Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill: scoping work analysis 2022 - easy read

Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill: Scoping Work Analysis 2022

A new law about Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity

What we have learned from talking to others in 2022

About this report.

In 2022 the Scottish Government held public events about a new law called The Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill. These events are called consultations.

A consultation is when the Scottish Government ask people what they think about something. Some events were face to face and others were on-line

They wrote a report of the work they did between May and July 2022.

The report was written by:

Douglas Morgan, Brendan Nisbet and Anna Richardson

This is an easy read version of the report.

Some harder words in this report are in bold. You can find a list of these words and what they mean at the back of the report.

You can find a list of the organisations who took part in the consultation at the back of the report.

The Scottish Government Autism and Learning Disabilities Team held events in Scotland between May 2022 and July 2022

We asked people what they thought about a new law for Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity. (The Bill)

We asked a mixture of people from:

• disabled people- led organisations (DPO's)
• national charities
• smaller charities
• people with learning disabilities
• neurodivergent people

This would help Scottish Government to understand what things are hard for those people.

It would also help us to think about how to make things better for people.

It was important that a new law should involve the people that it would affect.

The Scottish Government know that people with different disabilities have different ways to describe themselves.

The Scottish Government have tried to respect this. We know it might not be how some people like to be described.

When we talk about autism and neurodiversity – we use identity- first language like:

• autistic person
• neurodivergent person

When we talk about learning disabilities we use person-first language like:

• person with a learning disability

We use these because this was what most people we worked with said they wanted.

For some people neurodivergence means people whose brains work differently from most others.

This would include for example:

• people with learning disabilities
• autistic people
• people with ADHD
• people with dyslexia or dyspraxia

We will keep checking with people to make sure we use language that is inclusive and respectful.

This report is about what we learned from the questions we asked.

We asked the questions at the events we held.

The information we have reported comes from 986 things people told us.

Most of the comments were from neurodivergent people.

Some comments were from family and carers of neurodivergent people.

We looked very carefully at the information before reporting on it.

We talked about having a commissioner of Learning Disability and Neurodiversity.

We asked the 18 different organisations we worked with about this.

Some thought it was a good idea.

Others did not think it was a good idea.

People who took part agreed that the Bill should include people without a formal diagnosis.

They thought people waiting for a diagnosis should be able to get the support they needed.

They thought people should not have to wait a long time to get a diagnosis.

A lot of people thought it was good that the Bill covered a wider range of neurodiverse people.

Some people thought this was not a good idea.

They thought this would mean some people would not get the support they need.

Some people thought it was important to name conditions in the Bill. This would mean those people with those conditions would get the support they need.

People thought it was important to use language connected to the social model of disability.

People were happy with words like neurodiversity and neurodivergence.

They said the language needs to be as inclusive as possible but able to adapt to change.

Some people with learning disabilities did not like the words like neurodiversity and neurodivergence.

We found 5 things that were the most important to all the people who took part.

1. They think people are more likely to be discriminated against if they are:

• autistic people
• people with learning disabilities
• neurodivergent people

People from these groups need protection from discrimination.

They need to be more included and be valued.

2. People think that the Bill must include a wide range of neurodivergent people.

This should include people who have not had a diagnosis.

They thought conditions should be named in the Bill. These could include things like:

• ADHD
• dyspraxia
• dyslexia

3. People think the best way to stop discrimination is to teach and train people. This should be for public bodies and neurodivergent people.

It should also include awareness, training and understanding of:

• the needs of people with learning disabilities
• the needs of autistic people
• human rights

4. People think that the Bill should make it law that:

• person centred support is used in all the different ways people get support
• people get support throughout their life

5. People said it is important that the Bill works with:

• laws and services that already exist
• the work of public bodies and the effects of that work on neurodivergent groups

This would include:

• the Equality Act 2010
• the National Care Service Bill
• existing commissioners

In the workshops we asked how Scottish Government can be better at hearing from people with lived experience.

Talking about this means we know we need to:

• talk to people at events in their own communities
• work with schools
• communicate in different ways and languages
• give regular information out about how the Bill is developing

There are some areas we know need to do more work on.

We will do this with our panels made up of:

• people with lived experience
• stakeholders
• professionals

We will also look more at these things during a formal meeting in 2023. This is called a consultation.

The things we will look at are:

• what the Commissioner's job would look like if we had one
• agree what neurodiversity and neurodivergence mean
• find ways to include others that we have not talked to yet and ask them to join our Advisory Panels
• do more work on the Bill and its connections to human rights law in Scotland