Learning/intellectual disability and autism: transformation plan - easy read

Learning/Intellectual Disability and Autism - Towards Transformation Plan Easy Read

What is this easy read about?

This is the easy read version of the Towards Transformation plan for learning disability and autism.

It is a joint plan between the Scottish Government and COSLA.

COSLA is a group of all the councils in Scotland.

The plan will run for two years.

The purpose of the plan

The pandemic has made life very hard for lots of autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

The plan is about helping people now to help recover from the pandemic.

The plan is about talking more to find out what else we need to do.

Some new ways of doing things have happened during the pandemic. We should keep doing these things in the plan.

Different groups like charities and local councils help autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

This plan will help them think about the things they need to do.

The plan will need different groups and people to work together.

A Joint plan

People with learning disabilities and autistic people have had similar problems during the pandemic.

This is why the plan will help both groups of people.

People with learning disabilities and autistic people will still need different things to help make their lives better.

People with learning disabilities and autistic people will be listened to when the things in the plan happen.

To make the plan work people with learning disabilities and autistic people will have to be leaders.

This means they will always have a say on how the plan should do things.

Listening to people

This plan is about the things that people have said are important.

We spoke to people using the internet to have discussions.

People could email the Scottish Government with their thoughts about what the plan should do.

What has already happened?

The Scottish Government and COSLA have already done things to help during the pandemic.

The Scottish Government have given money to charities to help people during the pandemic.

Groups have been run on the internet so that people can still have social activities and talk to people.

Information has been produced so that people can understand more about the pandemic.

People have been able to phone helplines.

Human Rights

The plan wants to make sure that the human rights of autistic people and people with learning disabilities are respected.

There are different things happening like reviews of laws that make this a special time to advance human rights.

The Scottish Government is looking at international laws that can help autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

Action 1

The Scottish government is doing a review of the Mental Health Act.

The Scottish Government has said that they will always think about the needs of autistic people and people with learning disabilities and their carers while they are doing this review.

This review is being done because some people think that the rights of autistic people and people with learning disabilities should be protected in a new law which is separate from the Mental Health Act.

Action 2

This Scottish Government will think about making a commission or commissioner for autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

A commission is a group of people who have been chosen by the government to help do a certain task or find out something.

A commissioner is a person who is chosen by the government to help do a certain task or find out something.

The job of this commission or commissioner will be to protect the rights of autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

Action 3

The Scottish Government will follow a Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan.

This is a plan which says what the government and other organisations should do to help people with poor mental health as we come out of the pandemic.

During the pandemic autistic people and people with learning disabilities have suffered worse mental health than the rest of the population.

They feel like they are less likely to have access to the same mental health services that others do.

The plan will try to make mental health services better for autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

Action 4

The Scottish government will help people with Profound and multiple learning and their carers to use guides which will help them explore their emotions.

These guides are provided by the organisation PAMIS.

PAMIS work to protect the rights of people with Profound and multiple learning disabilities.

The Scottish government will also encourage people to use guides which help autistic people and people with learning disabilities who have anxiety.

These guides are provided by the University of Glasgow.

Copies of these guides can be found here: https://www.scld.org.uk/covid-19-guided-self-help-booklet-series/

Action 5

Some autistic people and people with learning disabilities are kept in hospital for too long or are not let out at all.

This is known as delayed discharge.

Some autistic people and people with learning disabilities are placed in an area away from where they normally live when they need care.

This is known as an out of area placement.

The Scottish government has set up a group which will try to find ways to lower the number of delayed discharges and out of area placements for people with learning disabilities and autism.

The group's actions will be based on advice given in a report by the Scottish Government called the Coming Home Report.

The group will publish everything they find out in the future and the Scottish Government will make sure their advice is carried out.

Action 6

The Scottish Government will employ people who can give advice to nurses and other healthcare workers on how to give the best care to people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

This will be available for both mental health care and hospital care.

Action 7

The Scottish government is working to find out the issues which make the health of people with learning disabilities not as good as other people.

They are also trying to find out what may affect how long people with learning disabilities are expected to live.

The plan will try to improve the health of people with learning disabilities of all ages.

This work is being done with the help of the Scottish Learning Disability Observatory.

The Scottish Learning Disability Observatory is an organisation which studies the health of people with learning disabilities.

Action 8

The Scottish Government and Aberdeenshire health and social care partnership are testing a scheme in which they will give health checks to people with learning disabilities.

This is being done to deal with issues and problems that affect the health of people with learning disabilities more than others and to stop people from dying earlier than they should.

Action 9

The Scottish Government is working with other organisations to improve the way information on the health of people with learning disabilities can be collected and made available.

This is being done so that more people take notice of people with learning disabilities and their health issues.

The Scottish Government is also thinking about introducing a new way to tell if their work is getting better.

This work is being done with the help of National Health Service Boards and the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability and the Scottish Learning Disability Observatory.

Action 10

The Scottish Government and other organisations have started a Gender Based Violence Steering Group.

This is a group of experts who will try to find out what should be done to lower levels of violence against women who have learning disabilities or are autistic.

They will also try to find ways to make sure women with learning disabilities and autistic women feel safe in any relationships they are in.

Action 11

The Scottish government will work with others to help support those who diagnose autistic people and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

A diagnosis is when an expert will say that a person has autism.

They will make a plan to decide on a better way to check that the work of people diagnosing autism and ADHD is getting better.

Healthcare improvement Scotland will help them do this.

Action 12

The plan will look at training NHS staff on the needs of autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

All these people will have to get this training as part of the law.

Action 13

The Scottish government will test a scheme in which they give support to people who have recently been diagnosed with autism.

This scheme will take 6 months to test.

The scheme will last from December 2020 to May 2021.

The Scottish government will work with charities and organisations for autistic people to judge whether the scheme has worked or not.

Action 14

The Scottish government will find out the issues which make the health of autistic people not as good as other people.

They will make a plan to try to improve the health of autistic people.

Action 15

The Scottish Government will do more so that people with learning disabilities and autistic people are listened to.

This means listening to them at the start of things the Scottish Government does and not just at the end.

Action 16

The Scottish government is working with a charity called Inspiring Scotland on a programme called Support in the Right Direction.

This programme makes sure that more autistic people and people with learning disabilities will be able to decide what support they get.

This is something people have the legal right to do under Scottish law.

Action 17

The Scottish government along with others have made written guidance for local authorities and health and social care partnerships on how to manage social care during the time of COVID-19.

This guidance is called COVID-19: Guidance on Self Directed Support Option 1 and Option 2.

The guidance makes sure that those who give social care are still able to achieve their normal goals even during the pandemic restrictions.

The guidance was written with Social Work Scotland who are an organisation who help decide the laws which say what social workers should do.

It was also written with the help of COSLA who are an organisation who help local councils to do their job.

The Scottish Government and others are working to make a new group who can find new ways to give day support to people with learning disabilities.

They are working on this with Healthcare Improvement Scotland who are an organisation who try to make sure people are able to get the best health and social care.

They are also working with different Health and Social Care Partnerships on this.

Action 18

The Scottish Government will be raising awareness about carers.

This will help people to know that there is support available to them.

Some people do not realise that they are a carer when they are looking after a family member.

Action 19

The Scottish Government will look at ways to help autistic people and people with learning disabilities become involved in their local community.

This will be about thinking about what people can do instead of what they cannot do.

Action 20

The Scottish Government have a plan called A Fairer Scotland.

In the employment part of this plan it says that they want to help more people with disabilities get jobs.

They talk about a gap between the amount of disabled people with jobs and the amount of people who are not disabled who have jobs.

The Scottish Government want to work to cut this gap in half.

That means the difference between the amount of disabled and non-disabled people in work will be smaller.

You can read the Fairer Scotland report on employment at this link.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/fairer-scotland-disabled-people-employment-action-plan/

Action 21

The Scottish Government are doing a review to look at Supported Employment services across Scotland.

The Scottish Government want to make sure that people with learning disabilities and autistic people are involved in this review.

Supported Employment is an important part of helping people into work.

It is important that supported employment is available to people who need it.

The Scottish Government says they need to use supported employment to help more people into work.

The review of supported employment will be published later in 2021.

Action 22

There was a review of the support given to students who need extra help in schools.

The review found that support is not good for everyone.

There are laws in place to say how people should be supported.

The review found that it was not the same across Scotland.

The Scottish Government and COSLA will work with other education partners across Scotland to do the things that are needed to make the changes asked for in the review.

You can read the review here

https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/independent-report/2020/06/review-additional-support-learning-implementation/documents/support-learning-children-potential/support-learning-children-potential/govscot%3Adocument/support-learning-children-potential.pdf

Action 23

The Scottish Government will do the things in a report called Not Included, Not Engaged, Not Involved.

The report says that there are things that need to be done better for autistic people.

One of the things in that report is to make sure that teacher training includes training on autism awareness.

You can read this report here https://www.notengaged.com/

Action 24

The Scottish Government will help to improve awareness of learning disabilities.

They will do this by working with the General Teaching Council and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland.

The Talking about Learning Disabilities website will be used with teachers.

You can see this website here https://talkingabout.org.uk/

Action 25

The Scottish Government will decide on ways to see how well autistic children or children with learning disabilities are doing in school.

Just now only how well students do on school work or what they do when they leave school is looked at.

There are other important achievements learned in school.

The Scottish Government think it is important to be able to show the other things that autistic people and people with learning disabilities have achieved.

Action 26

The Scottish Government will make sure that there are new guidelines on when it is ok to use restraint and seclusion in schools.

Restraint is when someone is stopped from doing things they want or going where they want.

Restraint might mean actually holding someone down.

Seclusion means putting someone somewhere on their own away from others.

There will be a review one year after the new guidance.

This review will be to see how well the new guidance has worked.

Action 27

The Scottish Government will try to make sure that parents of autistic children or children with learning disabilities get more help.

They want to make sure that parents have the skills they need and the right support.

There should be access to advocacy support for parents too.

This will help parents to be more involved in their child's education.

Action 28

The Scottish Government want to help people to be connected to the internet.

This will help people to stay in touch with friends families and others in the community.

Action 29

The Scottish Government will work with People First Scotland and the Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities to make sure there is accessible information available.

The Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities website will be a place where accessible information will be kept.

The Scottish Government will also make use of Disability Equality Scotland's Inclusive Communication Hub.

Action 30

The Scottish Government have made information to help other people understand autism better.

This is called Different minds. One Scotland.

Different minds. One Scotland. Has leaflets and a video to help to explain what it is like to be autistic.

The Scottish Government hopes this will help autistic people to be able to have their voices heard more.

Action 31

The Scottish Government want to help people with learning disabilities to be more confident and more involved in their communities.

The Scottish Government have committed to supporting some organisations and groups that can help people to be involved.

The list of places the Scottish Government says can help is:
SCLD and Inspiring Scotland's Future Leader's Programme
National Involvement Network
People First
The People's Assembly
And autistic led charities and organisations

Action 32

The Scottish Government will work hard to hear from autistic people and people with learning disabilities who are also from Black, Asian or Minority ethnic communities.

This will help people get any help or support they need.