Building the politics of the future

As Disability LIB’s funding from the Big Lottery ends, Sunil Peck looks at the impact of the organisation that aimed to give disabled people a louder voice

In 2008, seven groups came together to form Disability LIB (Listen Include Build) for a three-year project to help disabled people’s organisa­tions (DPOs) to look beyond the struggle for survival.

The organisations that Disability LIB has been concerned with supporting are those that campaign for disability rights and have a membership and managing board with a majority of disabled people.

With funding worth more than £4 million from the Big Lottery, one key aim in the strategy, according to its director Stephen Lee Hodgkins, has been to facilitate better peer support between DPOs.

As well as publishing toolkits and training materials as part of its strategy, Hodgkins says that Disability LIB has been successful in getting new DPOs off the ground.

“As an example, disabled people in Dudley in the West Midlands came to us and said they’d like to create a DPO there. We helped them facilitate a consultation day and brought in some training from an established DPO nearby that worked with them to develop a plan. The Dudley centre has just secured lottery funding of its own.”

Tracy McClymont, secretary of the Dudley Centre for Inclusive Living, says that Disability LIB has been a good source of support.

“We’ve just received a lottery grant and we’re about to do some research into advocacy with local disabled people and increase our membership. We’re still sorting ourselves out but we want to pass on what we’ve learned about human rights, social care, education and employment to help other DPOs to succeed.”

Although Disability LIB has apparently made great strides towards empowering DPOs in terms of policy and commission­ing frameworks, Hodgkins says that there is still some way to go before it is recognised as the authentic voice of out and proud disabled people in the third sector along social model lines.

“DPOs are well established as a social movement but are struggling to define themselves as a sector. In some conversations with chief executives in the voluntary sector, it’s been apparent that they don’t see the distinction between disability charities for and DPOs of.”

As an alliance committed to inclusion, it is perhaps surprising that Disability LIB has been silent on issues such as the future of the social care system and Disability Living Allowance.

“United Kingdom’s Disabled People’s Council (UKDPC), which is one of our partners, responded to those consultations. Our focus has been on organisa­tions themselves and we responded to consultations to do with issues like commissioning.”

Is Hodgkins aware of any disquiet in the community about how Disability LIB has spent its money?

“There has been some criticism about the regional split, although we do have partners and a presence outside London. We are aware that we haven’t had much interaction in the North East.”

Hodgkins estimates that there are about a thousand DPOs. But he says that the DPO sector is not too disparate to champion disability rights loudly.

“The more groups the better. It’s about sharing resources and working more effectively together, so you could have larger DPOs selling support functions, like marketing and human resources, to smaller DPOs.”

It is too soon to say what Disability LIB’s legacy will be. With the financial crisis facing DPOs and many wondering where the next generation of disabled leaders will come from, the future for DPOs looks tough.

Hodgkins says that it is hard to say how much better equipped or stronger DPOs are now to cope with those challenges.

“Some DPOs are stronger, but we haven’t been able to reach all of them. We’ve done some analysis of a hundred DPOs where we compared their income in 2005 and 2009 [and we found that] it increased from £26 million to £40 million.

“The organisations with the most income are centres for independent living and organisations operating on a regional scale. The ones with the least are black and ethnic minority groups and LGBT groups that work on multiple discrimination and equality issues.”