United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD): The Scottish Government’s Draft Delivery Plan 2016-2020

158-160 Balgreen Road
Edinburgh

Overall Down’s Syndrome Scotland is of the view that the four outcomes presented here cover most of the key areas the Scottish Government and its partners should focus on.
However we strongly believe that ‘equal and inclusive access to support for speech, language and communication needs’ should be addressed as another key area throughout the delivery plan. Indeed achieving the four outcomes above will only be possible if disabled children, young people and adults are able to communicate and exchange with others, whether within their families, at school, at work or in their local community. If disabled people are able to share their views, discuss their concerns or simply chat to their friends, their rights will be enhanced and their quality of life will improve. Communication skills represent a crucial tool for everyone, including people with Down’s syndrome (Ds), but nowadays access to support for speech, language and communication remains a significant challenge for many children and adults with Ds. There should therefore be a specific outcome focusing on the importance of communication skills and the need for disabled people to be given opportunities and necessary resources to acquire relevant skills all through life. This outcome should also emphasise the duty of society as a whole to listen to disabled people and engage with them.
The plan does not ignore communication as it is identified in section 3 as one of the ‘cross-cutting’ themes. However the focus of that section (3.2) is clearly on making sure that information is available in accessible formats. So far the plan does not therefore address the fact that in order to access that information and discuss its content disabled people need to possess the required communication skills. In terms of communication, the current plan appears to only focus on one side of the communication process. Consequently Down’s Syndrome Scotland is of the view that more attention should be given by the Scottish Government to that specific issue throughout the plan so that services are able to meet the UNCRPD requirements in the near future.
Finally, on another note, it is not clear why ‘including support for disabled children’ is specifically mentioned in relation to outcome 2 and none of the others. In our view each of the other outcomes also works towards improving the lives of disabled children and consequently ‘including support for disabled children’ should be added to each of them. Alternatively one could remove the reference to disabled children in outcome 2 and stress from the outset that the plan and all its outcomes will apply to disabled children and adults.

Further to our answer to Q2, it would be helpful to add ‘including disabled children and young people’ in the key objectives for Outcome 1 if this is to be kept in the description of Outcome 2.

We believe that further commitments should be added under ‘Housing & Independent Living’.

Firstly it would be helpful to review the support offered by local authorities to families who look after someone with Ds in their own home. At present the support, or rather lack of thereof, some of our members receive is shocking and action must be taken to ensure that families who want and need to adapt their homes to continue to look after a loved one are able to do so.

Secondly we believe that a review into care homes should also be undertaken under ‘accessible housing’. Currently not only are there not enough places in care homes for people with Down’s syndrome and dementia, but often care homes are also not adapted to cater for the specific needs of people with learning disabilities. Examples of good practice exist and more should be done to develop such models and thus improve the end-of-life care of many disabled people.

Finally relevant points are also raised in Is Britain Fairer? The State of Equality and Human Rights 2015 which notes that ‘people with learning disabilities and/or autism had been, and continued to be, placed in inappropriate settings for too long and a long distance from family and home owing to a lack of good quality alternatives in the local community (p.61- see also p.51).

It would be helpful if respondents to this consultation could be contacted in due course to comment on this campaign and its content prior to launch.

Further to our answer to Q2, once again it is not obvious why ‘including disabled children and young people’ is referred to in the key objectives for Outcome 2 and not for the rest of the outcomes. A reference to disabled children is highly relevant but we are of the view that this should be consistent throughout the whole delivery plan. Alternatively it could be made clear from the beginning that all commitments in the plan refer to both children and adults and consequently it would not have to be mentioned again throughout the document.

As with the One Scotland awareness raising campaign, it would be welcome if respondents to this consultation with specific interest in learning disabilities could be kept up-to-date and consulted on the developments regarding this programme.

Idem – see comment on commitment 23.

We believe that some attention should be given as to whether such hub could actually gather information about the four outcomes and not only rights and wellbeing needs. Families supported by Down’s Syndrome Scotland would certainly welcome a single point of information. We have already raised this point in our submission to the employability support consultation thus arguing that ‘it would be helpful to have a single website/hub which would gather information on all supported employment programmes available nationally and locally across the country. This would allow professionals as well as families to easily access any information they may need on employment and to support young adults successfully.

This is a sensitive issue for disabled people and their families as well as for the organisations supporting them. We therefore hope that the Scottish Government will ensure that all relevant parties are being informed and consulted on the review in due course.

Idem – see comments for commitment 31.

See answer to Q5 regarding references to disabled children.
A commitment should be added on the need to review and improve career services, and the training of career advisers, in order to better promote the value of schemes like Modern Apprenticeships to people with learning disabilities. There seems to be little support offered to pupils with Ds leaving mainstream school or college to find employment opportunities. As one of our members explains, at present ‘all that is relayed to the young person [by employment advisors] is the lack of real opportunities, the difficulties that they will face, a generalised note on the file to say that they brought the young person in and conducted an interview with no real follow up between appointments and no active pursuing or avenues to follow up being presented to the young person. Limited information is given about additional support which may be available’. For disabled people to have the same opportunities as non-disabled people, these issues need to urgently be tackled so that services across Scotland actively support disabled people and fulfil their commitments under the UNCRPD.
None of the commitments above appears to address the issue of the pay gap between disabled and non-disabled people. In its recent report Is Britain Fairer? The State of Equality and Human Rights 2015, the Equality and Human Rights Commission points out that ‘in 2013 disabled people in England were paid 90 pence per hour less, and in Scotland up to £1.20 per hour less, than non-disabled people’ (p.41). Down’s Syndrome Scotland therefore believes that the delivery plan must include a commitment to address the pay gap issue and ensure that disabled people are not being discriminated against.
We are also of the view that one of the commitments under this outcome should deal with the importance of communication skills for children and young people with learning disabilities. As an example, commitment 36 explains that children will be able to directly influence the additional support that is provided to them. But that will only be the case if those children can communicate and share their views on the support they receive and if they are actually being listened to.

Whilst this is welcomed, the actual practice in local authorities needs to be monitored as with tight budgets and cuts to resources this appears a target area in some areas for cuts.

Serious consideration should be given to the Modern Apprenticeship scheme. One of the barriers faced by many adults with Ds is the lack of flexibility of employment schemes like MAs; at present this scheme excludes a significant amount of people due to eligibility/assessment criteria which do not reflect the variety of skills of all young adults in Scotland. Many people with Ds would make great modern apprentices if given a chance. Schemes like MAs need to be reviewed in order to actually represent the population they are supposed to support. MAs offer great opportunities to a lot of young people to access work and the Scottish Government needs to ensure that young people with learning disabilities are not being left out.

The draft delivery plan does not explicitly mention the role/interest of Third Sector organisations in relation to a Fair Work Convention. We would assume that some charities may be interested in this plan and it would be helpful to clearly mention the Third Sector as a partner in here too.

See answer to Q5 regarding references to disabled children.

With regard to the first theme ‘Participation’, we believe that ‘and are being listened to’ should be added to the theme’s description. There is indeed little benefit for disabled people to be able to participate in discussions if their views are in the end not being taken into account.

We hope that the delivery plan will involve a wide range of Disabled People’s Organisations. These should include smaller charities which may have a lower political profile but whose knowledge and experience will help deliver the plan. In that regard it would be helpful to know which organisations are being consulted by the Scottish Government and on which policy areas.

With regard to Outcome 3 and access to education, we would highly recommend the recent report on ‘Organisation of Provision to Support Inclusive Education’ published by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. The report can be found here: https://www.european-agency.org/sites/default/files/Organisation%20of%20Provision%20Summary%20Report.pdf
For example some recommendations include:
Policy-makers should:
• Clarify the concept of inclusion across and between levels of the system as an agenda that increases quality and equity for all learners, addressing underachievement by all vulnerable groups including children with disabilities. All education policy-makers need to take responsibility for all learners.
• Consider the links between system levels (i.e. between national/local policymakers, local education/school leaders, teachers, other professionals and learners and their families) and enhance them through collaboration and coherent partnerships between ministries and local services. Such action should broaden perspectives, increase mutual understanding and build the inclusive capability of the education system as a whole.
• Provide incentives for schools to take all learners from the local community and ensure that methods of assessment, inspections and other accountability measures support inclusive practice and inform further improvement of provision for all learners.
• Develop a continuum of support for teachers, support staff and, in particular, for school leaders through the use of research, networking and links to universities and initial teacher education institutions in order to provide development opportunities for all groups as lifelong learners.