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| TX: 11.05.06 - Disability Tsar PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE |
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| Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WAITE Now another day, another government tsar. No not the one for squirrels that they mentioned in the midday news but for the first time a tsar with a learning disability has been appointed. Our disability correspondent Carolyn Atkinson joins us. ATKINSON John that's right. This new appointment is a tsar for learning difficulties. Her name is Nicola Smith and as you say she does have a learning disability herself, although they won't say what specifically. Now she's being seen as a very significant appointment at such a very senior level. And just for the record a learning disability affects the way that someone can learn, communicate or do everyday things. Now before getting this job, pounding the corridors of power, Nicola was involved in advocacy for people with learning difficulties and she also worked with the charity Mencap. But she's not the only tsar, Nicola will actually work alongside the existing learning disabilities tsar. He's a man called Rob Greig, he'll do four days a week and Nicola will do one. WAITE So she's a co-tsar? ATKINSON She's a co-tsar. WAITE Actually tsarina surely. And what's she expected to bring to the job? ATKINSON Well according to the Department of Health she'll give a louder national voice to people with learning difficulties in a way that her colleague admits that he just can't do. And in practice she'll need to ensure that ministers from different departments all work together on disability issues, when it comes to making policy or commissioning services or providing care. WAITE And what are the key issues that people with learning disabilities will want her to push for? ATKINSON Well charities like Mencap and Scope I've been speaking to this morning, they say it's a very, very good appointment, a great role model at a very high level. They're keen for her to get involved in areas like education - issues like disabled children going to mainstream schools; employment - so that people with mild or moderate learning difficulties can work and thirdly, to get local authorities thinking about people with learning difficulties. Now this afternoon I'm going to be doing a full interview with Nicola Smith and you can hear her response to some of those issues on You and Yours very soon. WAITE Carolyn, thank you. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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