About Us
History
The History of NCIL – How did we get here?
In 1989 the European Network on Independent Living was formed to campaign for the right to independent living. This led to the establishment of the United Kingdom Independent Living Committee which was part of British Council of Disabled People (BCODP, now called United Kingdom Disabled Peoples Council) In 1996 BCODP decided to set up the National Centre for independent Living to consolidate and co-ordinate all the policy and campaigning work that was being done around independent living and, in particular, to pursue the campaign for direct payments.
One of the first achievements of the independent living committee and NCIL was persuading the government to bring in legislation to make direct payments for social care lawful. The Community Care (Direct Payments) Act was passed in 1996. Since then NCIL has continued to pursue the aim of independent living for all disabled people, has worked on promoting and implementing direct payments, and has supported the work of its member centres for independent living.
In 2003 NCIL and BCODP decided to go their separate ways forming two organisations in their own right. From its office base in London, NCIL has had considerable success in arguing for disabled people to have choice and control over how we live our lives. Direct payments have laid the foundations for self-directed support upon which initiatives such as individual budgets are now building. The work of NCIL has proved to be pivotal in changing the landscape of services for disabled people so that all main political parties now accept that self-directed support is the way forward.