Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill – detailed call for views

Overview

We want your views on a Bill about support for disabled children and young people.

This call for views is part of a wider programme of engagement. If you would like to be involved, please contact us via ecyp.committee@parliament.scot.

We recognise the time and effort it takes to respond to a call for views. We will consider responses to the call for views on this Bill in 2020-2021. If you responded then, you do not need to resubmit your answers, unless you would like to revise what you said.

The Bill

We would like your views on the Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill. This Bill seeks to improve opportunities for disabled children and young people as they grow up.

The Bill is a Member’s Bill introduced by Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP on 20 April 2022. A Member’s Bill is introduced by an individual MSP, not the Scottish Government.

The MSP hopes the Bill will provide disabled children and young people with support to help them transition to adulthood. The Bill was previously introduced by Johann Lamont in 2020 but fell when Parliament was dissolved for the 2021 election.

This Bill considers children to be under 18 and young people to be between 18 and 26.

The Bill aims to make sure that there are structures in place to support disabled children and young people at that time in their lives.

Read more about what this Bill does in the explanatory notes.

Read the Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill as introduced.

Read more about why this Bill was created in the policy memorandum.

Your views

We want to know what you think about the Bill. The Committee is particularly interested in your views on the following key points. You are welcome to answer as many questions as you want:

1. The overall aims of the Bill and whether the Bill can meet these aims
2. If changing the law is the best way to do what the Bill is trying to do
3. Any unexpected or unforeseen effects of the Bill (as it is currently written)
4. If the Bill adds to or duplicates any existing legislation
5. The financial impact of the Bill on the Scottish Government, local authorities or other bodies
6. How the Bill will affect (for better or worse) the rights and the quality of life of the people covered by the Bill

The Bill would require the Scottish Government to introduce a National Transitions Strategy (sections 1 to 6 of the Bill).

7. Do you agree with introducing a strategy, and that a Scottish Minister should be in charge of it?

The Bill places a duty on local councils to prepare and implement transition plans. These would plans would be for each disabled child and young person within their local authority area. They would also have to explain:

• How plans are going to be prepared and managed
• What would happen if there was a disagreement about what was in a plan or how it was working

8. Do you agree with the proposals relating to transition plans?
9. Who do you think should coordinate the transitions plan?

How to submit your views

Please submit your views using the online submission form, linked to below.

We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language. We also welcome views in BSL (British Sign Language). If you need help to share your views, then please contact us via 0131 348 5000 or 0800 092 7500. You can also email info@parliament.scot.

The call for views closes on 27 October 2022.

Other ways to respond

You can also let the Committee know your views on the proposals in this Bill by:

• completing an easy read version of the short survey (PDF download)
• completing a short survey
• completing a British Sign Language version of the consultation