Background
More people are living with a disability now than in the past because we’re living longer and improved medical treatments are enabling more people to manage long-term health problems. Disabled People are less like to view our city as a great place to live than the wider population.
In Plymouth the Census records that just over 57,000 our residents met the Equality Act definition of disability, 12.1 percent (32,394) of residents whose day to day activities were limited a little and 9.4 percent (25,001) whose day to day activities were limited a lot. Disabled people make up a greater proportion of our resident population that is the case for the Southwest region or England. Over a quarter of households in the City (33,487) included at least one person with a disability and nearly 1 in 10 (9,636) included 2 or more.
Disabled people are more likely to live in the City’s more deprived wards. Around a quarter of residents in our 4 most deprived wards, St Peters and the Waterfront, Devonport, Honicknowle and St Budeaux, meet the Equality Act definition of a disability, compared with around 15 to 20 percent of those living in more affluent areas such as Compton, Plymstock Radford, Peverell and Plympton Chaddlewood. Residents in our most deprived wards are nearly twice as likely to say their day to day activities are limited a lot.
It’s not just disabled people who are socially excluded, but also the people who care for others on an unpaid basis, as opposed to people who are paid, such as care workers and home helps. In Plymouth 4.2 percent of residents (10,646) provided less than 19 hrs care per week, 2.1 percent provided 20 to 49hrs per week (5,267) and 3.2 percent provided 50 hrs or more per week or more (8,043) . There were 1,825 young people under the age of 25 providing unpaid care in June 2021 and 907 young carers were identified within Plymouth Schools.
Research suggests that disabled people are less likely to access health care, education, employment and to participate in the community and that COVID-19 has worsened this, disproportionately impacting persons with disabilities both directly and indirectly.
Education
In the 2021/22 academic year gap in the achievement of pupils with SEN (those with an EHCP or receiving Special Educational Need (SEN) support) compared to those who have no SEN.
- 41 percent of pupils with a Special Educational Needs met the expected standard in Phonics Decoding. Although this is above the national average of 38 percent there is a 42 percent gap.
- 19 percent of pupils with a Special Educational Needs met the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths combined. Although this is above the national average of 18 percent there is a 51 percent point gap.
- 20 percent of pupils with a Special Educational Needs achieved a grade 5 or above in English and mathematics GCSEs. Although this is above the national average of 18 percent there is a 32 percent point gap.
A quarter (24.9 percent) of disabled people aged 21 to 64 years had a degree or equivalent as their highest qualification, compared with 42.7 percent of non-disabled people amongst the youngest age group (21 to 24 years), this falls to 17.8.
Work
In 2022, the most recent year for which data is currently available, one in five of the working-age population were classed as disabled and nearly one in three people classed as being disabled one year were no longer classed as being disabled the next. The number of people reporting a long-term health condition or classed as disabled continues to rise 35% of the working age population report having a long term health condition, are classed as disabled, and 22% are classed as disabled. The increase is associated with an increase in people reporting mental health conditions.
People with disabilities experience significant barriers to getting and keeping jobs. The most recent local data says that 49% of people (22,000) with a disability meeting the Equality Act definition are ‘in employment’, with a further 36% of people (13,300) who are work limiting disabled . The overwhelming majority being employees (26,800) and a smaller proportion who are self-employed (3,800) . The Federation of Small Business report Business without Barriers published in 2022 says that 25% of small business owners are disabled or have a health condition. The proportion of economically inactive disabled people who wanted a job in 2021/2022 was 22.0%.
At national level the disability employment rate was 52.6 percent in Q2 2022, compared to 82.5 percent for non-disabled people. This has resulted in a national disability employment gap of 29.8 percent points in 2021/22. This means that the disability employment gap is now at its widest point since 2018.
Data published by the Government in 2019 says that people with disabilities are almost twice as likely to be unemployed than those without disabilities (8 per cent compared to 4.3 per cent), and more likely than workers without disabilities to be employed on a zero-hours contract . Compared to workers without disabilities, workers with disabilities are also twice as likely to be concerned about losing their job in the next 12 months (22 per cent compared to 11 per cent).
Locally of 218,623 residents who were over 16, 11,973 were economically inactive (5.5 percent) due to long term sickness or disability. Including retired disabled people, who are counted as retired by the Census the number of economically inactive people with a disability increases to 22,300.
Living standards
People with disabilities continued to have poorer well-being ratings across all four well-being measures (life satisfaction, feeling that things done in life are worthwhile, happiness and anxiety) . Locally residents who were ‘limited a lot through a health problem/disability’ had an average score of 5.0 with life satisfaction compared with those ‘limited a little’ 6.2 and those with no disability/health problem 7.0.
Overall the proportion of local service users saying they were satisfied with personal care services increased significantly from 84.6 percent in 2020/21 to 89.6 percent in 2021/22 and the proportion saying they were extremely satisfied increased from 38.3percent to 66.7 percent.
In the year ending March 2021, people with disabilities were more likely to report feelings of loneliness “often or always” (15.1 per cent) than people without disabilities (3.6 percent). Locally disabled people were more likely to agree, whether ‘limited a little’ (31 percent) or ‘limited a lot’ (42 percent) with the statement, ‘I often feel lonely’, than the wider population (18 percent).
In the year ending June 2021, people with disabilities aged 16 to 64 years in the UK were less likely to own their own home (39.7 per cent) than other people (53.3 per cent), and more likely to have rented social housing (at 24.9 per cent compared with 7.9 per cent).
Disabled people, including those ‘limited a little’ (28 percent) and those who were ‘limited a lot’ (43 percent), were more likely to agree with the statement, ‘the food that I buy just doesn’t last, and I don’t have money to get more’ than the wider community (15 percent).
Justice and personal security
Negative attitudes towards people with disabilities remain prominent in Britain, and people with a mental health condition, learning disability or memory impairment remain particularly likely to be stigmatised.
People with disabilities are often discriminated against and harassed and do not experience the same life opportunities. Consultation feedback tells us that children with disabilities often worry about being bullied. In the year ending in March 2019 it was found that people with disabilities were more likely to experience crime and be victims of domestic violence.
Locally 64 hate crimes were recorded against people with disabilities in the year ending October 2022. Whilst there was a slight decrease in the overall recorded number of hate occurrences a greater portion of these were recorded as hate crimes . More recent data is not currently available.
Locally disabled people whether limited a little or limited a lot (38 percent and 41 percent respectively) were more likely to feel unsafe after dark than those with no health problem/disability (28 percent).
Participation
In the year ending March 2021, disabled people aged 16 years and over were as likely to have been involved in civic participation (45.7 percent), such as signing a petition or attending a public rally, as non-disabled people (43.0 percent). Similar proportions of disabled and non-disabled people were also involved in civic consultations, civic activism, and social action in 2021 . Locally in 2022 no significant difference was found between disabled people and the wider population in their understanding of how to get involved in decisions in their local area.
Disabled people showed similar proportions of participation in either formal or informal volunteering (30.4 percent for formal and 56.6 percent for informal) to non-disabled people (32.9 percent and 55.6 percent respectively) in 2021. Locally in 2022 no significant difference was found in the ability of Disabled people to get involved in community groups or activities.
Locally disabled people were less likely to use the internet daily or almost every day whether li,ited a ‘limited a little’ (83 percent), or limited a lot’ (74 percent) than people with ‘no health problem/disability’ (93 percent).