Hansard

I thank Jackie Baillie for securing the debate. I acknowledge the hard work that she has done as the convener of the cross-party group on learning disability to raise many such issues, along with Joan McAlpine as the deputy convener. It has been my privilege to be a member of that group and to watch the work that has been done.

It is an important debate that we are having this evening, and, in the time before me, I will make three brief points, which have been made by others and, I am sure, will be made by others still as we go on in the debate, but it is important that they are heard and that we respond to them collectively as a Parliament.

I thank Enable Scotland and others for providing briefing papers for tonight’s debate. As Enable Scotland points out, 31 per cent of people with learning difficulties are looked after by a family carer, and, during this crisis, those families’ hours of support have been cut. Perhaps that was understandable initially, but there is a big concern that the lost hours will never be brought back or will be used in a different way. It is vital that all parties commit to making sure that those hours of care within a family situation are restored as soon as they can be. Families have been put under immense pressure over the past 12 months, and caring for someone adds to that pressure. That should be recognised, and local authorities and the Scottish Government need to make sure that help is available going forward.

The second issue that I will talk about is the support that people have within the community. As Joan McAlpine pointed out towards the end of her speech, there is a concern in her constituency—as there is in my region—that some of the community projects that people have been going to for many years are going to be cut or got rid of completely. There is a view among some people that those community centres and places of work and leisure are no longer appropriate and that all care should take place within the home or in other areas of the community. Clearly, there needs to be a mixed economy, but, having spoken to a number of third sector charities in the Lothian region, I am genuinely concerned that those centres are to be closed or that their funding is to be cut in such a way that they will no longer be viable. I have spoken to people who have different learning difficulties, and that is their community—it is often their workplace, the place where they get support and the only place where they can go during the week. To close those places down would be short-sighted and would affect the most vulnerable in our society. I hope that COSLA, the Scottish Government and all local authorities will carefully consider the decisions that they make over the next few years.

Finally, in this pandemic, the area that has caused me most concern for those with learning difficulties has been some doctors’ use of “do not resuscitate” orders, which I have come across. I understand that the Scottish Government wants to clarify the situation and make sure that the appropriate guidelines are in place, and I hope that, whatever inquiry takes place afterwards, that will be one of the key issues. We cannot have families worried about what is going to happen to their loved ones if they go into hospital. We cannot go back to the situation that, unfortunately, has occurred in the past 12 months, whereby a doctor thinks that they know best and there is no consultation with family members. I am sure that, across different parties, there is consensus on that, but we must work together to make sure that doctors and others in the medical profession understand the guidelines and that they follow them closely.

I thank Jackie Baillie not only for bringing forward the debate tonight, but for all the work that she and her cross-party group have done in the past five years.