November 26, 2015

Two years after unanimously supporting the creation of Guernsey’s Disability and Inclusion Stragey, States members met on 25th Nov 2015 to debate an update on progress.
Here’s the Guernsey Press report on what happened. Inevitably it focuses on the Deputies who were the most critical, so bear that in mind when you click on it to read it.

The following day, the Press published a story about our reaction to the debate:

Again, it sounds worse than is, here’s what our Chair, Shelaine Green, actually said:

“We knew that Deputies would be disappointed with the progress of the Strategy but GDA members were in the Visitors Gallery to find out how they were going to turn things around. I don’t think we really got a clear answer to that and overall, it was a painful debate to watch.
“Members of Policy Council were keen to point out that there has been some progress and they reaffirmed their commitment to disabled islanders. However Deputy Fallaize gave a powerful speech, highlighting that there were no firm proposals in the Update Report to address the difficulties the Strategy had experienced. He focused particularly on the lack of an Action Plan.
“The States is clearly struggling to deliver all of the Strategies that it has agreed and we can only hope that this “wake-up call”, as the Chief Minister termed the debate, will help. In the meantime, discrimination on the grounds of disability still goes unchallenged in Guernsey, disabled adults and children aren’t fully included in island life, and islanders caring for family members still struggle to access the support they deserve”.

And here’s some reassurance from the Chief Minister.

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