Meeting of the Parliament 23 November 2023
It is a great pleasure to open the debate on the Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill on behalf of Scottish Labour. That is particularly so because I have on me the acute and wise eyes of my colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy, who is sat to my right.
However, I speak now because this is a stage 1 debate on the general principles of a bill. The next stage for the bill in Parliament would be for it to go to stage 2 for investigation and the addition and subtraction of sections and amendments. During that stage, I think that we would see some of the answers to the previous speakers’ questions. In particular, a number of speakers have raised questions about costs and about the financial memorandum that attaches to the bill. It would, of course, be at stage 2 that an updated memorandum would be issued, so that there would be an understanding of the financial implications.
Here we are, in the throes of talking about the minutiae of a bill’s financial implications and the process of its progress through the Scottish Parliament, when what we are actually talking about is people. We are talking about disabled children and young people.
As my colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy stated, this matter goes back to the previous session. Indeed, it goes back long before that, to when our colleague Johann Lamont introduced a bill that fell because it ran out of time. It is fascinating that, in the outreach for evidence that she undertook, part of the response from the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland was:
“Young people often report experiencing abrupt loss of support at the point they leave school or formal education, a concern which has been raised with our office by young people and their parents”.
The fragmentation of current planning processes negatively impacts disabled children’s rights. This bill would require the Scottish Government to have a strategy explaining how it will improve the opportunities of disabled children and young people and to put a Scottish Government minister in charge of improving opportunities for disabled children and young people moving into adulthood. It would require local authorities to have plans for each disabled child and young person as they move into adulthood. Why? Because transitions are challenging at the best of times. Everyone goes through different transitions in their lives, but we are asking a group of young people who have a disability to do that in a landscape that is truly and utterly chaotic.
Many organisations, representatives, parents and disabled children are watching today. It is important that we recognise the audience that is watching this, including the audience from overseas, which looks to the bill as a signpost to how to do things better.