Annual Review 2008

Campaigns

Aspire's Campaigning work exists to raise the profile of many of the issues that affect people with spinal cord injuries. We use the experiences of those we work with, together with the specialist knowledge of our Services Teams, to inform those in Parliament, the media and the general public and work with them to come up with innovative solutions to the problems.

This year, relationships were established with a number of key Parliamentarians, including the Shadow Ministers for Housing, the Shadow Health Minister and the Minister for Care Services. Anne McGuire, Minister for Disabled People, visited the Aspire National Training Centre to see for herself the work carried out by the Charity. She left impressed and invited us to Westminster to discuss in greater depth some of the issues we’re concerned about. At that meeting with the Minister, and some of her colleagues from the Office for Disability Issues, housing dominated the agenda – we’ll be working together to take this further over the coming year.

Housing also featured in two of the more important consultations we responded to; those on the government’s plans for Disabled Facilities Grants and their future strategy for housing as a whole. As well as our own expertise, we used the views and experiences of people with spinal cord injuries to ensure that our contributions raised the issues that matter.

To raise the profile of the issues campaigned on, stories were placed with a number of media outlets, including magazines, newspapers and Radio 4. The interest generated has prompted the BBC to discuss the possibility of featuring Aspire’s Housing Programme on their Breakfast show.

To provide evidence of the scale of the housing issues faced by people with spinal cord injuries, the Campaigns Manager and Housing Manager have been working closely with some of the Spinal Injury Centres to research the housing situations faced by those who are discharged from hospital. The preliminary findings suggest that large numbers of people end up in inappropriate housing and this data will, when completed, form the basis of renewed campaigning on accessible housing. Together with those we have established relationships with in Westminster, and interest from the media, we’ll be looking to put this issue firmly on the agenda.