enabling, empowering, & enhancing
...the lives of people with disabilities
Formation of Inspire
Inspire was formed following a Best Value Review of the London Borough of Bexley’s own service for people with physical and sensory impairments, carried out between April 2002 and July 2003. Afterwards, the Council tendered to transfer services to an independent, not-for-profit, user-led organisation with an Independent Living Centre (ILC) model.
A project group was formed with representatives from the London Borough of Bexley, voluntary organisations (with an interest in disability issues) and people with disabilities who used local services. Following this, a new independent organisation was created to provide services for people with disabilities. The detailed work was undertaken by a multi-agency project team, which involved various partners and service users. As a result, Inspire was formed in November 2004. Contract negotiation took place between the period from November 2004 and February 2005 in order to transfer 35 staff to Inspire, together with the Council’s physical & sensory impairment services and Direct Payment Support Services for all service user groups, by 1 March, 2005.
Although the main purpose of the Best Value Review was to look at existing physical and sensory impairment services, Inspire emerged as an organisation that also took a lead in developing and providing direct payment support services to all user groups. These included parents and carers of children and adolescents with disabilities, and people with learning disabilities and mental health issues.
