1. Introduction
1.1 Our aim
The Scottish Government has a clear aim: for disabled people to have the same equality and human rights as non-disabled people. This means disabled people having the same freedom, dignity, choice and control over their lives as everyone else, with rights to practical assistance and support at home, at work and in the wider community. However, for many disabled people living in Scotland, this is still a long way off being a reality.
For several years now, the Scottish Government has been working to progress independent living for disabled people of all ages. We have done this in partnership with Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) in Scotland, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), and others.
The Scottish Government now needs to take practical, targeted action across all policy areas and services to deliver on the key outcomes that disabled people have identified as being important to making positive change. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is the framework we will use to deliver that change. Across government, we are working hard to build stronger relationships between policy makers and disabled people. By working with DPOs, we will better understand what disabled people need from our policies, and will work together to protect and promote full equality and human rights for all disabled people in Scotland.
This delivery plan sets out our approach to implementing UNCRPD in Scotland over the period 2016-20. It looks in detail at the outcomes – or changes – that we want to achieve and the evidence that supports the need for change. It details a range of the commitments for each of the four outcomes that we are aiming to achieve.
The Scottish Government worked in co-production with DPOs to gather the views of disabled people on the barriers that they face in accessing services. Together with the Equality and Human Right Commission (EHRC) and the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC), we collectively provided policy officials in the Scottish Government with the relevant information to develop their commitments. They will continue to use and reference this information when they work with DPOs in future to design policy which better meets disabled people’s needs.
We now seek your views on our commitments in this draft delivery plan. We will use the feedback we receive through the consultation to finalise the delivery plan, which we will publish in the summer of 2016 and reshape our final plan to be the best version it can be. This may include amended or new commitments.
To assist you with this consultation exercise, the Independent Living in Scotland (ILiS) project is working to support disabled people and their organisations and others to respond to the consultation and has produced a resource pack. It is aimed at organisations who will be arranging engagement events or surveys for their members but it can also be used by individuals to help them develop a response to send to the Scottish Government. The resource pack can also be used in response to the COSLA draft plan for the UNCRPD which is being published at the same time as this one.
The resource pack includes background to the consultations; what the UNCRPD means and obligations for governments; a list of ‘asks and priorities’ from disabled people which was shared with the Scottish Government. It also includes a report on events held with other public bodies and the Scottish Parliament highlighting what could be done to implement the UNCRPD.
The Scottish Government will keep this delivery plan under review, and will report on how we have progressed and highlight areas of good practice that we can share. There may also be gaps to address. It is likely that the commitments will evolve as new challenges and new opportunities emerge. It is also important to note that they will be linked to other projects, funding and activities ongoing across the Scottish Government.
We will also link it to other policy initiatives that are happening across Government and that will place disabled people at the heart of creating a fairer Scotland. This includes our Programme for Government, Scotland’s Economic Strategy, the Scottish Approach and a national conversation on Social Justice – a Fairer Scotland. There are currently many innovative projects and investment programmes ongoing across the Scottish Government to improve the rights and lives of disabled people. Some of our successes and good practice are highlighted in the next section.
