The full report, with full findings, and Recommendations is now available-
The Greater Manchester Disabled People’s Panel (GMDPP) created a survey to find out how disabled people in Greater Manchester were managing during the Covid 19 pandemic. The Panel is unique, no other city region has managed to establish one, it is made up of 14 disabled people’s organisations. We already knew a lot of the issues, but to help us to influence improvement of how services were responding we needed a wide evidence base the survey could provide. 936 people responded, making it one of the largest surveys by and for disabled people of the Pandemic.
- Some key findings were:
- 90% of respondents said that the pandemic has had a negative impact on their mental health.
- 80% of respondents were not included in the official shielded group, yet 57% of those had support needs. For example many could not get online supermarket food delivery despite needing to shield.
- 56% of respondents had experienced some difficulty sourcing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
- 62% of respondents have experienced one or more health visit being stopped due to Covid-19.
- Accessibility of the hubs was a problem, 46% found them inaccessible with deaf people being the worst excluded.
- Disabled people are less satisfied with their care plans since the outbreak of Covid-19. Prior to the outbreak, 23% were dissatisfied, this dissatisfaction increased to 43% during the Pandemic.
- 37% said that their housing was not accessible or only partially accessible.
- 83% of disabled people were worried about how they would be treated in hospital because of attitudes to disability.
- 47% found government advice unclear and many commented that the lack of a British Sign Language interpreter or conflicting language made official announcements inaccessible.
- Digital exclusion was a problem, especially as a lot of the emergency response used digital platforms.
- A third of disabled people believe that their local authority is not doing anything significant whilst 76% of disabled people are dissatisfied with the help provided by the government.
Disability News Service did a report you can read on their website here. We have made 13 key recommendations for improving the problems we identified and are pleased that GM Mayor Andy Burnham and other regional leaders have shown a willingness to listen and engage with our issues. There is a lot of work to do to remove disabling barriers that have gotten worse over the last 10 years and were made worse again in the Pandemic. However we as disabled people and our organisations and communities will not stop until our rights to a fully inclusive society are realised.
- Online on Survey Monkey platform, shared through GM by Panel members, social media, community & voluntary sector, grassroots groups, and GM consult website.
- Ran from April 20th until 22nd May
- A standard format with 54 questions and an easy read version with 47 questions.
- With assistance disabled children recorded responses, as did disabled people with no online connection, and people with communication impairments.
- 936 respondents in total.
If you have any questions or require it in another format please contact us panel@gmcdp.com
GM Disabled People's Panel 