Tonight (15 August 2022), BBC Scotland airs the documentary “Locked in the Hospital” exposing stories of disabled people locked into hospitals, far from home, and their families’ fight to get them home.
Making Rights Real has joined Inclusion Scotland, C-Change Scotland and 20 other Scottish organisations in writing to Scottish Ministers urging them to urgently do more to sort this out so that disabled people can lead full and independent lives with or close to their families.
Sent with the letter is a submission co-signed by all the organisations in response to the Scottish Governments ‘Coming Home Implementation Report’ published in February 2022. This report sets out the actions Scottish Government plan to take. However, these actions include promoting institutions as a suitable ‘home’ and take no account of the very things that can support disabled people to live in the community, such as self-directed support and the Scottish Independent Living Fund. Despite using the language of human rights, the report undermines these rights, does not take account of disabled people’s voices of experience and expertise and quite simply, does not go far enough.
Read the letter and submission below –