Disability Equality Scheme

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 requires organisations across the public sector to be proactive in ensuring that disabled people are treated fairly. However, this duty is not necessarily about changes to buildings or adjustments for individuals - it's all about including equity for disabled people into the culture of public authorities in practical and demonstrable ways.

The tool used to demonstrate how public sector bodies will achieve this duty is the Disability Equality Scheme (DES). Public organisations have to produce a DES that shows they have considered the impact of their policies, practices and procedures on disabled people.

Our DES for 2009-2012 can be found at the bottom of this page (full version, easy-read version, and summary).  This is an innovative document because it is written in partnership with NHS Herefordshire and the Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust.

The consultation for this document consisted of a meeting of representatives of local disability groups in March 2009, an employee survey in April 2009, and a public meeting and a public survey in May 2009.  Reviews of both meetings can be found at the bottom of this page, as well as the result of the public survey.

In order to demonstrate our progress with the DES action plan, that document can also be found in the resource box below.  This document shows progress up to November 2010.

If you need any help accessing this information, or require a particular format, please call the Diversity Team on 01432 260244 or e-mail diversity@herefordshire.gov.uk.