Question: What is the pets passport strategy?

Tom Pey: The UK government brought in a scheme called the Pets Passport Scheme in order to allow pet owners to bring their animals into and out of the United Kingdom, which as you know is a rabies free zone. This opened the door to international possibilities, especially for guide dog owners.

The Pet’s Passport Scheme operates reasonably well, although in a restrictive sense. In England and Wales all of the legislation is in place, but in Scotland it doesn’t work at all. This is due to there being no appetite for it to succeed on the part of the transport providers in Scotland.

If I wanted to go on a weekend to Amsterdam, I could fly out of Glasgow with my guide dog but I couldn’t fly back in, I would have to come back in to Heathrow or Gatwick and then take the train back up to Scotland.

Question: Why is there no appetite for this to be implemented by the transport operators or the Scottish executive?

Tom Pey: The reason for that is they see it as a too much of an additional cost because they have to administer the scheme for and on behalf of the DEFRA in Scotland or DEFRA in England and Wales.

It adds costs, you have to have facilities in place at airports, on ships and they don’t want to do that. But the main reason is of course that the Scottish Executive themselves have not gone out, as was done in England and Wales, and marketed the Pets Passport Scheme in Scotland to transport providers. 

In England Wales DEFRA, to their credit, went out and got the transport providers on board with them, this has not happened in Scotland to the detriment of the Dog users and in particular to guide dog owners

Question: How does the government justify its reduction in expenditure on social care for the blind and partially sighted people over the last 5 years?

Tom Pey: The government has never justified anything it has done in the provision of social care for blind and partially sighted people. It is one of the great hidden social injustices of our time. 75 per cent of blind and partially sighted people are unemployed and nothing has been done to help them and the same has occurred in the provision of social care.

Guide Dogs research indicates that there are 200,000 blind and partially sighted people in the United Kingdom who receive  no or inadequate free mobility  and therefore are at risk outside of their homes when they are moving around.

The reason for this is, and any director of social services will tell you, is that the provision of social care for blind and partially sighted people is what is called a “Cinderella” service. In other words this is a low priority service. The reason it is low priority  partly because there are many different pressures on social services budgets. 

The government also introduced a new policy called “Fair Access to Care Service“ this meant before when the person required a social service for any reason they were assessed, but now their needs are ranked in importance so they are scored against a criteria but criteria changes from Local Authority to Local Authority.

This results in a postcode lottery on whether or not you will get a service, but more importantly it means that over time any budgets that there have been placed for social care for blind people will move away and be put into what would be seen by local authorities as being more pressing services. 

We don’t want to argue that other areas are not as important, but can one justify imprisoning people in their homes because Local Authorities don’t have or are unwilling to provide the budget to get them outside safely - it is horrendous. Sensory impairment is the only disability where over the last five years government spending or local authority spending has decreased.

Question: Are you campaigning against the postcode lottery on whether or not you receive a service? How are you doing this?

Tom Pey: We have spoken to colleagues throughout the sector and there has been unanimous support for Guide Dogs to come out and speak against this, and we will be doing so over the coming year until government turns around and does something about it.

Question: What exactly is walking strategy?

Tom Pey: The Walking Strategy is exactly what it says it is; it is about walking around and it is about walking around safely whether you are blind, disabled, or able bodied. Walking is a healthy, enjoyable activity and it is relatively cheap. People who are disabled and therefore more likely to be on benefits should be encouraged to walk.

It also of course means that your general wellbeing and mental state are much improved. But even if you are able bodied the environment isn’t always conducive to walking around. People throw litter on the streets, they leave their rubbish out to be collected, there are many overhanging branches, and these all become obstacles. They are obstacles not just to blind people but to disabled and able bodied people.

We are about to publish a document called Walking Strategy and we have offered it to government as a way of encouraging the nation to take up walking again and increase their health.

It may see some changes to the law that might be required in order to allow freer access to the countryside and the pathways. It is about making sure that in rural areas there are safe paths for people to walk on and in particular to make sure the environment is accessible for blind and partially sighted people.

Question: How much support have you had from the government to implement this? You are obviously helping to implement other of there policies.

Tom Pey: I have to say the early indications from government are that they are delighted with the work that we have done. We are trying to work with government on this.

Government have been struggling themselves to put together a cohesive walking strategy. We have consulted very widely not just with the disabled community but also with people like the ramblers association so that we have got a clear picture of everybody’s requirements.

The government are currently carefully considering the strategy and they are likely to make a statement on what they think within the next couple of weeks. We expect to get good support in implementing this.

On March  9th we are launching our walking strategy at the House of Common  as part of our Safer Streets campaign – which aims to highlight the difficulties our often-cluttered street environment creates for visually impaired people.

Question: When do you hope to have the walking strategy in place and where will be the first places to benefit from it?

Tom Pey: We would like for the government to announce a timetable to implement the first part of the walking strategy with which they agree and begin reasons and solutions for those areas where they may need to make amendments. So although I cant tell you exactly when the strategy will be in place, we are looking for immediate positive action.

Question: What would you say in general the future really holds for the Guide Dogs in terms of what you are planning on doing next?

Tom Pey: The government unwittingly practices discrimination against visually impaired people. If you loose and arm or a leg then when the surgeon has treated you, you would be sent down the corridor to an occupational therapist who will help with your fitting of prosthesis, and help to show you how to get around.

If you loose you eye then a piece of paper goes to your local authority and you might or might not get a service. We find that to be totally discriminatory in the first instance and unacceptable in the second instance and we will be campaigning against that vigorously over the coming years.