Hansard

I congratulate the committee again on the significant contribution that the report represents to the future direction of disability equality in Scotland. I pay particular tribute to Cathy Peattie for her leadership in driving the work forward and express my condolences to her on her recent bereavement. As I said in my opening speech, the Executive will respond to the report early next year, but now I will reflect on some of the issues that have been raised in the debate.

Nora Radcliffe and Shiona Baird focused on employment issues. The report highlights the important role of work in assisting disabled people out of poverty and in many other ways. The Executive agrees. "Workforce Plus—An Employability Framework for Scotland" asserts the Executive's belief that, for most people and their families, work is the surest way of raising and sustaining people out of poverty.

Many who depend on welfare benefits face a range of barriers to employment, including disability, poor mental and physical health, low levels of qualifications and caring responsibilities. The workforce plus strategy establishes local partnerships, which are being required to take action to ensure that the services that are needed to help people go into work and progress in employment are available. That involves mapping local provision and addressing gaps and duplication.

We value the committee's investigation into supported employment. The Scottish Union of Supported Employment received funding from workforce plus to develop a "Blueprint for Supported Employment in Scotland", which was launched in October 2006. In addition, the workforce plus team has seconded a learning disabilities co-ordinator to lead on matters that relate to learning disabilities, which will include the role that supported employment can play.

We will consider further the detailed supported employment recommendations in the committee's report. Our support for the blueprint shows that we recognise the part that supported employment can and should play in helping disabled people and others into the labour market.

Sandra White, Carolyn Leckie and Jackie Baillie highlighted transport. The Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland advises the Scottish ministers on matters that relate to accessible transport for disabled people. I thank MACS for the work that it has done and the contribution that it has made since its establishment in 2002.

The new regional transport partnerships will be key to helping to deliver disability equality. They are subject to the general duty to promote disability equality and, in addition, guidance has been issued to all regional transport partnerships about undertaking an equality impact assessment as part of the development of their regional transport strategies.

We note the committee's findings on the abuse of parking spaces for disabled people, about which Jackie Baillie and Jamie McGrigor spoke. We are aware that the issue is frustrating and needs to be tackled. We are conducting research on the subject of tackling the abuse of off-street parking for disabled people and the report of that research will be available in the spring.

I move to leisure and public life, on which Marlyn Glen majored. We want Scotland to be a tourist destination for disabled people. VisitScotland produces an accessible Scotland guide that lists almost 1,000 attractions and accommodation providers that are members of its disability access scheme. It is also establishing a focus group that will help to inform it how it can further develop the content and delivery of its information service in order to continue to promote and market Scotland as an accessible destination. We shall, of course, consider the committee's recommendations relating to VisitScotland, including those that seek to expand its activities.

The culture (Scotland) bill and guidance will strengthen access to culture. Consultation on the draft bill was launched on 14 December. Among other things, the bill and the guidance will highlight the need for local authorities to engage and consult equalities groups, including disabled people, throughout the process of determining the provision of culture in their area. In preparation for the legislation, the Executive will match fund cultural entitlement pathfinders in order to explore approaches to developing cultural entitlements and cultural planning activities. Yesterday, we announced our support for cultural pathfinders focusing on particular communities and sections of society that are known to be underrepresented in cultural participation and our support for a pathfinder programme for disabled people.

We accept the committee's recommendation, to which Marlyn Glen and Elaine Smith referred, that the Executive should work with the commissioner for public appointments to develop mechanisms to increase the participation of disabled people in public life. Indeed, I have already started a dialogue with the commissioner for public appointments on the development of her diversity strategy.

More generally, the Executive accepts the social model of disability and the principles of independent living. We want to work with disabled people to develop our approach and identify the best ways in which we can support independent living. We said that in our response to the disability working group's report and will say more about it in our formal response to the committee's report next year.

Elaine Smith majored on attitudes. She referred to the highly successful see me campaign, with which I was pleased to be associated in my previous portfolio. She emphasised the importance of disability equality training. We recognise the value of such training and will establish an expert group of disabled people to work with us to develop our approach to it.