Committee
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 28 June 2023
28 Jun 2023 · S6 · Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
Continued Petitions
Wheelchair Accessible Homes (PE1956)
There are some major structural issues here. Most notably, in Glasgow, there is no common housing register across all the registered social landlords in the city, so having visibility of adapted housing is challenging and often involves making numerous duplicate applications to various housing associations. That has been a massive public policy failing since the stock transfer in Glasgow, and it has never been addressed in 20-odd years. That is one aggravating factor. I would also highlight recent engagement that I have had with hospices in Scotland. There was a pretty harrowing exhibition at the University of Glasgow recently, which was called “Dying at the Margins” and which I think is due to come to the Parliament later this year. It presented case studies of people who could have lived out their final days at home but who, because of accessibility issues and lack of willingness of housing associations, councils and housing providers to make adaptations to housing, ended up in hospitals or hospices—often inappropriate settings where they did not want to spend their final days. That was pretty shocking. Often a pretty mercenary calculation was made that, if someone was going to be alive for only another few months, there was no point in paying the money to make adaptations. There is an aspect of how palliative care is managed in the home, and the hospital at home concept, that merits consideration. The issue causes huge costs to the NHS as a result of delayed discharge. People who are terminally ill are in acute hospital wards, which are a highly medicalised environment and probably not appropriate for them. There are all sorts of aspects that introduce great costs that are not being dealt with. There is a bit of system failure in relation to ensuring that adaptations are efficiently and cheerfully carried out where needed.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
PE1956, which was lodged by Louise McGee, is on increasing the provision of wheelchair accessible homes. It calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scot...
Alexander Stewart
Con
There is a lot more work to be done. It is quite evident that the numbers are stark for the accessible and adapted properties that are out there in the marke...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
There are some major structural issues here. Most notably, in Glasgow, there is no common housing register across all the registered social landlords in the ...
The Convener
Con
That is a very good point. I certainly have direct experience of constituents who were diagnosed as being at the end of life and had hoped to stay at home, b...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
A number of hospices were involved in the production of that exhibition. It might be useful to solicit their views on what policy changes need to happen. Tha...
The Convener
Con
The exhibition was called “Dying in the Margins”.
Paul Sweeney
Lab
Yes. It was at the University of Glasgow, and I believe that it is due to be displayed at the Parliament.
The Convener
Con
It would be helpful if we could track down the groups that were involved in that. Are we agreed? Members indicated agreement.