Blue Badge reform Survey
3. Findings - Process of Application
3.1 There are significant differences between Local Authorities over the processes of application. If one were to take the position of an applicant the process of application would vary significantly according to the area in which one lived. There are two main routes through the application process; firstly: the statutory criteria/ automatic Badge acceptance route, which varies moderately by area; and secondly the discretionary route which varies significantly by area. (The statutory qualifying criteria are: receipt of Higher Rate Mobility Allowance; and/or War pension mobility Supplement; and/or Armed Forces Compensation Scheme; or being Registered Blind).
3.2 Submission stage: Differences begin at the submission stage – some Local Authorities require direct submission of Blue Badge applications to themselves, whereas one or two receive submissions that have been first routed through the disabled person’s GP. All applications are normally vetted by administrative staff. Those applications which meet the statutory criteria are approved. Where applicable a fee is applied, and the Badge is then granted.
3.3 For those applications which are not automatically granted a plethora of further routes open up, all under the heading of ‘discretionary’. Some applications, particularly those which come directly from a GP may not be seen as requiring any further medical evidence by the Local Authority, in which case the decision will then be taken by the relevant Local Authority member of staff (though who undertakes this decision is not clear from the survey returns).
3.4 For the 10 authorities which require further medical evidence, most will contact the applicant's GP's surgery to ask that they fill out a BB3 or EB3 form and give a supporting explanation, which will form the basis of the decision to grant or not to grant. The BB3 form that GPs are given asks for detail of the reasons a Blue Badge is required.
3.5 Some Authorities ask the applicant to attend a separate medical assessment in addition to taking evidence from applicants’ GPs. Most ask for this to be with one of their Occupational Therapists (OTs) but the Local Authorities in the One Health Board region send their discretionary applicants to a GP centre for assessment by part-time GPs. It is not clear from survey returns whether the same OTs carry out the assessment and make the decision on the grant of a Blue Badge. Some Local Authorities report that they will send an OT for a home visit to assess mobility, in place of attendance at an assessment centre.
3.6 Decision stage: The decision stage shows considerable variance, though some approaches do recur. The most common approach (in 8 or possibly 9 Local Authorities) is for the decision to be taken by an Occupational Therapist, based on evidence from the applicant’s GP or in extremis their consultant. The next most common approach is for the decision to be taken by the applicant’s own GP, which is the case in 4 Local Authorities. For two small remote rural Local Authorities, the GPs who carry out the assessments make the decision on eligibility themselves. In two Local Authorities specialist ‘Blue Badge teams’ take the decision based on the supporting evidence, however there is no information. In other Local Authorities the decision is taken by people in a range of roles including: administrators and senior administrators; Community Care Team leader; Public transport coordinator; physiotherapist; social work community health practitioner.
3.7 Following the decision, those applications which are accepted are granted a Badge (with a fee charged where applicable – see section 7). For those applications which are not immediately accepted some Local Authorities maintain an appeals or review procedure. This normally involves a more senior member of staff looking over the medical evidence, and where relevant allows for the submission of more medical evidence from GPs or consultants where required. This more senior staff member then revisits the assessment and decides to grant or not to grant a Badge.
The process is outlined as a flowchart below:
Chart 1: Local Varieties of the Application Process
