{"id":6685,"date":"2022-03-28T17:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=6685"},"modified":"2023-04-20T09:52:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T08:52:52","slug":"help-us-call-for-disabled-people-to-be-heard-in-covid-19-inq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/help-us-call-for-disabled-people-to-be-heard-in-covid-19-inq\/","title":{"rendered":"Help us call for disabled people to be heard in the Covid-19 Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You can act now to support our campaign for the Government to include disabled people in the Covid-19 Inquiry. Our Campaigns Manager Lizzie explains how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last week marked two years since the first Covid-19 lockdown in the UK. As Campaigns Manager at Sense, I\u2019ve seen how, for many disabled people, this also marks a full two years of having needs and support deprioritised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Government has now announced the next steps on the public inquiry and published the draft Terms of Reference.<\/a> The terms are essentially an outline of the areas the inquiry will investigate and how it will be investigated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can help improve the inquiry and make sure it learns from the experiences of disabled people. This consultation is open until 7 April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you can do to make sure disabled people are heard<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While this part of the inquiry isn\u2019t about gathering evidence and personal experience of the pandemic (that bit comes next year), it\u2019s a really important first step. It could also impact the way the inquiry is run and how accessible this is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fill in the online consultation survey<\/a> and give your views on the Draft Terms of Reference. I\u2019ve outlined the main points to add on key pages \u2013 but please use your own words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you need an accessible version of the survey, you can request this by emailing contact@covid19.public-inquiry.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n

What to say in the survey<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Page 1: Do the inquiry\u2019s draft Terms of Reference cover all the areas you think it should?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Terms should include three key things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Specific reference to disabled people<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Terms of Reference mentions people with \u2018protected characteristics\u2019 but we\u2019re concerned that without specific reference to disabled people, their experiences won\u2019t be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Impact on mental health and wellbeing<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We must investigate the impact the pandemic has had on disabled people\u2019s wellbeing, to make sure the right support is in place in future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. The impact on disabled people\u2019s human rights<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Disabled people have a right to personal care, to eat, drink, communicate, move, take medication, access therapeutic support, to grow and be free from pain. Throughout Covid-19, often these rights were seen as an \u201cadd on\u201d and deprioritised in favour of decisions that favoured the general population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 3: Which issues do you think the Inquiry should look at first?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We think that the inquiry should focus on investigating the impact on those who\u2019ve been disproportionately affected by Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of 2020, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that of the Covid-19 deaths that happened between January to November, six in 10 were of disabled people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 5: How should the Inquiry be designed and run to ensure that bereaved people or those who have suffered serious harm have their voices heard?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At Sense, we\u2019ve been campaigning for the inquiry to be run in an accessible way so that everyone has the opportunity to engage with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make sure the inquiry is accessible, we would like to see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Consultation with disabled people<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Disabled people and those with lived experience should be consulted with and offered a variety of ways to have their views and voices heard, including by video, focus groups and storytelling. This shouldn\u2019t only be through formal written submissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Accessible information<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

All information, including written forms or documents, any broadcasted sessions and promotion of the inquiry, should be available in accessible formats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join us in calling for disabled people to be heard.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

\n
Fill in the online consultation survey<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can act now\u00a0to support our campaign for the Government to include disabled people in the Covid-19 Inquiry. Our Campaigns Manager Lizzie explains how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":7368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[118],"class_list":["post-6685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-lizzie-green"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6685"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=6685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}