Support for Disabled Young People

Background: Inclusion Scotland is a ‘Disabled People’s Organisation’ (DPO) – led by disabled people ourselves. Inclusion Scotland works to achieve positive changes to policy and practice, so that we disabled people are fully included throughout all Scottish society as equal citizens.
1 Do you agree with the overall aims of the Bill? If so, do you think the Bill can meet these aims?

1.1 Yes. Inclusion Scotland believes that the Bill can meet its stated aims if there is a genuine commitment from Scottish and Local Government to improve the outcomes of young disabled people.

1.2 Without such a commitment to assisting young disabled people to achieve their ambitions in life they will continue to be unfairly excluded from economic, social and cultural life in breach of their UNCRC and UNCRPD (UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities) rights.

1.3 In particular we would draw the Committee’s attention to Article 27(1) (d) and (e) of the UNCRPD and request that they ask themselves whether these rights are being “progressively realised” under the current children’s planning regime –

• Article 27: Work and employment - 1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to work, on an equal basis with others;

d) Enable persons with disabilities to have effective access to general technical and vocational guidance programmes, placement services and vocational and continuing training;

e) Promote employment opportunities and career advancement for persons with disabilities in the labour market, as well as assistance in finding, obtaining, maintaining and returning to employment

1.4 If the current regime was working we would expect young disabled people to be entering vocational training, further and higher education and employment at a similar rate to that of their non-disabled peers but they are not.

1.5 The Scottish youth unemployment rate fell to a record low level of 9% by late 2019. This is one of the lowest rates in Europe. The Scottish rate was also lower than the UK average rate of 12%. However, young disabled people aged between 16 and 24 were the age group of disabled people least likely to be in employment. In 2019/20, just 37% were in work .

1.6 This is unsurprising given that previously the Scottish Government’s own research had shown that six months after leaving school young disabled people were twice as likely to be Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) than their non-disabled peers and by age 19 were three times as likely to be NEET . The lack of improvement in positive outcomes for young disabled people speaks not of their receiving “assistance in finding and obtaining employment” but of their complete abandonment after they leave school.

1. House of Commons Library, “People with Disabilities in Employment”, Research Briefing, No.7540, , August 2020, https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7540/CBP-7540.pdf

2. Scottish Government, “Consequences, risk factors, and geography of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET): Scottish Longitudinal NEET study”, Research Findings, 1/2015, https://www.gov.scot/publications/consequences-riskfactors-geography-young-people-education-employment-training-neet-researchfindings/

2.1 Yes. Under current legislation children with Additional Support Needs should qualify for a Coordinated Support Plan but the provision of such a plan is not mandatory. Instead, it is left to Local Authorities to determine if such a plan is required. Because they are able to exercise “discretion” although many children with complex needs should receive Coordinated Support Plans only 1% of children with Additional Support Needs actually receive one .

2.2 Some of those opposed to the Transitions Bill instead propose that current Guidance on Co-ordinated Support Plans should instead be improved. It is difficult to see how improved, but nevertheless non-mandatory, guidance, however good it is, will succeed where past non-mandatory guidance has been wilfully ignored.

2.3 Therefore, Inclusion Scotland believes that in order for disabled children to receive the support they need to make the transition from school to adult life it must be made a right that all disabled children and young people with ASN support needs have a statutory entitlement to a transitions plan.

3. (Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (As Amended) (“the ASL Act”), and Child’s Plans under Part 5 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014).
4. Additional Support Needs and the use of Coordinated Support Plans in Scotland”, Professor Sheila Riddell, January 2019 https://www.ed.ac.uk/education/rke/centresgroups/creid/projects/autonomy-rights-sen-asn-children/project-blogs/riddell-blog-csp

3.1 Yes and yes. A strategy is essential. At present everyone from Ministers and MSPs, down through to the leaders of local councils and local authority chief executives, profess to be guided in their decision-making by the GIRFEC principles. In practice however disabled children and young people are being comprehensively failed in receiving the assistance they need to achieve their desired outcomes. Yet no one will own responsibility for this failure and no one is held accountable.
3.2 It is not only Inclusion Scotland who believe that a national Transitions Strategy is necessary. The current Government committed itself to introducing just such a strategy and believed that it would assist disabled children and young people –
“As part of our new Disability Action Plan we will produce and implement a National Strategy for Young People with Disabilities to improve the outcomes of young disabled people and ensure they are getting the best provision and support possible” - Scottish National Party’s 2016 Election Manifesto.
3.3 Yet no such strategy has been introduced and there has been no improvement in the outcomes achieved by young disabled people when compared to their non-disabled peers. Given that four years have passed since the election Inclusion Scotland are forced to conclude that the needs of disabled children and young people are not considered a priority by the Government. Therefore, a Member’s Bill seems to be required to prompt Government to undertake the action promised.

3.4 Making a Minister responsible for devising a national strategy and requiring them to report to Parliament on its outcomes would mean that they, and the Government as a whole, could be held to account for its success or failure (and thus the progress made in improving outcomes for young disabled people).

3.5 As the Minister would then have an interest in ensuring that local authorities and other public bodies played their part in implementing the strategy then local authorities would also be held to account. This would ensure that those with the power to make a difference to the outcomes achieved by young disabled people would finally be held responsible for their actions, or lack, thereof.

4.1 Very largely yes. The only point that we would wish to make is in relation to disagreements on the contents of the transitions plan. There may well be disagreements between a disabled child or young person and their parents about what objectives are set in the plan.

4.2 Though well-intentioned parents of disabled children can be risk averse and substitute their own views and needs for those of their children. However, very few young disabled people are so incapacitated by their impairment that they are unable to express their wishes if provided with communications and/or advocacy support. Therefore, advocacy support should be provided in planning meetings and the young person’s stated ambitions and outcomes should be given primacy in the event of disagreements.

5.1 Inclusion Scotland expects that the measures outlined in the Bill itself will not cost any more than is estimated in the Financial Memorandum. In fact there is a strong possibility that improved support for young disabled people in transition will reduce social care and NHS costs by improving their health and well-being.

6.1 As already outlined the need to tackle the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled young people is urgent and growing. The exclusion of young disabled people from further education, training and employment results in social isolation that can last a lifetime. This is because a job applicant in their 20s with no work experience is unlikely to be an attractive proposition to a potential employer.
6.2 Research by Sense found that half of disabled people say that they are lonely and one in four feel lonely every day . Social isolation has a significant impact on both physical and mental health. Loneliness is associated with an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke. It also makes individuals more prone to depression, the risk of suicide and to cognitive decline and dementia .
6.3 Yet the current indifference of policy makers and service providers to the needs of young disabled people is exposing a large proportion of them to those risks. It also results in consequential and enormous costs to our health and social care services in crisis intervention and increased long term support.
6.4 Inclusion Scotland also believes that the Committee should take into account the likely consequences of the current pandemic on the future life chances of young disabled people. So far the main economic impacts of the pandemic have fallen massively disproportionately on younger workers -

• Employment levels for those aged 16-24 and 65+ have fallen by 357,000 (7%).

• Employment levels for those aged 25-64 have also fallen, but by much less at 141,000 (0.5%).

• Nearly 50% of workers in areas of the economy that have been shut-down are under 35 years old .

6.5 All school leavers are going to face a difficult transition from school to adult life over the next few years however we know that the barriers already faced by young disabled people will put them at a severe disadvantage in the future labour market. This is because they will be competing not only with their peers but with tens of thousands of young workers made redundant due to the pandemic who have already gained considerable work experience and skills.

6.6 There is also a very real concern that young disabled people will potentially also miss out on the Youth Guarantee Scheme. This is because at present there is no way of contacting them about employability or employment opportunities once they have left school unless they are claiming JSA/ESA (or the equivalent in UC) via the DWP.

6.7 Yet between 2010 and 2016 the proportion of 16-25 year olds claiming JSA had fallen from over 70% to less than 48% of those entitled to the benefit. This fall is associated with the “hostile environment” created by the harsher sanctions regime introduced by the 2009 and 2012 Welfare Reform Acts. The proportion of young disabled people claiming unemployment related benefits is likely to be even less than in the general population as they are up to 50% more likely to be sanctioned than their non-disabled peers .

6.8 What all of this means is that young disabled people are less likely to be in registered as unemployed with the DWP and thus unable to be contacted about opportunities arising from the Youth Guarantee Scheme. Thus existing inequalities may be exacerbated by the pandemic unless means are created through which young disabled people remain contactable by employability services.

6.9 The proposed Transitions Bill offers just such a means of maintaining contact, alerting young disabled people of opportunities and supporting them to take advantage of them. None of those opposing the bill have offered a means through which such support can be guaranteed after young disabled people have left school.

5. “Someone cares if I’m not there”, Sense, July 2017
6. https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/threat-to-health/
7. “Coronavirus: Impact on the Labour Market”, House of Commons Library Research Briefing, Dec. 2020 update https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8898/