'I'm not here to write the government's feel-good stories'
This weekend the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) had an exciting announcement about new changing places toilets.
They’re pledging £7 million to create better toilets and changing facilities for disabled people across England.
This is of course great news, but that’s not how the story came to me.
Let me take you back to Wednesday for a tale of twists and turns - and the odd Tory villain or two.
Let’s start with the email that I received on Wednesday morning (February 1) from a press officer at the DLUHC.
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“I wondered if you might be interested in an announcement we have coming up this Saturday for your column in the Mirror.
"We’ll be announcing (embargoed until Saturday morning) £30m for changing places toilets for severely disabled people in the areas they need it the most.”
I had two immediate thoughts here.
Rachel Charlton-Dailey is a disability journalist (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)- Had they read the piece where I trashed the Department for Levelling Up for forgetting the North East and Disabled people?
- This doesn’t sound like a new announcement - that’s because it wasn’t. It was from the now-deemed unlawful National Disability Strategy in 2021.
I was also told that Undersecretary Dehenna Davison was free for an interview.
It’s worth noting that Davison is the MP for Bishop Auckland in the North East. Was it a coincidence I was being offered her? I didn’t think so.
So I asked the press officer if this was the same thing that had been announced in the strategy. I also asked if there was anything else being announced that will benefit disabled people.
In response, I was told: “The Minister would be v happy to answer these all, would you like to interview her for a piece?”
I, of course, said yes, and emails were exchanged confirming it, where I again asked for clarification but received nothing.
It was at 4pm the next day that our first big twist came:
“Bad news I’m afraid – Dehenna no longer has any availability for an interview.”
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That’s right, after offering me the email and confirming the time previously, the minister now suddenly wasn’t available to talk about their own announcement. A bit convenient after I started asking questions and poking holes in the announcement, but I’m sure she’s very busy.
When asked if this was from the previously announced National Disability Strategy, they simply responded “yes”.
But wait for it…
In response to being asked if anything else was being announced that will benefit disabled people I was told: “Please find attached a link to the govt’s disability strategy.”
That’s right, they linked me to the aforementioned now-illegal strategy.
Rachael with Mirror editor Alison Phillips (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)However, there were nine Levelling up pledges in the NDS, of which only Changing Places had been stuck to. This included accessible housing, ensuring the safety of disabled people in emergencies, inaccessible transport, inclusive playground and making high streets more accessible.
So I was obviously going to point that out and ask if they were also announcing those too.
Looking into Changing Places, I also realised this was the second allocation of the 30million Levelling Up funding, with 23.5m already being given out in 2021/22.
So the actual figure, 6.5m, stood at almost five times less than what they’d told me.
The next morning, they finally sent me the press release and notes, which announced that 64 councils would receive a share of £7m funding to build 120 new Changing Places toilets.
They went on to tell me that the 6.5m had been rounded up to 7m, and it would fund 120 new toilets, which was actually closer to 700 - in case I couldn’t do the maths myself.
I was waiting with bated breath for their response to me listing all the pledges in the National Disability Strategy, but wasn’t prepared for the absolute whiplash I was about to receive: “DWP lead on overall disability strategy.”
Yes, after linking me to the NDS, the Department of Levelling Up then refused to answer questions about it.
I asked them to clarify this twice, without somehow typing “WTF?!”, and I’m still yet to get a reply.
On Saturday came the announcement - and here’s the thing, the changing places toilets announcement is good news.
However, the way they tried to present it as five times higher than it was whilst pedalling it as something new, makes it very suspicious.
Especially to a columnist who had slated their department the week before.
This is disabled people’s lives the Tories continuously play with, not a story to plant in an, at times, ridiculous column.
So I won’t be celebrating that it’s taken two years for them to enact one pledge, least of all from an illegal report.
Hopefully, this will teach the Tory party that journalists and columnists report on the things that are important and analyse them in ways that matter to our audience.
As a disability rights journalist, I have a whole community that relies on my reporting.
We’re not here to write about their feel-good stories and we certainly won’t write what they tell us to.
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