|
Positive Attitudes and Understanding |
|
Written by Jonathan Fisher, Disability Champion
|
We take disability issues very seriously at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals. Our Disability Action Group meets every two months where the following five key disability strands are represented; audio, visual, mobility, speech and learning disabilities. Each strand has both a Trust staff champion and a patient representative champion.
The group focuses on issues that affect existing and new staff as well as visitors and patients to both of our hospital sites. If you have an issue that you require assistance with or simply an idea that you would like us to look into, then please contact one of the champions who will be happy to help you.
Find out more about how our staff support patients with learning disabilities at the Trust.
In this section, you can find out more about the Trust’s Single Equality Scheme.
|
1. Introduction to Disability Equality
|
|
The 2005 amendment to the Disability Discrimination Act means that from December 2006 all public bodies have a duty to promote disability equality. The legislation expects public bodies to take steps to remove barriers disabled people face when accessing employment or services. This Single Equality Scheme (SES) and action plan set out how Ashford and St Peters Hospitals NHS Trust intends to fulfil its duty to promote disability equality.
The strategic aim of our SES is to create a culture based on accurate knowledge and positive attitudes to increase understanding, and to address the barriers, which affect the experiences of disabled people.
Fundamental to the development of the scheme will be the involvement of disabled groups from within the local community together with patients, carers and staff.
In the development of the scheme account has been taken of the Social Model of Disability and in particular that Disability Awareness in Action, an international disability and human rights group, provides a definition of disability which is ‘the social consequences of having an impairment’.
The Statutory Code of Practice 2005 suggests that the Social Model of Disability provides a basis for the successful implementation of the duty to promote disability equality as follows:
“At present disabled people do not have the same opportunities or choices as non-disabled people. Nor do they enjoy equal respect or full inclusion in society on an equal basis. The poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion experienced by many disabled people is not the inevitable result of their impairments or medical conditions, but rather stems from attitudinal and environmental barriers. “ The Duty to Promote Disability Equality, Statutory Code of Practice, DRC 2005
The principles of involvement and the identification of attitudinal and environmental barriers and their resolution should therefore underpin our approach to promoting disability equality.
|
|
|
|
2. Our Values and Principles
|
|
The Trust provides acute hospital services to a large and diverse population, with a catchment of around 450,000 stretching from West Hounslow to Woking across the Boroughs of Hounslow, Spelthorne, Elmbridge, Runnymede and Woking. Although West Surrey is a relatively affluent part of the country there are, nonetheless, pockets of deprivation with higher health and social needs within the Trust’s catchment area. The catchment population also has a higher proportion of older people with increased health needs, longer average stays in hospital and a greater need for social and community care.
The Trust carried out extensive consultation internally to identify shared core values, important both to the organisation and its staff. These are:
· putting patients at the heart of what we do and how we do it
· being open and honest
· promoting team work
· valuing, supporting and retaining staff
· recognising both individual and team contributions
· supporting staff development
· communicating effectively
|
|
|
Last Updated on Thursday, 21 June 2012 14:11 |
Disability