Fairer Scotland for disabled people: progress report

Introduction

A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People (hereafter known as the Action Plan) set out the Scottish Government's approach to policy for disabled people. It is based unequivocally on the social model of disability as opposed to the medical model. The medical model focuses on the impairment, rather than on society's inability to meet the needs, rights, and aspirations of disabled people. The social model is rooted firmly in the United Nation on the Convention of the Rights of Disabled People (UNCRPD) and is also aligned to the aims of the independent living movement; which is that disabled people can live the life they choose, participating equally alongside other citizens in their families, communities, workplaces and wider society, with the support they need. 

The Action Plan was published in 2016 as part of the Scottish Government's programme for a fairer Scotland. It was informed by evidence and consultation with the direct involvement of disabled people and Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs) on a draft disability action plan and by the Fairer Scotland conversations that took place with people across Scotland. 

The Action Plan set the overall direction of travel for the Scottish Government over the lifetime of this Parliament (2016 - 2021) to secure real transformational change for disabled people across Scotland. It was built around five longer-term ambitions and a set of 93 actions. These actions are steps toward equality in order for longer strides to be made in the future, knowing it would take much more than one session of Parliament (five years) to bring true equality for disabled people. Actions and Results across The Five Ambitions in the Action Plan

The Action Plan contained five longer-term ambitions and 93 practical actions, all of which were steps toward greater equality for disabled people over the parliamentary term 2016-21. 

Over this period, progress has been tracked against the actions. Not all the actions were equivalent in scale but the delivery of each action had a role to play in progressing toward the long term ambitions. In this part we set out key achievements that support the five ambitions. In the Annex of this document we have set out all 93 actions in the original Action Plan and provided an update on what has been delivered over the past five years.