Liberal Democrat Disability Association

Vision A world where everyone affected by disability can live life to their full potential and secure the care and support they need to gain independence and empowerment. Mission 1) To work towards the election of Liberal Democrats to all levels of local, regional, devolved and national government in the United Kingdom and to the European Parliament. To promote equal opportunities for people with disabilities within the Liberal Democrats. To scrutinise Liberal Democrat policies to ensure they reflect the rights and needs of people with disabilities, their carers and their families and make appropriate recommendations for future policy and seek amendments to current policy. To promote the Liberal Democrat message to disabled people who are not currently members.

2) 3)

4)

Values Our values are the shared values of all Liberal Democrats, as stated in the Partys Constitution and summarised in this extract from it: We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals, we acknowledge and respect their right to freedom of conscience and their right to develop their talents to the full. We aim to disperse power, to foster diversity and to nurture creativity. We believe that the role of the state is to enable all citizens to attain these ideals, to contribute fully to their communities and to take part in the decisions which affect their lives.

Executive Summary
This new Executive has been borne out of an investigative review into our Association. We will aim to make progress in key areas which will work towards achieving our core objectives, delivering a worthwhile experience to our members and being the best placed organisation to support and advise our Party, especially whilst in Government. Our strategy has focussed on building ties and developing activities throughout 2011 with our efforts culminating in our launch of this Action Plan in Autumn 2011. Following the launch of this Action Plan will see us finalising our development and delivering an AO with SAO potential plus exciting ideas for the next Executive. This will be achieved through reforming LDDAs internal structures in order to focus on membership experience, our participation within the party as a whole and greater encouragement of members with disabilities in participating with all levels of the party including elected office.

Core Executive Objectives for 2011-13

LDDAs core objectives, as defined by our constitution are to: Represent LDDA Members to the Party. Raise awareness and understanding of disabilities throughout the Liberal Democrats. Develop and train its members towards greater participation within and for the party at elections.

This current executive believes that to meet these core objectives we must make progress on 5 key areas of our activity: 1) 2) 3) Delivering a Competent Governance Structure Improving our membership experience Scrutinising party policy for disability issues and making recommendations page 7 4) 5) Developing LDDAs internal and external profile Promoting access to elected office for disabled people page 8 page 11 page 5 page 6

Making progress on these 5 key areas is crucial to ensuring that partys only disability Association functions effectively and delivers for its membership whilst advising the federal party in government both this year and into the future. LDDA has a key role to play as an Associate Organisation of the party, both in supporting the party in government and in ensuring the Liberal Democrats maintain a distinctive and democratic narrative as a political force for good for disabled people in British Politics. This current executive has been the first formed since the completion of an Internal Investigative Review of LDDA and as such, we have a duty to take proper consideration of the reviews recommendations and to implement them by means of fully achieving our core objectives.

LDDA - The Liberal Democrat Disability Association

Representing those with disabilities within and outside the Lib Dems

1.

Delivering a Competent Governance Structure The executive recognises that the governance structure of the Association has lacked, in the past, the sufficient degree of leadership and professionalism that its membership deserves and is required of an associate organisation of the Liberal Democrats. The executive serves as the core administration and leadership component of the LDDA and any Governance reform must aim towards establishing a link between its members and the party through means of effective policy consultation and communicating their concerns to the party in a variety of forms, be it policy amendments or consultation review documents.

1.1 Executive Training Objective: To make arrangements for Executive members to receive appropriate training and experience, either directly from the Federal party and/or other associate organisations. Outline: The Executive must discuss and evaluate any new skills or further improvement of existing skills that are required by its members in fulfilling the positions held. The chairs, those with membership or treasury responsibilities will all require different forms of training and shadowing of those holding equal positions in other SAOs/AOs should be considered as means of training. Federal party training should be sought for all Executive members in order for the governance of our Association to rise up to the standards expected by the Liberal Democrats. Led By: Chair and Vice-Chair Timescale: Training to begin in Winter 2011. 1.2 Association Structure Objective: To evaluate the Associations structure and delegation of specific areas of responsibility. Outline: Ascertain whether at a later date, the formation of specific committees for policy and specific issues are necessary for effective creation of advice and policy for both Federal and other party organisations. Led By: Chair and Vice-Chair Timescale: Winter 2011

2.

Improving our membership experience Delivering a decent membership experience is a core function of the LDDA, and this executive is keen to ensure that LDDA membership is valued, enriching and worth maintaining.

2.1 Retention and Recruitment Objective: To ensure growth in membership by attracting new members and minimising membership leakage Outline: The LDDAs main objective concerning membership is that of growth in order to achieve and maintain SAO status as this not only allows for the current and future Executives more effective participation in policy making for example but places LDDA closer to the core of the party and in a better representative position for the 10+ million disabled UK population who all generally support greater equality and freedom that the Liberal Democrats can offer. Discussions with the Federal membership team need to occur over the creation of an effective recruitment strategy and how best the Federal party can facilitate our growth. Once new members have joined, retaining them and providing them with an inclusive experience that is worth continuing is paramount of sustained growth and member satisfaction. Member communication is the primary way of achieving this and using new technologies will be the key. New members should receive a Welcome Pack detailing the aims and objectives of LDDA and ways in which members can get involved and suggest issues to take focus on. These opportunities should be afforded to existing members also. This should be delivered through the most costeffective basis, preferably a e-mail template or posted hard copy if no e-mail address is provided. The use of the e-mail group, Facebook group and an (initially quarterly) Newsletter with an assortment of disability news, campaign issues and wider Liberal Democrat policy progress should be e-mailed to all members. Shared responsibility must be taken for Newsletter development. Led By: Membership Development Officer with a co-opted Communications Officer Timescale: ASAP and Ongoing 2.2 Engagement Objective: To provide opportunities for active involvement Outline: Working with our members is crucial to the Association and online engagement is essential but active engagement should also be considered. Options include an LDDA Summer Conference such as done by DELGA, an expanded AGM or partnered-debates with other disability organisations/charities which allow members to meet and discuss on issues which are of particular importance to our community and allow for face-to-face responses by MPs and ministers. Led By: Chair and Vice-Chair Timescale: Winter 2011 and beyond

3.

Scrutinising Party Policy for Disability Issues and Making Recommendations

3.1 Scrutinising Policy Objective: To locate disability issue-linked policy originating from all levels of the Liberal Democrats Local, Regional, Federal and Government. Outline: The Executive must keep up to date with Liberal Democrat Press releases and Local/national news as means of becoming aware of Liberal Democrat Councils policy, especially cut-back policies which can have an adverse affect on disabled people. Led By: TBC Timescale: ASAP and Ongoing 3.2 Recommendation Development Objective: To work with the Associations members in understanding peoples concerns and creating alternative policies and amendments. Outline: Either through the use of member consultations and/or member focus groups where all members policy issue skills can be fully exploited and shared in agreeing on the necessary outcomes needed in a specific policy area for the benefit of disabled people. The creation of either consultation review documents or policy amendments should be considered as a means of formally publicising the opinions of our members and the necessary outcomes we feel are needed. Contacting Councillors, MPs, Lords and Ministers in order to make them aware of our policy amendments is paramount in conveying our concerns and creating collaborative partnerships with Liberal Democrat partners. Led By: TBC Timescale: ASAP and Ongoing

4.

Developing LDDAs Internal and External Profile The Executive recognises that LDDAs internal party presence has severely diminished over these past years and any such external profile is near non-existent. Actions need to be taken to increase the awareness of our Association through activity and communication with other parts of the party and its members. Greater connection to grass roots and parliamentary groups will strengthen our profile and develop our conduit role as a means of channelling disabled peoples concerns to the very top of Government.

4.1 Promoting Internal Activity Objective: To improve LDDAs image within the party as well as forming stronger links with leadership levels of the party. Outline: The executive agrees that LDDA should take an active role within internal committees such as the Diversity Engagement Group whilst also participating in parliamentary groups such as relevant All Party Parliamentary Groups. Membership of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Disability will be a major aim. Our presence will benefit both our members and the Party as the Executive can become better aware of the structures involved in Disability Policy Development and allows us to convey our members concerns in any such debates. As the Association develops its policy awareness and development skills, and should a policy sub-committee be formed for such focus, presence on the Federal Policy Committee should be strongly considered. Most party policies have an affect on disabled people within our communities. LDDA is well placed with experience and responsibility to offer Federal Committees, such as the Federal Policy Committee. Our thoughts and advice should be sought during initial policy development rather than through after-thought consultation responses. Led By: Chair and Vice-Chair 4.2 Internal Party Communication Objective: To better communicate LDDAs aims, objectives and campaigning strategy/successes to the rest of the party. Outline: LDDA will aim to make full use of internal party communications channels, specifically Lib Dem Voice and Lib Dem news in order to report back to the wider membership on ongoing campaigns and events that we may jointly hold in the future. Creating clearly developed channels of communication is paramount for the successful Association relaunch in terms of developing wider awareness of our exciting Autumn 2011 Conference Schedule. The Executive recognises the increased attention that our positive actions will create and will appoint a formal point of contact in the form of a Communications Officer from within the organisation that MPs can consult about questions/queries/policy issues that relate specifically to disabled people. Equally, now that the Party is in Government, the LDDA is likely to see an increase in media enquiries. The same Communications Officer should also represent the LDDA externally to any press enquiries. Training must be sought through the Liberal Democrats Press office, which in itself will make senior Press officers aware of the experience, and comments we are able to make on disability issues. However, the Communications Officer must maintain communication with Liberal Democrat HQ when making public comments on Federal and Coalition Policy as our remarks could be considered official party communications by some in the media and general public. Led By: Chair and Vice-Chair Timescale: ASAP and Ongoing. Timescale: ASAP and Ongoing.

4.3 LDDA Manifesto Objective: To explore the feasibility of creating an LDDA Manifesto which would form a crucial part of our Relaunch activities. Outline: The Executive recognises the successes had by partner SAOs such as DELGA who have created their own Manifesto and Liberal Youth who have created a Manifesto in Practice document which details what the Coalition government has done for their specific demographic. The LDDA should use the creation of a manifesto to culminate its policy scrutinisation efforts and members opinions as a means of advocating the good effects of Coalition policy touching disabled people whilst also serving a balanced point of view on how we think the Coalition could do better in the future. Moreover, an LDDA Manifesto could consolidate our contributions to the creation of disability-orientated policy for the partys 2015 General Election Manifesto. Led By: Chair and Vice-Chair 4.4 Disability Champions Objective: To appoint champions throughout our party that allows us to absorb the feelings of our grass roots whilst consulting parliamentary representation. Outline: A Parliamentary Champion should be approached to act in a similar capacity as Jo Swinson MP for the Campaign for Gender Balance. If this proves successful, the LDDA may want to expand by having champions in the Lords, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, European Parliament, Greater London Authority, Local Government Associations and the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors. This is particularly important in light of current coalition arrangements. The Parliamentary Champion would serve not only as a direct point of contact for the LDDA Communications Officer but also to consult with and who can represent the Parliamentary Party and not necessarily just the Liberal Democrat Government. Similarly, a Parliamentary Champion could be used as a sponsor of a quarterly parliamentary newsletter that could consist of our Members Newsletter material whilst promoting issues that MPs and Lords need to consider further. Lynne Featherstone, Annette Brooke, Jenny Willott and Simon Wright are all examples of Liberal Democrat MPs who, together with Baroness Sal Brinton and Lord Mike German, have taken a clear positive interest in Disability Issues and could assist us in pushing our communitys interests into the fore of government attention. Regional Disability Champions should also be sought to work alongside the Regional Diversity Champions network that is headed by the Diversity Unit. The LDDA Executive will need to utilise our own Disability Champion Network in order to collate local member views as well as visiting local disability groups and understand general public concerns also. This information can then form part of our policy scrutinisation efforts and then forwarded onto our parliamentary champion for their own lobbying strategy. Led By: TBC Timescale: ASAP and Ongoing. Timescale: Winter 2011 Autumn 2012.

4.5 Federal and Regional Conferences Objective: The main opportunity to increase our Associations profile within the party is through its conferences and all efforts will be made to take full advantage of this. Outline: This Executive will promote further LDDA presence at regional conferences and this can be achieved through our Regional Disability Champions with support from Executive members. This activity will form a core-aspect of the Disability Champions role in connecting with regional memberships and increasing general LDDA and disability awareness. The Federal and Regional Conferences, however, will be key focal points of our Executives strategies for 2011 and 2012. A Conference Committee must be convened to work alongside the Executive in order to ensure proper and detailed organisation for our activities at future events. The LDDA Action Plan will be formally launched at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference 2011 in Birmingham (17th to 21th September 2011). Activities that should be properly explored include; refreshing our Exhibition stand and seeking a more prominent position within the hall where we can better access passers-by, hand out our new manifestos and raise awareness of our Association. If sponsorship can be obtained, arranging a drinks reception to which we invite our members, Disability Champions, DEG representatives, interested Councillors, Lords and MPs, Diversity Unit Staff and other interested parties (capacity 40 60 attendees). This could be informal or formal with speeches/debates by the Chair, Lords, MPs, Councillors and our newly appointed Parliamentary Champion. A partnered fringe debate with a political organisation or disability charity should also be strongly considered. Together we could locate a disability issue which has recently been affected; for better or worse by policy and allow delegates to hear and participate in a debate which would include MPs, an executive representative, possibly the charities public affairs officer and interested parties. Such a three-pronged strategy would raise our profile immensely and along with our other initiatives, would deliver a refreshed, vibrant and exciting Association over to the new executive with which they can bring up to the activity levels of DELGA and EMLD. Led By: LDDA Conference Committee Timescale: Start Spring 2011, working against Autumn and Spring Conference deadlines for 2012 and beyond.

10

5.

Promoting Access to Elected Office for Disabled People LDDA recognises the coalition document, which states on p24: We will introduce extra support for people with disabilities who want to become MPs, Councillors or other elected officials. Similarly, the Governments Equalities Office has recently launched a consultation entitled Access to Elected Office for Disabled People. This clearly demonstrates a desire by both coalition parties to better support disabled candidates in all types of elected office. As the Liberal Democrats Official Disability Association, we have a distinct duty to go beyond simply responding to the consultation and awaiting the governments report.

5.1 LDDA Candidates Network Objective: To support prospective and running candidates in all areas of candidacy which may be challenging due to someones disability. Outline: As with DELGAs LGBT Candidate Support Network, LDDA should seek support and assistance from the Candidates Office and Diversity Unit in the setting up of a peer-support and training network which focuses attention on those who want help with access issues, public attitudes, concerns over candidate applications and general anxiety over participating with a disability. Through our network, the Executive should actively seek highly competent candidates who can be suggested for the partys newly formed Candidate Leadership Programme. A specific Facebook group can be setup along with the development of a joint training programme with LD HQ that can be delivered by the Executive and Party Staff at Federal Conferences and by Regional Diversity Champions with Executive support at Regional Conferences. Led By: TBC 5.2 LDDA Access Fund Objective: To seek the creation of an Access Fund to allow party members with disabilities to participate at all levels of the party on an equal basis. Outline: The LDDA should make a formal application to the Party for funding in the next cycle, as soon as those with responsibility to disabled political participation have agreed on funding requirements. The Executive should actively work with the Candidates Office and Diversity Unit. Together they should identify current financial support funds and programmes. Then explore how an LDDA specific Access Fund could welcome applications for areas of support which are not funded by these other funding streams. This would enable not only better attendance at Conferences and Party Events but also increase general membership participation. Led By: Chair, Vice-Chair and Treasurer Timescale: Spring 2012 Timescale: Autumn 2011 and beyond.

11