The Jade road to equality

Sunil Peck

Rowen Jade (pictured) is “thrilled” with her new role as chair of Equality 2025. She wanted to join the network because she believed passionately that equality by the year 2025 was a realistic goal.

Before joining the network, Jade campaigned for rights for young disabled people and also worked for several centres for independent living. A former member of the Direct Action Network, her first demo was at the ITV telethon.

But she has opted to turn her attention away from direct action to exploit the opportunities that the government created by setting up Equality 2025.

“We are not a campaigning group; we do not hold a view on issues,” she says. “We are a conduit to reflect the views that we hear and present them as a summary to government.”

Jade says that Equality 2025 has achieved a lot since its inception in December 2006. It has been involved in discussions in key policy areas, including the development of the independent living strategy and the United Nations convention promoting human rights for disabled people.

It has also heard a wide range of views from disabled people. One topic that has been “lively” at public meetings has been the government’s welfare reforms. While some disabled people have told Jade that they want support to move off benefit and into work, others say that the government should focus on improving education for disabled children. Equality 2025 has even heard from disabled people who see a life on benefits as an “easy ride” and have been opposed to any reforms.

Does Jade think that the Conservatives would disband the network if they won the next election? “There is always a natural fear of change. But as chair, I am working to embed us not only with the government but with civil servants. We are working very closely with civil servants who under­stand the value we can add for any policy development, no matter where that policy comes from.”

Plans are afoot to enable more disabled people to engage with Equality 2025, including more public meetings and a website. Jade cannot emphasise enough how important she thinks it is for disabled people to take advantage of these opportunities so their views are fed to government.

“I would encourage as many disabled people as possible to give us their views. Without the views of disabled people, we have nothing to say. Our success is based on the amount and the quality of engagement with disabled people throughout the UK.”