Disability

Disability equality is a vital part of Plymouth City Council’s work and our objective of ensuring access for all in our community.

Only by promoting equality and delivering inclusive services to all our residents and visitors, including people with disabilities, can we deliver our vision of becoming one of Europe’s most vibrant waterfront cities where an outstanding quality of life is enjoyed by everyone.

We therefore welcome the Disability Equality Duty, the requirement to promote disability equality and the emphasis this places on publishing a Disability Equality Scheme with clear commitments and actions.

49,000 people in Plymouth could be viewed as having some sort of disability. This makes up 20 per cent of our total population. We know that people with disabilities make positive contributions to our communities, the local economy and in shapng efficient and effective services.

We are pleased to be able to present our first Disability Equality Scheme. This would not have been possible without the commitment and engagement of many people with disabilities as well as our staff and disability groups working in partnership. The process has been both challenging and rewarding. Working alongside people with disabilities is helping us put disability equality at the heart of our objectives to provide efficient and excellent services and put the customer first.

We are pleased with the progress made in our equalities work over the past few years. But we recognise that we still have a long way to go. Publication of our Disability Equality Scheme is only the start of the process and we know we will need to do more to create a truly fair and accessible service for all our citizens with disabilities. Our scheme (2006 to 2009) provides the framework within which we will continue to address this and work towards equality for people with disabilities. We recognise that this will require the concerted efforts of councillors, senior officers and all our staff, and expect total commitment to this Scheme from everyone.

Above all, we want to ensure that Plymouth becomes a truly inclusive city where people with disabilities live free from discrimination, have fair and equal access to services and enjoy the full benefits of city life. We look forward to working together with people with disabilities towards realising this.

You can download the Disability Equality Scheme 2006 to 2009 from the documents table below.

Documents

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Disability Equality Scheme 2006 to 2009 - this provides the new framework within which we will deliver against our commitment to promoting disability equality and to make sure that people with disabilities have a say in the way the Council delivers its services. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 1.39MB