DISABLED Islanders should help shape an updated strategy to remove barriers in everyday life, a Deputy has proposed.
Deputy Lyndsay Feltham is seeking to add a commitment to develop and implement a revised Disability and Inclusion Strategy to the Council of Ministers’ Common Strategic Policy for 2026–2030.
Her amendment would also commit government departments to improving access to services and facilities through individual access and inclusion plans.
Deputy Feltham said disabled Islanders’ involvement was essential to identifying both the barriers they faced and changes that would make a meaningful difference.
She stressed that the proposal explicitly required the strategy to be put into practice.
“The purpose of updating the strategy is to improve people’s lives, and the government must be able to demonstrate how its work contributes to that objective,” she wrote.
Although the amendment falls under the policy’s health services priority, Deputy Feltham said disability inclusion extended across government – covering education, employment, housing, transport, public services and community activities.
“An updated strategy must therefore establish shared responsibility for removing the barriers disabled Islanders face in everyday life,” she added.
The proposal builds on an amendment she brought to the Common Strategic Policy in 2022 concerning accessible services and departmental access and inclusion plans, which the Assembly adopted with revised wording.
Under the new proposal, each government department would consider barriers affecting its services and facilities, including physical access, communication and the ways people obtain assistance.
Departments would decide the contents of their own plans, but these should influence how services were designed and delivered, and which improvements were prioritised.
