Mr. Damien Walsh:

No but the response given was they did not know that. They said they could change it either in their own CHO area or raise the matter at a national level. My example of a DPO shows that disabled can and do think strategically given the time and space to do so.

Let us consider an access officer in a local authority. People will say they recognise the council has limitations in resources but this is their priority, get this done first and then move on to this. It is like the "Wizard of Oz", where the curtain is pulled back and you say this is how local government works, which allows the representatives state that the council cannot do this now but will do this first. That means people are now directly involved as opposed to the traditional system where disabled people have no voice and are outside of the decision-making structures. That is an extremely important aspect.

On personalised budgets, in the review that will take place, we need to look at removing as much bureaucracy as possible.