Hansard

As other members have done, I congratulate Siobhan McMahon on securing the debate, which comes soon after another members’ business debate that she secured—she clearly has the knack. She has taken a particular interest in the issue since she joined the Parliament and is now a deputy convener of the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on disability. I should say that I set up that group back in 2000 and that the first minister to address it was one Jackie Baillie, who at that time was the Minister for Social Justice. I have no doubt that the group continues to do valuable work in engaging with a range of stakeholders from across Scotland who have an interest in disability issues.

I welcome the opportunity to debate the second disability history month, which helps to raise the profile of disabled people’s rights and advocacy for disability equality. Given that equality is a key theme in this year’s disability history month, it is worth reminding members of the United Nations universal declaration of human rights, which was signed 63 years ago, on 10 December 1948, in the aftermath of the horrors of the second world war. Article 1 states:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.

Article 2 states:

“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind”.

Those are powerful words. Our task, these many years on, is to ensure that they are not just words and that measures are taken that turn into actions across our society—actions that we take as a nation as we go into 2012.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which followed in 2007, builds on article 1 of the declaration to which I referred. On 24 November this year, the UK Government submitted the first UK report to the UN, setting out the Government’s position and progress on the issues. The Scottish Government contributed to the report with regard to Scottish activity.

Given that it is disability history month and that equality is a key theme running through the programme, I will highlight one area that demonstrates the historical changes for disabled people in Scotland. Back in 1980, 6,500 people with a learning disability in Scotland were in long-stay hospital care. The figure reduced to 2,450 by 1998 and under “The same as you? A review of services for people with learning disabilities”, no one with a learning disability was in a long-stay hospital by the midpoint of 2006. That is significant progress for people with a learning disability and is to be celebrated. However, the example also illustrates the struggle that many people with a disability such as a learning disability faced in being able to live their lives normally and on an equal basis in the community.

The pathway and journey for people with a disability continue. A large amount of the money that we put into community care for adult services goes towards supporting people with a disability to live in the community. Although more people with a disability are living independently in our communities with additional support, the journey continues and there is a growing demand for people with a disability not to be supported by services that are provided by others but to have greater control over their lives and to be able to decide how they are supported and how to manage their situation in their own home and community.

That is one of the key policies that we intend to take forward through the self-directed support bill, which we intend to bring to Parliament in this session. We will give people greater control over their own personal situation and the responsibility to take forward arrangements in a way that best suits them. Since the 1980s, when some 6,500 people with a learning disability were in long-stay hospital settings, we have therefore moved to the point now when I have constituents with a learning disability who are keen to use self-directed support to manage their care in a way that best suits their needs.

I turn to some of the concerns that have been raised about the welfare reforms that the UK Government is taking forward. We are concerned about the speed and scale of the cuts that it intends to make to the welfare provision programme. People who are the most vulnerable and have the poorest outcomes are often the least able to cope with such significant change. That includes lone parents, people living in deprived areas, pensioners and disabled people. I suspect that history will show that some of the reforms that the UK Government intends to take forward will result in a significant change for people with a disability in Scotland and across the rest of the UK.

The only point of difference that I have with Siobhan McMahon’s motion is that I do not think that the reform will have any more of an impact on the people of Central Scotland than it will on people in the north of Scotland, Liverpool or Manchester. I think that the impact will be the same—and it will be significant.

As a Government, we will continue to engage with the UK Government to express our concerns about how it is taking forward the welfare reforms, the lack of detail regarding certain elements, the anxieties that people with a disability are expressing and the impact that the reforms could have on their equality and their right to live their lives in a meaningful way. We debated the issue in this Parliament on 5 October and, as Jackie Baillie, said we will have a further debate on the legislative consent motion, which will come before the Parliament tomorrow.

There has been a significant journey in ensuring that people with a disability have equality in their lives and in how they are treated. As we draw to the end of 2011, we have an opportunity to consider what we have to do in the years to come to ensure that people with a disability continue to get the equality that they deserve. As a Government, we are committed to continuing that pathway.

Meeting closed at 17:28.