As a small Disabled persons-led group we were very pleased to have been contacted by Radio 4’s popular Today Programme to take part in a discussion about disabled and older people having support to go shopping.

The item followed on from the highly publicised debate about 15 minute care calls (see previous news item). When one disabled lady called Sally commented on the radio that she would like to just be able to get out and go shopping, the Today Programme received a lot of feedback (‘traffic’). This prompted them to have a specific item about this issue.

Active Independence had tweeted about this sometime ago as we were finding a number of assessment officers telling Disabled people that they did not need additional hours for shopping as they had access to a laptop and the internet. The Today programme picked up the tweet and we were invited to the BBC Sheffield studio give our perspective on this issue.

Barbara gave the interview on behalf of Active Independence and although it was fairly short she managed to include a few important points: It is fundamentally about CHOICE, both for the individual and for our society as we must decide how much we cut the money available for care. Going shopping is part of everyday life and often the focus of the week for many Disabled and older people; it is about social contact, human-to-human.

You can listen to the item on BBC iplayer!