Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 03 March 2021
I thank Alexander Burnett for securing the debate. Although this is not quite my final speech as a member of the Scottish Parliament, it is my final speech on this subject. I begin by making my final declaration of interests as a parent of a child with autistic spectrum disorder.
I will spend the majority of my speech offering some reflections on a decade of campaigning on the issue and why that leads me to support the campaign of NAS Scotland, Scottish Autism and Enable for a commissioner for autistic people and people with learning disabilities. At the outset, I thank those organisations for their briefing, which was instructive and chimed with much of the experience of my case load, not just during the pandemic but in general.
Alexander Burnett mentioned that autism is not a learning disability. That is absolutely correct but, as he also mentioned, there is clear intersection, where there are people who have autism and a comorbid learning disability. Therefore, it makes sense for the campaign to focus on the area that it focuses on, because there are a reasonable number of people who have autism and a learning disability, and for whom many of the challenges of autism and learning disability are manifest.
The briefing from NAS Scotland, Scottish Autism and Enable talks about the exhaustion of families. Over the past 10 years, if there was one word that would sum up the experience of the families I have encountered, whether constituents or the people I have come to know as dear friends who have children with learning disability or autism and whom I have encountered through the groups that my son attends, “exhaustion” would be one of the top words that I would use. That is the case because, for too many people, the securing of appropriate support—support to which they are entitled—is a fight. Too often, they are told “No” when they should be told “Yes”. It is only after expending a significant amount of energy on fighting decisions and recruiting councillors, MSPs, MPs and supporting organisations that they can finally secure that support. All too often, it feels as though the system’s first reaction to many people is to turn them away, and that only when they take on the system do they find that it works in their favour. That must change.
Many good things are being done at a governmental level; I know that from my time as a minister and as a Government back bencher. The problem is how that filters down to those on the front line and how they deliver the support to the people who require it. That leads to the question of accountability and why I believe that the role of commissioner is needed. For too many of the good intentions and the well-thought-out policies, the accountability for delivery is not there. We saw that when local autism plans were introduced. Too many local authorities were given money, but there was no accountability for the construction of those plans and their subsequent delivery at local level. The creation of a commissioner, as envisaged by the charities, would help with the accountability question. I do not deny that good work has been done, but there is still a road to travel, and the implementation of the charities’ asks could do a huge amount to support the people whom we as MSPs represent.
18:40