Equal Opportunities Committee, 07 Mar 2006

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Official Report 220KB pdf

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Petition

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Care Homes (PE522)

Item 3 is petition PE522, on the provision of care homes for young physically disabled people. The committee has considered the petition on several occasions and will now discuss it in the light of the publication of a scoping study by the Scottish Executive Health Department. Members will note that the study makes no specific reference to the issues that are raised in the petition. Do members have any comments or questions in relation to the paper that is before us?

Just concerning the proposed action, convener. I also have some comments on paragraph 13, on independent living.

Is that in the scoping study?

It is in the committee's paper about the petition. Paragraph 13 says:

"The petition calls for an increase in care homes for young physically disabled people,"

but the scoping study has thrown up the fact that

"the focus of current Scottish Executive policy is the promotion of the independent living agenda which encourages disabled people to live in the community with appropriate support."

The last three words of that quotation are hugely important. As the MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, I have casework involving young people who do not seem to be receiving appropriate support. Some have been in homes and are now in the community, which has been a move backward for them. For reasons of confidentiality, I cannot go into individual cases. I am involved in a sad and tragic case that highlights that situation, but I do not want to outline the case without the permission of the constituents.

I am concerned. Encouraging disabled people to live in the community with appropriate support is good, if it is a matter of choice, but I am not sure that it is a matter of choice. I think that people are being encouraged into the community although that is not the best thing for them. I want to raise that concern.

Paragraph 7 mentions an 11.7 per cent decrease in the number of care home places, which is proof that people are being put out into communities.

Like Elaine Smith, I want to raise concerns about paragraph 13, which is on independent living. People come to my surgery from certain areas of greater Glasgow where there is a concentration of people who have been moved out of care homes, and they raise concerns about the supporting people fund, which is being taken away. That is high on the agenda. We do not know what the fund is being replaced with. We should raise the fact that people do not have appropriate support. They do not have the choice of going into a care home instead of receiving support. When they get support they do not have the choice of flexible support, or the support is for only an hour a day or something like that. Young people who want to be more independent want flexible support.

As for the recommendations on what should happen to the petition, I think that it should go to the Health Committee with our concerns. It is currently addressing the issues that are raised in paragraph 13 anyway.

Does anyone else want to comment? Sandra White is absolutely right: it is a matter for the Health Committee to consider as part of its current inquiry. I am strongly of the view that we want to mainstream equalities, so it is more appropriate for the Health Committee to deal with the petition than for us to deal with it. Are members happy for us to take no further action on the petition and for the convener to write to the convener of the Health Committee asking it to pick up the petition as part of its inquiry? We will incorporate the wider issues that members have raised.

I would agree to that as long as the Health Committee agreed to pick up the petition. If it said that it was not within the remit of its inquiry, would the petition come back to us again?

We would have to consider what to do in light of the Health Committee's response. There is a strong case for the Health Committee picking up the petition. Do you want to keep open our consideration of the petition until we get a response from the Health Committee?

Yes. I would be concerned otherwise.

I agree with Marlyn Glen. I also feel that if the Health Committee takes on the petition, we should be alerted to the outcome of its considerations.

Are you saying that the Health Committee should write to us?

Yes. That would leave us the option of taking further action if we wish, although it might not be within our remit to do so once we see what the Health Committee does.

Yes. We agree that the Health Committee's response is crucial. We will not close down the petition. We will write to the Health Committee convener inviting the committee to pick up the petition as part of its inquiry, and we will monitor what happens. Are members happy with that?

Members indicated agreement.