Upholding Human Rights: promoting the vote for adults with learning disabilities 

All people over the age of 18 in England have the right to vote.  Registering to vote for the first time is a key rite of passage from being a child to being an adult.  For many people that first vote is one of the first times that they consciously weigh up and use evidence in making a decision. 

And yet, in the UK people with disabilities are far less likely to be registered to vote or to cast a vote in local or national elections, meaning that they are excluded from this collective decision making. When it comes to the participation of adults with learning disabilities in elections, they are less likely than their non-disabled peers to register and to vote.  There is growing evidence that adults with learning disabilities find the paperwork to register and the process of voting confusing and, although Section 73 of the Electoral Administration Act (2006) abolished mental incapacity as grounds to prevent someone from being able to participate in elections, there is still a misperception that adults who lack ‘capacity’ cannot vote. 

In Bradford, people with disabilities told us that they wanted us to support their activism in tackling these issues. We call this work ‘Promote the Vote’. Since 2017, social workers in Bradford have developed the Promote the Vote campaign, working alongside supported living providers to ensure that adults with learning disabilities understand their right to vote and are supported to do so when they choose to exercise that right.  

We have been collating data in Bradford since 2017 and results show that when adults are supported to register and to vote, they are five times more likely to use their democratic voice. Each year before the elections, we go out to all our supported living houses and complete audits in each home of how many residents are registered to vote. After the election, we return and complete another review of how many residents voted and if they did what practical support helped them. We have been assisted to analyse our data by Professor Chris Hatton from the Learning Disability and Autism research group at Manchester Metropolitan University, which Elaine James, Head of Adults with Disabilities Bradford Council, is also a member of. 

In Bradford we believe that the ability to cast your vote is central to rights-based practice. The support offered by social workers through this campaign is key to making explicit the connections for people between voting and the right to make other decisions about their lives including being able to choose how to spend their days and deciding where and who they want to live with. 

Promote the Vote is a call to action to social workers with two aims: 

• To support adults with social care needs to understand that they have the right to vote and to participate in local and national elections.  

• Where people decide that they want to exercise their right to vote, they are supported to do so either in person or by other means (postal or proxy) with practical assistance and resources.  

In the run up to the local elections in May, Promote the Vote is again underway. Social workers and social work students are working with supported living providers and care homes to establish if: 

• They have a policy on voting 

• Staff receive training on voting rights 

• They include support for people to be able to vote in their support plans. 

Supporting staff and residents with guidance 

Social workers visit settings to discuss with staff and residents their right to vote, registering to vote, ways to vote and ways in which individuals can be supported to cast their vote. Each supported living setting receives a pack of resources to help staff in supporting residents. These include a series of easy-read guides to local elections, the role of local councilors, registering to vote and postal voting. These guides were developed by a local community group (Bradford Talking Media) and a local group of learning-disabled adults. Alongside the guides, each person receives a Voting Passport. This document sets out the type of support needed if voting in-person and is meant to be taken along to the polling station so that polling clerks are aware of these support needs. All polling staff in Bradford receive training on the Voting Passport alongside information on reasonable adjustments. After the elections, a follow-up visit is carried out to establish how many people voted and whether there were any barriers to people being able to vote if they wanted to. 

Work is also carried out with the special schools (adults with learning disabilities and complex disabilities) in the Bradford district to ensure that young people who will be able to vote for the first time receive information and support. Mock polling events are run in the schools and at different venues across the city, helping to give people a taste of what voting in person is like and to build their confidence in the process. As more social workers take part each year a bank of expertise is being built up, which means that more experienced workers can support those new to the campaign, as well as social work students.  

So how can you be involved in Promoting the Vote as a social worker?  Here are three suggestions to get you started: 

1. Access online resources which are easier to understand and may be helpful for adults with social care needs – the Electoral Commission has links to lots of resources to help specific groups. 

2. Talk to people you support to make sure they know about their right to register to vote, how to get support if needed to vote in person and to check that they have the correct form of Voter ID.   

3. Ask care staff employed by providers supporting people with social care needs about whether their organisation:  

• Has a policy on voting. 

• Provides their staff with training on how to support the right to register and vote. 

• Include support for people to register and to vote in their support plans. 

Social workers in Bradford worked with the British Association of Social Workers to develop this helpful guide to Promote the Vote: Promote the Vote: A BASW Practice Guide | BASW 

This blog has been authored by Elaine James, Clare Reeves and Rob Mitchell from Bradford Council’s Adults with Disabilities Team.