CLP Disability Officer

Ensure your CLP is accessible and inclusive, and support engagement with disabled members and communities.

As CLP Disability Officer, you represent disabled members within your local party and help ensure they are able to participate fully. You also play a key role in improving accessibility and ensuring your CLP engages effectively with disabled people in the community.

This role suits someone who is organised, approachable and committed to improving accessibility and inclusion.

What success looks like

A strong Disability Officer helps create a local party that is:

• Accessible – barriers to participation are reduced
• Inclusive – members feel supported and able to take part
• Active – more members are involved in activity and campaigning
• Engaged – strong connections with disabled people in the community

What you’ll do

Support accessibility and inclusion

• Help ensure meetings, venues and materials are accessible
• Work with officers to identify and remove barriers to participation
• Encourage disabled members to take part in activity, take on roles within the CLP, become conference delegates and stand for elected office

Build engagement within the CLP

• Create opportunities for disabled members to connect and get involved
• Support members to participate fully in meetings and activity
• Encourage participation in campaigning and leadership

Engage with disabled people in the community

• Support campaigning that engages disabled people locally
• Build links with organisations and networks where appropriate
• Help ensure campaigns reflect issues affecting disabled people

Work with officers and structures

• Work with the CLP Secretary and Chair to improve accessibility
• Support the Policy Officer to reflect experiences in policy discussions
• Link with Disability Labour and other relevant networks where appropriate

How you’ll work with others

You’ll work with officers and members to support inclusion, engagement and participation.

• CLP Chair – supports a culture of inclusion
• CLP Secretary – helps organise accessible meetings and communication
• Policy Officer – works with you to reflect experiences in policy
• Other equalities officers – collaborate to improve inclusion

Top tips to get you started

• Focus on practical improvements – small changes matter
• Ask and listen – understand what support is needed
• Work with others – accessibility is a shared responsibility
• Be proactive – identify and address barriers early
• Keep improving – inclusion is ongoing

Your first 90 days

• Meet with officers to understand current arrangements
• Review accessibility of meetings and communication
• Introduce yourself and make your role visible
• Identify and implement initial improvements

Tools, guidance and support

• Organise – support communication and engagement at http://organise.labour.org.uk
• Training and resources – available via www.labour.org.uk/resources and the CLP Hub on Labour Learn at https://learn.labour.org.uk/clp-hub
• Disability Labour – the national affiliate supporting disabled members at www.disabilitylabour.org.uk

If you need support or advice, you can contact the CLP Support team on [email protected], or your regional office, or Scottish or Welsh Labour.