AoD's October 2021 E-Newsletter
Pictured: Tara Flood and Kevin Caulfield – Strategic Lead Co-production for Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
Making ‘Nothing About Disabled People Without Disabled People’ a reality in HF by working together (co-production) with decision makers including Councillors, Council officers and others to make the borough accessible and inclusive for Disabled people. AoD recently met with Tara Flood and Kevin Caulfield who job share the role of Strategic Lead Co-production at Hammersmith & Fulham Council. We discussed how their role came about, what coproduction is and why it is so important to coproduce!
What does Co-production mean?
“Co-production (working together) means that Disabled residents and decision makers are working together in an active way to plan, design and review policy and services that affect our lives, to get rid of the barriers we face.”
To find out more, click here.
Tara and Kevin explained that their role as Strategic Lead Co-production has not come about through coincidence but because of 40 years of Disabled people’s activism and campaigning that brought together all the ideas and thinking from Disabled people in Hammersmith and Fulham over the decades.
Kevin and Tara both identify as disability rights activists. They are founding members of the Hammersmith & Fulham Coalition against Cuts, which campaigned from 2006 to stop charging local Disabled people for homecare/Independent Living support and as a result H&F is currently the only local authority in England that doesn’t charge Disabled residents for homecare/Independent Living support to enable Disabled people to live independently in the community. This was a huge victory and only made possible from Disabled people working in conjunction with the council to make that this policy change a reality.
Back in 2015, HAFCAC campaigned for the council to ring fence monies for those residents who would lose vital support due to the closure of the Independent Living Fund. Along with this was the campaign for the return of the Direct Payment Support service, which has now returned to AoD following 8 years of the service being run in house by the council
Disabled Peoples Commission
Hammersmith and Fulham was the first borough in the country to set up a local Disabled Peoples Commission. Tara and Kevin’s role came out of a set of recommendations from the Disabled People’s Commission which was set up in September 2016 and launched its report in June 2018. Tara and Kevin who are both local Disabled residents of Hammersmith and Fulham and are now working with Disabled residents and decision makers to real make change happen for other local Disabled residents. Read the Disabled Peoples Commission report here
Since the report, Tara and Kevin and LBHF are working on a variety of issues which they explained in more detail below:
Redevelopment of Hammersmith Town Hall, Kings Street into a new Civic Campus:
Tara and Kevin are working with local Disabled people on the redevelopment of Hammersmith Town Hall to ensure the development and surrounding area is of the highest level of inclusive design and accessible to all. Whilst the process has faced some challenges, a group of local Disabled people have remained committed to this piece of work since the beginning of the discussions 4 years ago. It has been crucial to get residents opinions right from the beginning of the process.
Independent Living Service:
Kevin Caulfield has been involved in a huge piece of work around the development of a local Independent Living delivery plan which will reflect Article 19 in the UN Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The council has already signed up to a new Independent Living position statement and the delivery plan coming out of that position statement will be about Disabled people of all ages including children. It will mean better working between Adult social care and Children services as well as Housing, street environment etc as the focus will be on the 12 pillars of Independent Living – click here
Disabled People’s Housing Strategy:
Another piece of co-produced work is the Disabled peoples housing strategy which was launched on the 17th September this year. This was another ground-breaking piece of work which was coproduced with Disabled people. The work focuses on the Social Model of Disability and will focus on removing barriers to create accessible and genuinely affordable housing for Disabled residents in Hammersmith and Fulham. There is also a Disabled people housing strategy implementation group, where local Disabled residents will work with housing officers to turn the strategy into action.
These campaigns demonstrate the real change that has been made and the commitment by London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to working in Coproduction with local Disabled residents.
How can I get involved?
There are a variety of groups and ways to get involved such as the Disability forum planning group and the H&F Co-production Implementation Group, explained in more detail below.
Disability Forum Planning Group
The Disability Forum Planning Group works with the council to oversee planning applications – it provides a great opportunity to get involved to shape the planning process to work towards H&F to be the most accessible borough in the country. You don’t have to be an expert on planning as you will receive training whilst a member of the group. The DFPG is recruiting new members right now – click here
H&F Co-production Implementation Group
The group consists of Disabled residents, senior council staff and councillors who work together on a plan to encourage and enable co-production across all council departments, and the whole community. The group is looking for new Disabled resident members so will be launching a recruitment drive shortly.
If you are interested in any of the topics or groups mentioned and want to find out more about how you can get involved, please email Tara and Kevin on coproduction@lbhf.gov.uk
If you are interested in any of the topics or groups mentioned and want to find out more about how you can get involved, please email Tara and Kevin on coproduction@lbhf.gov.uk
AoD H&F Members Co-Production Forum
Action on Disability is creating a co-production forum with local Disabled residents. If you are interested in joining then please contact: info@aod.org.uk
