About Us

Our vision

We won’t stop until we achieve a society where all disabled people enjoy equality and fairness.

Our mission

We’re a strong community of disabled and non-disabled people with a shared vision of equality.

We provide practical advice and emotional support whenever people need them most. We do this through our Scope helpline, our online community, a range of employment and family services, community engagement programmes, and more. All of our services are developed to achieve our strategy, Everyday Equality.

We use our collective power to change attitudes and end injustice. We partner with others to increase our reach and impact. And we campaign relentlessly to create a fairer society.

The last year has been incredibly challenging for everyone. While the pandemic has disrupted all our lives, it’s disabled people who’ve been hit hardest. A shocking 6 in 10 people who’ve died from Covid-19 were disabled.

Disability in the UK

There are 14 million disabled people in the UK. That’s one in five of us. Yet, we know that life is unequal and much harder for disabled people.

• Many families with disabled children still don’t receive the support they need. And they face extra costs directly linked to their child’s disability.
• The number of disabled people in work is still much lower than non-disabled people – despite there being more than 1 million disabled people who want to work.
• Disabled people still face too many barriers in everyday life. These include physical barriers, like buildings not having accessible toilets. Or they can be caused by people’s negative attitudes, like assuming disabled people can’t do certain things.

Our impact

Everything we do at Scope is focused on tackling the inequalities disabled people and their families face. We provide information, advice and support to disabled people and their families and we campaign to influence public policy, change attitudes and end injustice. Working together with a range of partners, such as employers and energy companies, as well as the government, we make sure our recommendations are put in place to drive lasting change.

In 2020/21, we reached more than 2.5 million disabled people and their families through our support and advice services – that’s half a million more people than the year before.

• We supported 1,687 disabled families so they could be more resilient and their children could get the best start in life.
• We supported 1,897 disabled people to move closer to or get into work.
• We had 29,365 calls to our helpline, 1,292,906 conversations in our online community, and 1,283,026 views of our online information and advice.

Last year, we grew the number of people campaigning with Scope for Everyday Equality to 47,000. Together we have:

• Written to the Prime Minister asking for disabled people to be included in the government’s coronavirus response and recovery plans. The letter was signed by 30,000 people and organisations.
• Made sure the Work and Pensions Select Committee listened to disabled people in its inquiry into disability employment. With our support, 300 disabled people shared their experiences of work with the Committee.
• Made sure the government prioritised disabled people who were shielding for online supermarket delivery slots. We worked with other charities to encourage supermarkets to drop delivery charges for disabled people who were shielding.
• Secured changes from the Office of Rail and Road to make rail replacement services accessible so that disabled people aren’t stranded.

In partnership with others we have:

• Made sure disabled people on low incomes have financial support with their energy bills, by working with Fair By Design to secure an extension to the Warm Home Discount scheme.
• Published new research with the Social Market Foundation into the experiences of disabled people using the welfare system. We used this to influence the government’s forthcoming Health and Disability Green Paper.
• Influenced the forthcoming National Disability Strategy, as part of the Disability Charities Consortium, by publishing our own collective manifesto for change.
• Called on the government to fill the health and social care funding gap for disabled children, by adding our voice to the #GiveItBack campaign as a member of the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP).