1. North West Disability Infrastructure Partnership - Mapping Report Merseyside Disability Federation Charity No:1082671. 2011

2. Research Question How accessible are the services of infrastructure providers to organisations of and for disabled people?

3. NWDIP Aims to improve opportunities for disabled people to influence policy, service provision, and support by ensuring that the full range of Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) disability organisations across the North West are provided with consistently good and accessible support/capacity building services.

4. Context Avoid duplication Personalisation ‘More for Less’

5. Method 1) Literature review 2) Refinement of research objectives to explore what infrastructure organisations have done how NWDIP could help what Personalisation and Centre for Independent Living support on offer 3) NWDIP partners shaped questions 4) Contacts identified through ChangeUp Consortia 5) Follow-up checks 6) Questionnaire rolled-out online

6. Response 92 organisations approached 52 completed the survey Every sub-region contributed

7. Results Urban vs Rural Compared urban and more rural areas because of potential for differences due to population densities and demographics But: No Significant Differences

8. Results Greater Merseyside/Greater Manchester Only significant differences: Three times as many organisations in Greater Merseyside compared to Greater Manchester expressed interest in receiving support around Personalisation (24% vs. 8%) More organisations in Greater Manchester than in Greater Merseyside had activity planned around Personalisation. (50% vs. 33%)

9. Key Indicators 75% of respondents had in place at least one of: Access audit of premises Accessibility check on website Disability Equality Training (DET) Involving disabled people in the design and delivery of services

10. Key Indicators Number of Organisations Measures taken

11. Key Indicators Access Audits most frequent indicator (25 organisations) Every VCS organisation that had undertaken Disability Equality Training (19 organisations) had achieved at least one more indicator 4 organisations only had an Access Audit

12. Conclusions Disability Equality Training is the best first step for organisations that want to become fully accessible Access Audits are a good second step Accessibility of websites is often overlooked

13. Recommendations Widen adoption of DET Increase take-up of Access Audits Stimulate more website accessibility audits

14. Results 48.3% of respondents market themselves at events held by organisations of and for disabled people.

15. Recommendations VCS infrastructure organisations should actively reach out to disability organisations as well as make their services accessible Specialist support in marketing to groups of and for disabled people is required

16. Results Infrastructure priorities for specialist support: Personalisation (23%) Equality Act 2010 (21%) Marketing (21%)

17. Recommendations Specialist support should have strong elements of Personalisation, Equality Act 2010 and Marketing Additional support wanted includes: ‘Disability Equality Training’, ‘advice on policies’ and ‘consultations with groups’

18. Results Personalisation 58% already undertaken activity to support groups 38% of organisations knew of their key ULOs 2 organisations embedding Personalisation in their business plans 1 tendering for research into what support the sector needs to engage with this key agenda.

19. Recommendations Specific measures to help VCS infrastructure organisations support ULOs in each area, involving training, networking and provision of information. Tie in to existing activity

20. Comments “However hard we try there will always be some barriers. “Our organisation is based on equality and therefore we do not ask people if they have a disability as we have found many of our volunteers do not wish to disclose this information especially if it is a hidden disability. If they volunteer the information - that is recorded.”

21. Key Messages There is significant potential for VCS infrastructure organisations to be more accessible. NWDIP is here to enable that to happen From the 4 th of July 2011 tailored DET is being offered FREE to infrastructure organisations like yours.

22. Thank you Any questions? Merseyside Disability Federation. 0151 236 6674 info@merseydisability.org.uk Charity No: 1082671