- Conference
- 2003 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 20 February 2003
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
This Conference welcomes the White Paper’s encouragement to local authorities not to make voluntary organisations bid for funds on an annual basis. Many voluntary organisations provide invaluable services to disabled people and employ UNISON members.
We also call upon the Local Government Service Group Executive to lobby Government in order to meet the following needs of disabled people:
1)Prohibit local authorities charging for services on which disabled people depend and/or include exemptions for those who are disabled
2)Extending the Disability Discrimination Act to cover councillors and make all disabled councillors eligible to apply for support from the access to work scheme
3)Make sure that the new way of distributing the Education SSA does not affect the ability of Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to provide for the needs of disabled people
4)Change relevant council tax regulations so that units providing ensuite residential care accommodation are treated as one unit rather than a number of separate units for council tax purposes
5)Encourage the Government to use the new targeted grant to encourage local authorities to maintain and extend concessionary fare schemes that go beyond the statutory minimum
This Conference instructs the Local Government Service Group Executive to work in partnership with UNISON’s National Disabled Members Committee to take on board the disability issues raised in this resolution and maximise benefits for disabled people.