Gill Evans, Disability Officer  update March 2021

The new lockdown in January has meant many changes to plans for the first 3 months of the year. Many of the planned disability awareness training sessions had to be cancelled due to the lockdown.

The Adult Disability Service worked with Mencap UK , Guernsey Public Health and the States communications team during this time to produce a number of easy read documents. Initially these were about lockdown, social distancing, how to keep well during the pandemic, then more information was made available about vaccines and the vaccination appointments.

Beach Access and facilities

Now that we are in Phase 3 and island restrictions are lifted, it seems appropriate to promote the beach guide that has been produced. It includes information about beach access and facilities. It is available by following the link to beach guide. Beach wheelchairs are also available for loan at Pembroke Bay. Email for more information.

The disability officer is also interested to know your thoughts about any beaches where the access could be improved. Please email me with your comments/ ideas. Disability.officer@gov.gg.

Discrimination Legislation and training update

You will be aware the proposals for the discrimination legislation were agreed by the States in July 2020. Since that time work has been continuing with some of the elements that will need to be in place before the legislation comes in during 2022. A Project Board has been set up to oversee this work, which includes expanding the tribunal panel and the Employment Relations Service (which will turn into the Employment and Equal Opportunities Service).

A stakeholder group has also been set up, which includes the organisations that will have responsibilities under the law and those who will have protection from the law. The first meeting was held last month and as well as an introduction about the legislation implementation project the training requirements were also discussed by all attendees. The plan is for a training programme about Equality and the new legislation to be available later in 2021 and early 2022.

Training link

Please do complete the training questionnaire and share widely – you can find it on our blog here

Or complete the online version