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HAFCAC sadly decides to close from March 31st 2021

After 15 amazing years of successful campaigning, Hammersmith & Fulham Coalition Against Cuts (HAFCAC) have taken the very difficult decision to close the organisation.

We are very sad that HAFCAC will be coming to an end but recognise that since we started campaigning as a small group of Disabled people in 2006, we have achieved huge and lasting change including….

1.           We set out to end charging Disabled residents by HF Council
for essential Independent Living ('home care') support.

This was achieved in 2015 making us now the only Local Authority in England not to charge since April 2015. This is not just for 'personal care' but all forms of community support provided following a community care assessment.

2.           We set out to get the HF Council to 'ring fence' funding
for Independent Living Fund support packages after the government fund
close in June 2015.

This was achieved in June 2015 after the Council committed to ring fence support for Disabled people locally initially until  2020. This has continued into 2021. No other Local Authority in England made such a commitment.

3.           We set out to get back a locally run direct payment support
service that is run by a local Disabled People's Organisation (DPO) and
local direct payment users.

This was achieved when the local DPO, Action on Disability (AOD), were commissioned to set up and deliver the new Direct Payment Support Service in early 2020. The previous service was closed in 2012 when the previous administration took it in house.

More recently, HAFCAC fed directly into the development of a local Disabled People's Commission, the first in the country and has resulted in HF Council making a ground breaking commitment to co-producing policies and services with Disabled people in the borough.

The Covid 19 pandemic has taken a huge toll on every single contributor to HAFCAC, the steering group, members, staff and allies. Despite attempts to build new capacity into our steering group we are struggle to keep everything going.

We are very sad that HAFCAC is coming to an end but we hope our successes inspire more Disabled people to take action, campaign and work, where possible, with people who make decisions to end the wide ranging discrimination and exclusion our community experience every day of our lives.

 

Hammersmith and Fulham Coalition Against Cuts (HAFCAC) is a campaign group led by and for Disabled people in Hammersmith and Fulham.

We set HAFCAC up 14 years ago to campaign to end homecare charging in the borough and in 2014 we achieved our goal – Hammersmith & Fulham is now the only borough in England that doesn’t charge older and Disabled people for ‘homecare’ services.

Since then we have been busy campaigning for co-production. Co-production means local Disabled people directly making decisions about services that affect them.

In November 2018 the Hammersmith and Fulham council agreed a trailblazing new model of co-production, making co-production the default way they make decisions in the borough.

Stephen Cowan, leader of the Council, is a big supporter and has said "H&F Council is committed to doing things with residents and not to them."

We’d love to hear from local Disabled people who want to join HAFCAC and get involved - we’re always open to new members and campaigners.

Join in our success