goods, services and facilities; and buying and renting land or property.
• The Equality Act 2010 also protects your rights if you have an association with a disabled person, for example a carrer or parent.

Salient Features

Employment:

Employers have a range of legal duties towards their autistic employees

• The Equality act protects you from discrimination by the employer because of a disability.
• Recruitment: An employer who’s recruiting staff may make limited enquiries about your health or disability.
• Redundancy and retirement: You can’t be chosen for redundancy just because you’re disabled. Your employer cannot force you to retire if you become disabled.

Education:

• It’s against the law for a school or other education provider to treat disabled students unfavourably. This includes: direct discrimination; indirect discrimination; discrimination arising from a disability, harassment, victimization.
• Reasonable adjustments: An education provider has a duty to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make sure disabled students are not discriminated against. These changes could include providing extra support and aids (like specialist teachers or equipment).
• Schools are not subject to the reasonable adjustment duty to make alterations to physical features, like adding ramps. They must make the buildings accessible for their disabled pupils as part of their overall planning duties.
• Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND): All publicly funded pre-schools, nurseries, state schools and local authorities must try to identify and help assess children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
• If a child has an education, health and care (EHC) plan or a statement of special educational needs, these must be reviewed annually. From year 9 the child will get a full review to understand what support they will need to prepare them for adulthood.
• Higher education: All universities and higher education colleges should have a person in charge of disability issues that you can talk to about the support they offer. You can also ask local social services for an assessment to help with your day-to-day living needs.

Police:

• If you’re being questioned or interviewed at a police station you have certain rights depending on your impairment.
• Deaf, hearing-impaired or speech difficulties: The police should arrange for an interpreter to be present with you. The police can interview you without an interpreter if a delay would result in harm to people, property or evidence.
• Learning disabilities: The police should only interview someone who has a learning disability when a responsible person (referred to as an ‘appropriate adult’) is present. The appropriate adult should not work for the police and should have experience of people with learning disabilities. The police can interview you without an appropriate adult if a delay would result in harm to people, property or evidence.
• Right to medical treatment: If you’re being kept in a police cell, you have the right to a medical examination by a healthcare worker. A healthcare worker may be a paramedic, nurse or a police surgeon (sometimes referred to as a ‘Forensic Medical Examiner’). If you do not want to be examined by the healthcare worker provided, you could be examined by a general practitioner (GP) that you choose - if they’re available. You may have to pay for this, and this payment will be noted down.

The Autism Act

• The Autism Act 2009 is currently the only disability-specific legislation in England. The Autism Act has brought about some great changes to the way that autistic people access support. Because of the Act, almost every council has a diagnosis pathway for adults and a specific Autism Lead. Additionally, it makes sure that every autistic person has the right to a social care assessment. The Act requires the Government to introduce and keep under review an adult autism strategy.
• In 2019 the Government undertook a comprehensive review of the autism strategy and planned to extend it to include children and young people for the first time. The findings from this and other reports were used to inform a new autism strategy, The national strategy for autistic children, young people and adults: 2021 to 2026.
• The new Strategy sets out the Government’s vision for next five years and focuses on six key themes:
  • Improving understanding and acceptance of autism within society
  • Improving autistic children and young people’s access to education, and supporting positive transitions into adulthood
  • Supporting more autistic people into employment
  • Tackling health and care inequalities for autistic people
  • Building the right support in the community and supporting people in inpatient care
  • Improving support within the criminal and youth justice systems16
• The Strategy also sets out plans for the improvement of data quality and collection, with the aim to decrease reliance on self-assessments and build a cross-government approach to data collection and reporting. A National Executive group will be established to monitor progress and attend bi-annual accountability meetings with the Minister for Children and Families and The Minister of State for Care.

The national strategy for autistic children,

young people and adults: 2021 to 2026 :-

In July 2021, The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Education published the National strategy for autistic children, young people and adults: 2021 to 2026.10 This strategy builds on and replaces the 2014 Think Autism strategy and covers children and young people, as well as adults, for the first time.

The new Strategy sets out the Government’s vision for next five years and focuses on six key themes:

• Improving understanding and acceptance of autism within society
• Improving autistic children and young people’s access to education, and supporting positive transitions into adulthood
• Supporting more autistic people into employment
• Tackling health and care inequalities for autistic people
• Building the right support in the community and supporting people in inpatient care
• Improving support within the criminal and youth justice systems16