People with learning disabilities are "routinely bullied" - and a leading Newcastle charity figure wants to see "10,000 disabled people in Parliament Square" demanding change.
Nick Ball is retiring after 40 years in the social work and charity sector, most recently 11 years as deputy chief executive at Byker-based Skills for People (SfP). He's worked with the three North East universities to help bring through the next generation of social workers, and he's passionate about creating a world where people with disabilities are empowered to fight for their rights themselves.
As he steps back from the charity - which is marking its 40th anniversary across 2023-2024 - he told ChronicleLive how he was proudest about creating job opportunities for people with lived experience of disability, and helping those people to be in a position to raise the issues they experience on day-to-day basis. He also spoke of how he felt the work of SfP was vital.
Nick said: "Our work here really starts from the idea that people with disabilities should live full lives and be able to play a full role in our communities. There are so many systems - education, employment, public transport, health - that work against disabled people. In health, we know that people with learning die significantly earlier than others.
"When you look at the population of disabled people who are employed, it's around seven per cent. There's an idea in the tabloids that people don't want to work, that's far from true for this group of people.
"And in education we see the same thing. We work closely with people who find it incredibly difficult to get the support they need to live the lives they deserve. Transport systems are also a real problem."
This thinking forms part of the work Nick has facilitated with the charity's self-advocacy board, which allows people with disabilities to speak up about the issues they experience and informs the support and campaigning work the charity takes forward. Issues discussed include rising hate crime, the need for better charging infrastructure for electric wheelchairs, and how it can be difficult for people with disabilities to feel safe going out in the evenings.
Reflecting on his decade and more at SfP, he said he was deeply proud of the way staff had developed there, and of "carving out" job opportunities for people with lived experience of disability. He said: "My ambition if I was staying would be to grow and carve-out more jobs for people with disabilities. I think there's a rationale to say that all of our groups should be facilitated by project workers with lived experience."
He said the work of employees like Stewart Chappell, who has now worked at the charity for more than eight years, was a great example of how having the skills and vision of people with experience of the issues faced by those with disabilities is vital.
Nick added: "Stewart was right at the heart of our lockdown response. We really saw him blossom and he made a massive difference to people. He's been incredible."
The idea of the self-advocacy board is similar - and Nick wants it to work more and more closely with the charity's board of directors. Speaking about the issue of systemic discrimination against people with disabilities, he added: "We know that people with learning disabilities are routinely bullied in all sorts of public domains. You see scandals at places like Winterbourne View or Chorlton Hall and you can look at these big, shocking things, but this bullying is also something experience routinely.
"What I often say to students is that the suffragette movement achieved votes for women by being disruptive and breaking the law. They didn't manage that by talking nicely to white men. It's the same with the Black Power movement in the US in the '50s and '60s.
"But it's really difficult for people with learning disabilities to fight for their rights in that way. So it becomes how do you amplify the voice of people who normally don't have that much of a voice - and how does that voice get to the lawmakers.
"The job of somewhere like Skills is to do our job so well we put ourselves out of a job. How do you get the voice of disenfranchised, disempowered groups to the heart of decision-making? You chip away and you work from the heart and with the beliefs you have. And you channel your anger into whatever positive moves you can make. Really, what I want is 10,000 disabled campaigners in Parliament Square."
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