International Day of Persons with Disability

Tomorrow is International Day of Persons with Disability. Coordinated by the United Nations, this event has been celebrated since 1992. Many different groups, organisations and individuals will be holding events to mark the occasion, and the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Charity of the Year is the Cedar Foundation, which delivers a range of services for people with disabilities. There are many different aspects to the issue of disability, and here are some of the resources which RaISe has produced in this mandate and the previous one in support of Assembly scrutiny of disability policy and legislation[1].

Overarching policy and legislation

• A brief outline of equality legislation relating to disability in NI
• Disability legislation and policy
• Disability – international perspectives
• Legislation and policy on sign language in the UK and Ireland

Support for specific committee inquiries

• Various research papers provided to the Committee for Employment and Learning in support on an inquiry into support for people aged 16+ with special educational needs [go to page 93 in particular]
• Health inequalities and people with a learning disability
• Health Committee report on Transforming Your Care – Health Inequalities and Learning Disability

Provision of services

• KESS seminar on learning and behavioural disabilities: supporting needs to improve lives
• Transition planning for young people with learning disabilities in Great Britain
• Learning disability support locations in Northern Ireland
• Information on studies across Europe and the US in relation to the provision of services to the disabled
• Comparison of learning disability services across the UK
• Funding of transport schemes for people with disabilities
• Provision of sporting facilities for those with a disability

Special educational needs

• Special educational needs: a brief overview
• SEN legislation and policy in Northern Ireland
• SEN mediation, appeals and the transfer of rights to children with SEN

Work on the Mental Capacity Bill

• Principles framework
• Deprivation of liberty safeguards
• Mental capacity and human rights
• Advance decisions and a blog post on this issue
• Mental Capacity Bill: A disregard provision for ‘treatment’?
• The Mental Capacity Bill and children under 16
• Mental Capacity Bill: assessing the costs
• Mental Capacity Bill: deprivation of liberty assessment costs
• Mental Capacity Bill: training costs

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[1] (Please note: Some of these papers, particularly those published in the last mandate, may contain information which is no longer fully up-to-date).