Skip to main content

Language: English / Gàidhlig

Loading…

Seòmar agus comataidhean

ENABLE Scotland’s My Own Front Door Campaign

  • Submitted by: Paul O'Kane, West Scotland, Scottish Labour.
  • Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2022
  • Motion reference: S6M-02910
  • Current status: Achieved cross-party support

That the Parliament acknowledges the ENABLE Scotland campaign, My Own Front Door, which it understands calls for urgent action to have priority plans in place for every person who has a learning disability in Scotland to access their right to a home that they choose, in the community that they choose, near to the people that they love, by 2023; considers that this is a basic human right, as identified in Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which states the right for disabled people to live independently and to be included in the community; acknowledges with concern reports that 1,011 adults with a learning disability in Scotland were recorded in 2019 as being "out of area", meaning that they do not live in their own community due to lack of available social care support; understands that this issue was identified as a priority in the 2013 Keys to Life strategy; further understands that the Scottish Government report, Coming Home, in 2018 identified 67 people who have a learning disability "living" in hospital due to lack of appropriate accommodation and support in the community, and that 22% had been in hospital for more than 10 years, with a further 9% having been in hospital for between five and 10 years; considers that this is unacceptable and a breach of an individual’s human rights; understands that the campaign, My Own Front Door, highlights that there are many more people who are at risk of being in this position due to life transitions and/or breakdown in community-based social care support; is concerned by reports that there is currently no up-to-date information about progress that has been made to support people to live in the community of their choice, either from an area they do not want to live in, or from hospital; understands that the Scottish Government and COSLA convened a short-life working group in 2020 to address this issue and provided a £20 million Community Living Change Fund in February 2021 to health and social care partnerships to support change; further understands that the report of this group and detailed guidance on the use of the fund has yet to be published; notes the calls on the Scottish Government to support the five calls contained within the My Own Front Door campaign to ensure an urgent end to out-of-area placements that are not the choice of the individual and the overuse of assessment and treatment unit beds, a community first approach to the commissioning of support for people who have a learning disability, continued national investment to support the development of high-quality, sustainable social care support for all people who have a learning disability, in any community that they choose to live in, national monitoring of local populations in this position, or at risk of being in this position, and the introduction of a national oversight panel to ensure that plans to support people to live in the community of their choice are informed by the rights, will and preference of these individuals, and upholds their human rights, and further notes the view that every person who has a learning disability in Scotland, including in the West Scotland region, has the right to have the keys to their own front door.


Supported by: Jackie Baillie, Jeremy Balfour, Pam Duncan-Glancy, Pam Gosal, Mark Griffin, Fulton MacGregor, Carol Mochan, Willie Rennie, Colin Smyth, Paul Sweeney, Mercedes Villalba, Sue Webber