Scotland is not meeting human rights obligations on progress from institutions to independent living

“Hospitals are no place to live…”*

The Scottish Human Rights Commission finds that people with learning disabilities and autistic people are still being held in institutions in breach of their human rights, and no evidence of a human rights based approach to end this practice.

A new report from Scotland’s human rights watchdog identifies significant gaps in human rights standards and progress made under the Scottish Government’s Coming Home Implementation Plan. This plan, published in 2022, had committed to facilitating a move out of hospital to independent living for people affected by March 2024, and to prevent new unnecessary admissions for anything other than medical need.

Human Rights Violations

Published today in ‘Tick Tock: A Human Rights Assessment of Progress from Institutionalisation to Independent Living in Scotland’,  the Commission finds that the Scottish Government’s Coming Home Implementation Plan is not delivering the human right to independent living and has not been fully implemented. 

The Commission has found evidence of direct violations of Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and also serious concerns about potential violations of the European Convention on Human Rights obligations enshrined in the Human Rights Act 1998, such as Article 5, the right to liberty, and Article 8, the right to respect for private and family life.

Transparency and accountability

Based on publicly available data, the Commission has found that just over £12.5 million of a £20 million public fund called “the Community Living Change Fund” remained unspent going into the final year of the fund.

The Commission reports that some of the money, which ought to have been spent on independent living, was not spent supporting people in the way intended but rather to refurbish institutional settings. This would be in direct contravention of the requirements of the right to independent living.

As a priority, the Commission recommends that the Scottish Government now urgently develops a new approach to leading change to uphold the human rights of people with learning disabilities and/or autism, using the framework developed by the Commission in the report to guide a human rights based approach to change, which will help Scotland comply with its human rights obligations. 

The Commission will continue to monitor progress. In the meantime, the Commission is also publishing a new film and a toolkit, co-authored by people who have experience of institutionalisation, to help people affected by this issue to name and claim their own human right to independent living.

Professor Angela O’Hagan, Chair of the Commission, says:

“Every person has the right to live independently, but for some people with learning disabilities and autistic people in Scotland, the choices that allow them to live in their community are not available.

“Instead, they may be moved far from home to receive support or be admitted to hospital; and it can take a long time for people to get out of hospital again.

“We have explored what actions have been taken under the Scottish Government’s Coming Home Implementation plan in detail, examining and measuring action and the lack of action through the lens of human rights standards. It is troubling to find such little progress has been made and that clear failures to uphold human rights continue.

“This evidence reveals a failure to uphold the right to independent living, in terms of Article 19 of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and action must be taken immediately to prevent violations of human rights.

“We will continue to monitor this situation and use our limited powers to push for change, including encouraging government and public authorities to urgently act.

“Our findings and approach have been guided by people with direct experience. We are hugely grateful for their time and insight, which has informed the project overall, including a short new film and toolkit to people who want to advocate for change.

“We encourage all human rights defenders to use the findings of this report, the human rights framework it contains and the toolkit we have published alongside, to challenge inadequate progress where they see it.”

Ends

For media enquiries please contact Judy Fladmark on Judy.Fladmark@scottishhumanrights.com or mobile 07880 398530 or media@scottishhumanrights.com.

Notes to editors:

  1. *Quote from Karen Malcolm, whose son is currently living in an institution. Karen is a member of the Measuring Change Human Rights Defenders group.
  2. Our report is published under sections 3 and 4 of the Scottish Commission for Human Rights Act 2006.
  3. The Scottish Human Rights Commission is Scotland’s human rights watchdog. It is an independent public body, created by the Scottish Commission for Human Rights Act 2006, to protect and promote the human rights of all people in Scotland. Find out more at www.scottishhumanrights.com
  4. Read more about this project on the Spotlight Projects page of our website at www.scottishhumanrights.com
  5. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) protects disabled people's rights. CRPD says that institutionalisation should be replaced by personalised support in the community, chosen by the people who need it. The Scottish Government have ratified this Treaty, which means that they must take action to make this happen for disabled people in Scotland.
  6. In the 1990s, the Scottish Government decided that all large institutions for people with learning disabilities/autism would be closed, and that people would be supported to live in their own communities. Thirty years later, we see that many people are back in hospital because their local support has broken down or is not available. In 2022, the Scottish Government made a new plan to make a real change to the lives of people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people who are living in institutions that they should not be in. The Coming Home Implementation Plan had a goal to do this by March 2024.