Institutional discrimination is still rife within the NHS because of the lack of central leadership which is failing to prevent the high levels inequality of healthcare faced by millions of disabled people according to a report by the DRC.
The DRC identified eight Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) who are failing to comply with the Disability Equality Duty which came into force in December 2006. Crucially six SHAs have been given notice that they have 28 days to provide evidence of compliance before legal enforcement action is triggered.
This report (Word document, 82KB) assesses the Disability Equality Schemes and performance of 8 of the 10 Strategic Health Authorities: North East, East of England, North West, West Midlands, East Midlands, South Central, South East Coast, South West. The London and Yorkshire and Humber SHAs have not yet produced their schemes. An assessments of the schemes revealed a number of common weaknesses across all but two SHAs:
- Failure adequately to involve external stakeholders
- Failure to clearly and transparently indicate how involvement had influenced the Scheme
- Failure to develop actions across the full range of the SHA functions.
- Failure to show how they would use the information that they gathered.
- Failure to include a methodology for conducting impact assessments of new and existing policies and practices