Extracts from the European Year of Disabled People 2003: UK Evaluation

Disability Champions

The Project

This project was run by Amicus in conjunction with the East Riding College Trade Union Studies and the TUC. The Management Committee included representatives of disability organisations.

The aim was to establish a cohort of 50 Trade Union representatives to act as disability champions in the workplace, promoting equality of opportunity for disabled people and, in the long term, impacting on workplace culture to remove barriers to disabled people.

This project included six roadshows where it was hoped to promote general awareness of disability issues to 300 people and from these, recruit a cohort of 50 Amicus members to the project. These recruits were trained as disability champions using training materials produced by one of the partners and given on-going support by a manual and website developed by the project.

Outcomes

  1. At the time of the evaluation visit the project, which had already held six roadshows with over 600 people attending, were planning additional events. Ninety-four individuals had been recruited to train as disability champions, of whom 90% were disabled.
  2. The educational partners had produced an accredited course, designed by experienced professional staff advised by a reference group of disabled people.

What worked and why

  • The project had a clear plan from the start with clearly defined milestones against which to measure performance. There was some initial slippage but this was identified and rectified.
  • There was an effective steering group representing all the sections whose co-operation was needed.
  • The quality of the plan and the effectiveness of the steering group enabled the project to continue without interruption despite staff changes and relocation of the project manager.
  • The roadshows were well attended because of timely publicity through 500 leaflets outlining the project and 10,000 flyers for the events distributed through the union.
  • The roadshows were highly focused with workshops where workshop leaders had clear briefings on campaigning at work, overcoming obstacles, promoting change and seeking and sharing advice and support.
  • The project developed accredited training for members recruited to be disability champions, designed by experienced training staff.
  • The professional staff had regular access to a reference group of disabled people.

OTHER QUOTES FROM THE REPORT:-

"Looking at project outputs the best quality hard products were produced by highly skilled professional staff regardless of whether or not they had an impairment. The training provision by 'Disability Champions', the DVD produced by 'Disability on Film', and the photographic images produced by 'No Limits', are examples of very high production values and materials that can be widely used for the long term benefit of disabled people."

"Some projects have broken new ground, such as the project led by 'Disability Champions' which has developed workplace disability champions."

"'Disability Champions' and 'Partners in Policy Making', both UK projects, are good examples of projects that produced evaluation reports."

"The 'Disability Champions' project established by Amicus was a large scale programme that drew on substantial union resources in addition to EYDP funding in order to put in place a nation wide network of union representatives who would drive forward the disability agenda in the workplace. Although implemented mainly by non-disabled people, the vast majority of disability champions trained through the programme were disabled.

"The most successful projects were based on good planning. The 'Disability Champions' project was drawn up with clear objectives and clear milestones for achieving objectives. Even when the project manager changed and subsequently the main office was re-located, the project continued to schedule with project staff working through the changes and the management group continuing to drive the project forward.

"Projects are difficult to develop from nothing. Partners and participants of the successful projects tended to be attracted through the intensive use of existing networks, often through personal contact. The Disability Champions project used the membership database of the Amicus trade union supported by the personal contact of union representatives." CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT IN PDF FORMAT (1.1Mb)