Having Quinns is a bit like running a small organisation. As well as my day to day caring responsibilities (feeding, changing, administering medicines) there are appointments; health (OT, Physio, Orthotics etc), equipment (chairs, standing frames etc) and education (SLT, eye gaze) and meetings (TAC (Team around the child), Staged intervention).

Sometimes there’s more than one appointment in a day and of course there’s always homework. It takes a certain amount of skill to ensure it all fits into family life.

Then of course there’s the paperwork. It already fills two lever arch files despite me throwing out general appointment letters and Quinns only being three years old!

On top of all that there’s no escaping the law. I find myself having to read legislation all too often. At the moment it’s the Equality Act 2010. The following are the sections that I am particularly interested in –

Part 2 Chapter 1 Section 6 defines disability as ‘a physical or mental impairment’

Chapter 2 Section 20 states ‘where a physical feature puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage in relation to a relevant matter in comparison with persons who are not disabled, to take such steps as it is reasonable to have to take to avoid the disadvantage.’ e.g a reasonable adjustment must be made such as ‘a) removing the physical feature in question, (b) altering it, or (c) providing a reasonable means of avoiding it.’

Part 4 Section 36 ‘A duty to make reasonable adjustments applies to—
(a) a controller of let premises;
(b)a controller of premises to let;’

So basically if you run a business whether in leased or owned premises you must make reasonable adjustments for a disabled person i.e. if there are stairs you must provide a lift or a suitable alternative that does not involve the stairs.

And all that law was just in order to be able to respond to a party invitation!

Dedicated to Professor David Lessels who taught me so much.