From lived experience to lasting change: Disability Advisory Panel begins work
Shared on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.
- Ten people with long-term health conditions and lived experience of disability appointed to advise Government.
- Independent Disability Advisory Panel holds its inaugural meeting – putting disabled people’s voices at the heart of the Plan for Change.
- Government delivers on Get Britain Working White Paper pledge to ensure lived experience guides decision-making.
Disability Advisory Panel
The first-of-its-kind approach will put those directly affected at the heart of Government decision-making.
The Independent Disability Advisory Panel - first announced in the Get Britain Working White Paper - held its inaugural meeting in January and will work directly with Ministers on policies affecting disabled people and those with long-term health conditions. This includes:
- Access to Work;
- Disability Confident;
- The Keep Britain Working Review recommendations.
Selected from over 300 applicants, the Panel hail from communities across Great Britain - spanning Scotland to the Southwest - and bring expertise in employment support, health services, disability rights and policy research.
Chaired by disability rights expert Zara Todd, the Panel will put disabled people’s needs and voices at the heart of the Government’s Plan for Change and help raise living standards.
"Far too often, decisions about disabled people have been made without them.
"We are changing this. This Panel brings together years of experience and valuable insight. The voices of disabled people will count because they will be in the room where decisions are made, and where policies are shaped.
"We will listen, we will learn, and together we will build a system that truly works for disabled people."
Sir Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security and Disability
The Panel will run separately to the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment, and will have a wider remit across health and disability policy, but expertise and insight will be shared between the two.
Together, they demonstrate the Government’s commitment to ensuring disabled people’s voices and their lived experience shape policy design and delivery.