Meeting of the Parliament 23 November 2023
The Scottish Government would be required to have a strategy to explain. It would have to appoint a minister to take responsibility, and local authorities would need to have plans in place for each disabled child and young person as they moved into adulthood. That is where the responsibility would lie, and that is where a young person, their family, their friends and their communities could turn to and say, “How are you doing it?”
Earlier today, we talked about the Promise. We still reiterate the agreement on the importance of completing the Promise. There is an appalling phrase, but I will use it. We have a subset of the human race who we are treating poorly. Every speaker so far has talked about the chaos that is the current landscape. We have seen good practice, but for every element of good practice, there is bad practice.
A parent said that starting the transitions process
“has been the most stressful year of my life. To put that into context my daughter went through brain surgery at 8 years old, but this was more stressful.”
We have been told:
“We are given the excuse our young people are too complex, previously they wouldn’t have lived into adulthood and that’s their excuse for the awful care offered.”
I want a contribution about a 23-year-old man to be taken account of—I am conscious of the time, Deputy Presiding Officer. That man is now a University of Glasgow graduate. His parent said:
“I ... had to approach the university admissions department myself to ask about adjustments to entry qualifications and information about the ASN supports he would need and receive. The careers service actually advised him ‘not to waste a line on his application applying to University of Glasgow’”—