HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

cabinet

monday, 17 october 2011 at 2.00pm

NATIONAL CHANGES TO THE BLUE BADGE SCHEME

Report of the Director Health Community Services

Author: Iain MacBeath, Assistant Director, Performance and Business Support (Tel: 01992 556363)

Executive Member: Colette Wyatt-Lowe, Health and Adult Care

1. Purpose Of Report

1.1.  To inform Cabinet of national changes to the blue badge parking scheme for disabled people, including changes to the amount that local authorities are allowed to charge for a blue badge.

2.  Summary

2.1.  The Department for Transport (DfT) has issued details of reform of the Blue Badge scheme which includes:

§  Transfer of responsibilities for independent medical assessments for Blue Badge applicants from Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to local authorities;

§  Requirement for a new independent assessment of mobility;

§  Extension of the scheme to young children with disabilities, military personnel and veterans;

§  Proposed new temporary Blue Badges for injuries lasting more than one year (decision by DfT by end of 2011);

§  Establishment of a new national Blue Badge production service which incorporates fraud prevention technology;

§  New fraud prevention initiatives;

§  Ability for councils to increase the Blue Badge charge from £2 to £10.

2.2.  The Department of Health provided new revenue monies to local authorities from 2011/12 to meet the additional costs of the national badge production service and independent assessments over and above the additional income which can be generated from increased charges.

3. Recommendations

3.1  The Health and Adult Care Cabinet Panel will consider a report on this item of business at its meeting on 6 October 2011. The recommendation being made to the Panel is that the Panel recommend to Cabinet:-

“That Cabinet agrees that the charge made for a Blue Badge (valid for three years) be increased from £2 to £10 from 1 January 2012.”

3.2  The Panel is also being invited to note the Equality Impact Assessment (attached as Appendix 1).

3.3 The recommendation(s) of the Panel will be reported orally at the meeting and circulated to Members in the Order Sheet.

4  Background

4.1  The Department for Transport have published details of the new Blue Badge Improvement Service (BBIS). The main changes are contained in the table below.

4.2  The Department for Health provided new on-going revenue monies from 2011/12 for blue badge reforms and these are sufficient to cover the new costs of the national scheme.

/ Blue Badge Reform / When / Impact on HCC /
1 / Transfer of current NHS spend on GP eligibility assessments to local authorities (received April 2011) / April 2011 / Received, budget covers all medical assessments. Currently the County Council Blue Badge service spends £15k pa, this is projected to increase significantly – see next reform measure.
2 / Regulations will be amended to require an applicant’s eligibility to be confirmed through wider use of independent mobility assessments. / 2012/12 / New guidance will be issued on administration and eligibility assessments. Secondary legislation (2012) will require the wider use of independent mobility assessments to determine eligibility. This will seek to ensure that only those who are unable or have severe difficulty in walking receive Blue Badges; that eligibility is not solely based on diagnosis. Spend on these ‘independent’ assessments will increase – an indicative price is £40.
3 / Eligibility to be extended to disabled children under the age of 3 with specific medical conditions. / May 2011 / The scheme will be extended to some disabled children under the age of 3
4 / Provide automatic entitlement to severely disabled military service personnel and veterans. / May 2011 / This will not have a material impact on numbers of applications.
5 / Decision to be made whether to extend to people with a severe ‘temporary’ disability - lasting over one year. / Late 2011 / This has potential to significantly increase the number of applications received, and subsequently the number of eligibility assessments. A decision will be made by the DfT by the end of 2011.
6 / Establish with local authorities a common service improvement project. To establish on line application facility.
Enable automatic renewals for those whose circumstances do not change.
New arrangements for printing and distributing new badges. To prevent fraud, and enable cancellation, lost, stolen badges. / End 2011
Early 2012 / The County Council will participate in the provision of a web based management information system, and online application facility via direct.gov
Provide a secure printing, personalising, supplying and distribution of badges. Store key information to enable verification checks to be made quickly and easily by authorised personnel.
The supplier will be providing all of the above and will have the system live for the 1 January 2012. Local authorities will continue to be responsible for the customer end of the Blue Badge service.
Costs: Local authorities will pay only for the badges issued and enforcing authorities will be able to access data for free. Indicative price is £4.96 each.
7 / New or amended powers for local authorities to tackle abuse and fraud. / 2011 to 2014 / The new powers link to the ‘common store of badge holders’ this would reduce the time currently spent on misuse/fraud.
8 / The badge fee can be raised from £2 to £10 / 1 Jan 2012 / Potential for the administration of the service to be self financing. Local Authorities can begin charging the new maximum fee from 1 January 2012.

4.3  The Blue Badge Team sits within Health and Community Services Money Advice Unit and comprises 4 administrators (3.3 full-time equivalent (FTE) posts) and 2 assessors (1.5 FTE). Unit management is provided and funded from the Money Advice Unit (estimated 0.5 FTE). The gross revenue staffing budget is £150k. £38k of income is collected annually. The team provides:

§  Telephone advice and guidance;

§  Processing of badge applications, payment and manufacture (currently there is a non refundable charge of £2);

§  Badge replacements (lost, stolen, damaged);

§  Badge enquiries (by third parties - police, parking authorities, etc.);

§  Appeals.

4.4  Current and anticipated blue badge activity levels are:

Actual
2010/11 / Planned
2011/12 / Planned 2012/13
Numbers of applications / 19,300 / 21,300 / 23,300
Of which:
Issued following assessment / 13,377 / 14,800 / 16,190
Replacement badges / 407 / 450 / 492
Declined (not eligible) / 262 / 290 / 317
Automatic entitlement (e.g. benefits) / 4392 / 4,859 / 5,315
Issued to Organisations / 299 / 331 / 362
Terminal illness / 329 / 364 / 398
New badge types (estimate) / 200
Temporary one-year badges (est.) / 1,500
Total number of badges issued / 19,066 / 21,094 / 24,774

5  Financial Implications

5.1  The table below sets out the expenditure on the Blue Badge scheme in terms of staffing, payment for the new Blue Badge improvement service (badge manufacture) and requirement for new independent assessments. New on-going health reform revenue monies have been received from 2011/12 to meet the costs and additional income can be generated by increasing the charge to £10 per badge. The overall impact on Council budgets is, therefore, neutral.

Actual
2010/11 / Budget 2011/12 / Planned
2012/13
Expenditure / (000s) / (000s) / (000s)
Salaries and salary-related / 139 / 164 / 139
Transport related / 2 / 2 / 2
Supplies and sundries / 10 / 19 / 2
Payment to new BBIS services / 121
Independent assessments / 15 / 728
Income
New health reform revenue / (45) / (634)
Charges for blue badges / (38) / (42) / (245)
Overall HCC budget / 113 / 113 / 113

6  Equality Implications

6.1  When considering proposals placed before Members it is important that they are fully aware of, and have themselves actively considered, the Council’s statutory obligations in relation to equalities. This will include paying close attention to any equalities impact assessment produced by officers.

6.2  The Equality Act 2010 requires the Council when exercising its functions to have due regard to the need to (a) eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and other conduct prohibited under the Act; (b) advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it and (c) foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. The protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 are: race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religious belief and pregnancy & maternity.

6.3  An Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) has been undertaken and this is annexed at Appendix 1. The EqIA analysis concludes that there is no potential for discrimination and, therefore, no additional actions over and above those proposed have been identified.

Background Information

·  Blue Badge Reform Programme Documents

·  National Impact Assessment 7.12.10

·  Letter from Norman Baker to Local Authorities 14.2.2011

·  Summary of the Blue Badge Reforms 14.2.2011

·  Blue Badge Reform Programme (FAQ’S) February 2011

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Appendix 1

Equality Impact Assessment

Project title / Blue Badge Improvement Services
(Increasing the Blue Badge Charge)
Lead officer completing the assessment / Ann Norway / Council for the Future workstream / Promoting independence, personalisation, and early intervention
Contact details / 01438 843590
Comnet 53590 / Date completed / 22.8.11
Others involved in preparing assessment / Sheila Bowles / Assessment review date / August 2012

STEP 2: Identify the project objectives and scope of the assessment

Project objectives:
–  Intended outcomes
–  Purpose and need / The Department of Transport are implementing the Blue Badge Improvement Service. The focus of which is the introduction of a new high security Blue Badge, which will respond to the public and law enforcement agencies concerns regarding fraud and misuse of the current ‘cardboard’ Blue Badges. There will be an increase in cost to the local authority as a result of these changes.
The current maximum fee that the local authority can charge for the issuing of a badge (valid for three years) is £2.00, which does not cover the administrative costs. Once the new high security badges become available on 1 January 2012, the local authority will be charged £4.60 per badge issued. The Government is introducing legislation that will allow local authorities to charge a maximum of £10.00 (for the three year period) to those who are eligible for a Blue Badge. This will more closely align the costs of administrating the service to those who directly benefit from the use of the Blue Badge. There will also be a central on-line application facility with an eligibility checker and on-line payment facility
Stakeholders:
–  Internal, external, local Member / Blue Badge Team
Applicants for Blue Badges :
Carers
CSC
Families
Enforcement Officers
Police
GPs
Health Care Professionals
Hospices
Age UK
CAB
Carers in Herts
HAD

STEP 3: Available data and monitoring information

Available equality information / What does the data tell us about equalities /
Data and monitoring information / Actual
2010/11 / Planned
2011/12 / Planned 2012/13
Total number of badges issued / 18,804 / 21,095 / 24,457
Those who are in receipt of a Blue Badge will have significant difficulty in walking or be unable to walk or registered as blind.
This includes disabled people, older people, families with children under the age of 3 who have mobility problems and service personnel with mobility problems.
Data records the number of badge holders with automatic entitlement and therefore in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit and already assessed as having severe mobility problems. (These badge holders maybe low income but no data to show this.)
Data available on applicants that need to be assessed and those that have been rejected for a badge.
Data available on the number of disabled children eligible for a badge and the number of children in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit (may be low income families but no data to evidence this.)
Data available on the age, ethnicity etc
Complaints/ enquiries / None known in relation to charging
Audits or inspections / None undertaken in relation to charging.
Local knowledge consultations/ engagement / None undertaken due to the availability of the detailed consultation under taken by the Department for Transport.
Equality information from national sources / The Department of Transport carried out a survey with Blue Badge holders that suggested that 68% of badge holders supported an increase in the current £2 fee. When asked how much would be a fair price, 25% thought it would be fair to charge over £10, however 59% thought it should be between £3 and £10.
Other / The change in legislation allows Local Authorities to determine the charge for a Blue Badge but limits that charge to a maximum of £10.00 for up to 3 years that the badge is valid. This is inline with the localism agenda.
Gaps identified – do you need to collect more data / information or carry out consultation? / No

STEP 4: Impact Assessment

Protected characteristic / Potential for negative impact and how you will mitigate against this / Opportunity to advance equality of opportunity and/or foster good relations
Age / Considered but no issues identified / Promotion of the Blue Badge Scheme to all sections of the community.
Disability / There is a defined assessment process to determine eligibility for a blue badge.
Possible impact for low income individuals, families and carers especially in areas of high deprivation.
Those who are eligible will have benefits in relation to a reduced or no parking charges; Increase in parking spaces. More efficient service / Positive impact for families and carers with a possible increase in parking spaces due to less fraud/misuse; fewer badges being issued due to on-line eligibility checker thereby reducing applications from those who clearly do not meet the eligibility criteria.
Provision of on-line application and payment.
Speeding up the process for renewal applications for those with automatic entitlement.
Fostering good relations with GPs by requesting fewer medical reports
Race / Considered but no issues identified. / Promotion of the Blue Badge Scheme to all sections of the community
Gender reassignment / Considered but no issues identified / Promotion of the Blue Badge Scheme to all sections of the community
Pregnancy and maternity / Considered but no issues identified / Promotion of the Blue Badge Scheme to all sections of the community
Religion or belief / Considered but no issues identified / Promotion of the Blue Badge Scheme to all sections of the community
Sex / Considered but no issues identified / Promotion of the Blue Badge Scheme to all sections of the community
Sexual orientation / Considered but no issues identified / Promotion of the Blue Badge Scheme to all sections of the community
Marriage & civil partnership / Considered but no issues identified / Promotion of the Blue Badge Scheme to all sections of the community.
·  People spanning more than one group could be impacted on differently
·  Full records should be kept separate from this EqIA report
·  Follow the link for information on what could amount to unlawful discrimination.
The conclusion of your analysis / Select one / Give details
No major change
The evidence shows no potential for discrimination and you have taken appropriate opportunities to advance equality and foster good relations. / x / The majority of Blue Badge holders are willing to pay the increased fee (DfT survey 2008). There are advantages to having a Blue Badge in reduced or no parking charges. The improvements to the security features in the badge will reduce fraud and the misuse of designated blue badge bays.
Possible impact for low income individuals, families and carers in areas of deprivation will be mitigated by advantages of less fraud /misuse, more parking spaces, more efficient service
Adjust the policy
Take ‘mitigating action’ to remove barriers or better advance equality.
Ensure decision makers understand the equality impact. / Complete the action plan in the next section.
Continue the policy
Adverse impacts have been identified, but have been objectively justified (provided you do not unlawfully discriminate).
Ensure decision makers understand the equality impact. / Ensure you consider if the cumulative effect of a number of decisions impact on equality. Where appropriate inform elected Members of potential equality impacts.
Stop and remove the policy
The adverse effects are not justified, cannot be mitigated or show unlawful discrimination.
Ensure decision makers understand the equality impact.

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