Disabled school leavers are being “stripped of hope” because not enough is done to help them progress into adulthood, the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee was told today.
It was hearing evidence from Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy, who is behind the Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) Bill.
Beforehand, she tweeted that it was designed to ”ensure all disabled people have a #FightingChance at a future”.
“Thousands of young people a year are being failed,” Ms Duncan-Glancy told the committee, pointing to evidence showing how disabled school leavers become more demoralised the further away they get from their time at school.
“Perhaps the hardest thing to hear is that, at 16, young disabled people have the same aspirations as everyone else,” she said. “But by the age of 26, they believe nothing they can do will change their lives at a time when they should be excited about the future, thinking about what they want to be and who they want to be.”
Instead, the lack of support at this crucial stage in their lives was “stripping them of hope”.
Ms Duncan-Glancy added: “If we’re serious about the rights of young disabled people, their move to adulthood can’t be left as now - this is a matter of equality, human rights and justice.”
Also giving evidence was Bill Scott, senior policy advisor at Inclusion Scotland, who said it was a ”really reasonable question” to ask why the bill would make a difference.
“The problem at the moment is coordinated support plans should be given to just about every disabled child that’s identified, because they’ve all got multiple support needs,” he explained.
He added that new figures published this week showed there were 1,780 such school leavers who could have benefited from a coordinated support plan, or CSP.
“Of those, if we’re lucky, between 1 and 2 per cent received a coordinated support plan, which is 30-odd, one per local authority - that is a huge, huge failure.”
Mr Scott added that, with every local authority “telling us that their finances are hard pressed”, new legislation is crucial as voluntary guidance is not enough to get disabled students the support they need.
“What is the chance that resources which local authorities say they haven’t got at the moment are going to go towards giving every disabled child the support that they need before they leave school, and afterwards?” asked Mr Scott.
In early February, the committee was told that leaving school is “messy and terrifying” for young people with additional support needs and their families.
That message came from Jenny Miller, chief executive of the organisation PAMIS, which supports people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.
She added that her organisation would like to see transitions for children with complex needs starting at 14, but she said that “some of them aren’t starting until six months before they [leave school], if that”.
