Last Sunday, Children’s Health Scotland was featured in an article published in The Sunday Post regarding the The Disabled Children and Young People (Transitions to Adulthood) (Scotland) Bill, which is designed to help people with learning or physical difficulties seamlessly make the move from one stage of their lives to the next.
The news article, titled “We must do more to ease path of disabled young Scots into adulthood and let them flourish”, features contributions from Gill Sutherland, Head of Children’s Health and Wellbeing Services. The article also features Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour MSP and Emma Cosgrove, deputy director of the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde who provide their insight and experiences in the current system.
The article spotlights the difficulties which disabled people face when transitioning to adulthood and features statistics which emphasise the immediate need for change:
- Young disabled people are five times more likely to leave school without qualifications.
- The employment rate for non-disabled people is 80.6%, for disabled people it is 46.9%.
- By age 26, disabled people are three times more likely to feel hopeless, believing that “whatever I do has no real effect on what happens to me”.
The article ends on a hopeful note from Pam Duncan-Glancy with here determination that things will get better for young disabled people: “I’ve been blown away by the support we’ve had so far from outside and inside the parliament, across parties. I hope and believe my parliamentary colleagues, across the chamber, will work with me to do this. We all believe Scotland must be a place where young disabled people do have a fighting chance at a future. I look forward to working with everyone to make that so.”
You can read the full Sunday Post article here.
