Chamber and committees

I heard what Stephen Kerr said. Difficult decisions have been and are still being made during the pandemic. Such decisions are not made to single out a particular community or to do things that are deliberately difficult. The public inquiry will be an important forum in which to consider any lessons that can be learned across the board. Stephen Kerr might wish to pursue the points that he raises through that route. We should learn the important lessons going forward.

In marking human rights day, it is important that we look at rights across the board. So much is achieved for human rights around the world by brave individuals who are prepared to stand up for the principles that are set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For our part, the Scottish Government will continue to do everything that it can to uphold those values, to make rights real for people in Scotland and to stand up for human rights wherever they are under threat.

Jenni Minto has made important points. We have, of course, committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, 10 per cent of which will be in remote, rural and island communities. Delivering that is part of a £3.44 billion investment in this parliamentary session. Some £30 million of that investment will support the continuation of the rural and islands housing funds, which have been described in a Scottish Land Commission report as “game changers” for community-led housing development.

We are also investing £30 million of capital through the islands programme, and draft national planning framework 4 supports the repopulation of rural Scotland, including an updated approach to providing quality homes, and embeds an infrastructure-first approach in development planning. I encourage members to highlight to their constituents that the public consultation and engagement opportunities to help to inform NPF4 will run until the end of March next year.

It is critical that we involve communities in the development of our policies, so we regularly engage with partners, including local government, community groups, third sector colleagues and young people through, for example, our young islanders network. The Scottish Government carries out all appropriate impact assessments in developing or updating policies, strategies or services, including equality impact assessments and island communities impact assessments, which is in line with the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018.

We are taking action to support all people on low incomes. I recently announced our £41 million winter support fund, which will help people in need to heat their homes and to meet rising food costs. We are also investing £114 million to tackle fuel poverty and to improve energy efficiency in people’s homes. Additionally, by the end of October we had delivered a £130 pandemic support payment to around 500,000 low-income households, including those on pension credit. This week, we introduced the Money Support Scotland website and marketing campaign to raise awareness of the services that are available to people with financial worries.

I absolutely agree with Karen Adam. The triple lock is crucial to ensuring that the support that is offered by the basic state pension continues to rise to reflect the increasing cost of living and to support pensioners into their third age. We are disappointed and concerned that the UK Government decided to push ahead with breaking the triple lock before publishing information on how that will affect pensioners, and despite a cost-of-living crisis that is set to hit everyone on low incomes, including pensioners. I therefore call on the UK Government to play its part by sticking to the commitments that it made to pensioners and by actively encouraging older people to take up pension credit.

I am happy to ensure that the minister responsible for taking forward that policy writes to the member on that point.

As I said in my initial answer, the Government is investing £114 million to tackle fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency in people’s homes. Is it not a shame that the member does not support our calls to have full control over all those issues here in Scotland? That would allow us to tackle fuel poverty in an even more efficient manner and to support people into their older age and during the winter months more effectively than we can with our fixed budget.

I join others in thanking Pam Duncan-Glancy for securing the debate. I also thank all the members who have taken part in such a good debate for sharing their views and their aims and suggestions for the future. Those are all important ahead of this year’s international day of persons with disabilities.

As mentioned, this year’s international day focuses on the importance of the leadership and participation of disabled people for an inclusive, fair, accessible and sustainable post-Covid world. As others have said, it is encouraging to see that the Parliament itself is more diverse than it was in previous sessions. Jeremy Balfour noted that point, as did Paul O’Kane, who also reminded us that there is more to do to ensure that the Parliament truly looks like Scotland.

It is a key moment to recognise Scotland’s champions for disabled people’s rights, equality and inclusion. There are members here who have done a tremendous job in breaking down barriers and showing what can be done. Disabled people’s organisations play a vital role in representing the diverse views and experiences of disabled people across the country, in urban, rural, Highland and island communities.

That role has been particularly crucial during the pandemic, which has had considerable impacts on disabled people, and I offer my thanks to all those working in disabled people’s organisations and the wider third sector for their invaluable contribution to supporting people at this very difficult time.

The Scottish Government is listening to disabled people’s lived experiences and is trying to ensure that, collectively, we build resilience in our communities, so that disabled people can realise their rights and get on with living their lives. Pam Duncan-Glancy was right to say that people with disability should be around the table. We do not always get that right and it is important that we do so.

One of the foundation stones of our approach will of course be our new human rights bill, which will bring the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into Scots law as far as is possible within devolved competence. It will provide greater impetus to public bodies to remove barriers and to support disabled people to participate fully in society, and it will also empower disabled people by enabling them to claim and, just as important, enforce their rights.

That follows our work in the previous parliamentary session on taking the UN convention as the blueprint for our “A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People” delivery plan. Our next plan for action, which we will publish by the end of 2022, will build on that, reflecting on what has and has not worked so far as we progress towards a Scotland where the convention is meaningful in communities, services and opportunities. Through our equality and human rights fund, we will invest £21 million over three years to advance human rights, promote equality and tackle discrimination, with over £5 million of that funding going to disability-focused projects and organisations

An important issue that has been highlighted is the disability employment gap, which we are committed to reducing by at least half before 2038. Real progress had been made on that before the pandemic, but the disruption of Covid-19 slowed the pace of change, and we are now working with disabled people’s organisations and, importantly, employers to reinvigorate the programme of work. We will also establish a scheme to tackle the barriers faced by disabled people who wish to take on leadership positions, empowering more people to fulfil their potential.

As members have mentioned, our social security system plays an important role in this matter, and it must treat people with dignity and respect. The involvement of disabled people in the redesign that Marie McNair mentioned was therefore critical. Early next year, we will pilot our new adult disability payment as the replacement for the personal independence payment. The new initiative will be trialled as part of our transformation of disability assistance, during which we will transfer the entitlements of nearly 700,000 existing disability and carer benefits clients from the UK Government’s systems to Social Security Scotland in what will be a massive undertaking. As a first step, we launched in July our new child disability payment in three pilot areas, providing vital support to 38,000 children and their families in the next financial year alone. Of course, we will also double the Scottish child payment next April.

As well as building people’s economic resilience, we must ensure that, as a number of members have said, disabled people have access to the right support and care. We know that there is a lot more to do to ensure that everyone can rely on having access to the right care in the right place at the right time, and we will continue to engage with disabled people’s organisations as we start to build our groundbreaking new national care service, which has the potential to revolutionise the delivery of support to people when they need it most.

Monica Lennon mentioned the issue of accessible toilets and, as she pointed out, we are investing £10 million in increasing the number of changing places toilets across the country, including mobile facilities at events and outdoor venues. Facilities that meet our needs are something that most of us take for granted, and fully accessible toilets are important for dignity, confidence and peace of mind. There is more to do in that area.

I want briefly to mention young people, particularly the young persons guarantee. We want to ensure that disabled young people can access the guarantee and we want to help connect more than 1,000 disabled young people to fair work, education and other activities. We have also made a commitment to introducing in this parliamentary session Scotland’s first national transitions to adulthood strategy to ensure a joined-up approach. In that respect, I note Pam Duncan-Glancy’s proposed bill on disabled children and young people’s transitions to adulthood. We share the same ambition for improved outcomes and are supportive of the bill’s intentions. As a result, we are engaging with Pam Duncan-Glancy on the bill; indeed, we met just yesterday as part of that work.

I want to end with a couple of reflections. In his very powerful speech, Daniel Johnson recognised that there are many people in Scotland who are living with unseen or hidden disabilities, including autistic people and people with a range of other disabilities. They face particularly stark inequalities, which is why we have committed to a dedicated programme of work as detailed in our “Towards Transformation” learning and intellectual disabilities and autism plan. Part of that commitment includes our work over this parliamentary session to introduce a dedicated learning disability, autism and neurodiversity bill.

I will close by taking a moment to appreciate the crucial role of our allies in the journey to disability equality, including all those who have shared their lived experience and colleagues in the Parliament, in creating for all disabled people the much-needed societal change that Christine Grahame talked about and in acting as real role models and inspirational leaders. We thank them for their work.

Miles Briggs and I have had this exchange on a number of occasions in the chamber, so he will be aware that some of the issues with moving people through temporary accommodation relate to Covid. The pandemic has slowed down local authorities’ ability to free up accommodation and move people from temporary to permanent accommodation. With the support of Government, local authorities are working through those issues.

We are also working with local government to scale up housing first, so that people with the most complex needs can access settled mainstream accommodation, with the wraparound support that I spoke about earlier. That can reduce the time that people with the most complex needs spend in temporary accommodation.

We have also seen a move away from the use of night shelters and hostels towards more supported, housing first accommodation. All those aspects are important, and I am sure that Miles Briggs will join me in supporting the efforts of the third sector, whose work supports our most vulnerable people.

As I said in my initial answer, I agree that every death is a tragedy, which is why we are taking steps to tackle both homelessness and drug-related deaths. As I said at the end of my initial answer, that determination to tackle drug-related deaths is backed by £250 million of funding over the next five years. Later today, Angela Constance will make a statement and give further information on residential rehabilitation provision.

We have taken considerable action to tackle homelessness, which is backed by substantial resources including support for rapid rehousing and housing first, which have been recognised as being absolutely critical in getting people off the streets and into settled accommodation and providing them with the wraparound support that they need. We know that, when people have addiction or mental health issues, giving them a key to a home is not enough, which is why we are pleased to see that around 85 per cent of tenancies through housing first are being sustained. That is an important way of supporting people to deal with a range of issues that they might face.

No, I do not agree with that. We have a complex situation involving people with a lot of complex needs, which must all be addressed. The answers are measures such as the rapid rehousing plan and housing first, which are proving to be successful means of supporting people into accommodation and, importantly, wrapping the services around the person.

Working with third sector agencies throughout the pandemic, we have almost eliminated rough sleeping on our streets, which is also important. I do not know why Willie Rennie is shaking his head. It is important that our third sector agencies be commended for the work that they have done to eradicate rough sleeping on our streets.

Willie Rennie raised an important issue in relation to mental health. Poor mental health can be both a cause and a consequence of homelessness, which is why we are working with national health service boards and others to address the issue. As we set out in our mental health transition and recovery plan, in response to the pandemic—and backed by £120 million of funding, including cross-Government investment—we will support the integration of mental health and substance use treatment services. There is no single solution to such complex issues; we need to do all those things and more, which is why the prevention duty is also important.