Disability equality plan

2. Our Approach

2.1 Action through competency and leadership

This first phase of our plan seeks to invest in actions which will improve the lives of disabled people while bringing together work already happening across the Scottish Government. By taking a coordinated approach we will ensure consistency, maximise impact, and deliver real change.

Our approach is underpinned by a strong focus on collective leadership, accountability, and disability competence, and is grounded in the principles of human rights and inclusion. Disability equality is all our responsibility, and to achieve our collective vision for a fairer Scotland we need to work together across Government, public and third sectors. Delivery of the shared objectives in this plan will be supported by a robust governance framework that will have external accountability mechanisms built-in from the beginning.

2.2 A collaborative, people-led approach

The lived experience of disabled people must be at the core of all our work. Disabled people, and those supporting them, are experts by experience and we will continue to work to ensure their voices are heard across Government. We are committed to the principle of “nothing about us without us,” meaning that disabled people should have the opportunity to participate and inform policy development and decision making. Without this, and the analysis, ideas and solutions that come from codesign, we will miss the opportunity to identify the effective actions needed for a challenge of this scale.

As we move through this first phase of our Disability Equality Plan, we will continue to prioritise collaborative ways of working. The foundations upon which this plan is built will enable DPOs to robustly hold us to account. This will ensure we deliver on the actions identified in this plan in ways which will make a tangible difference to disabled people’s lives. DPOs will be key partners in delivering this and helping shape solutions.

Actions

Several actions have been identified to support and implement this approach.

1. As part of our existing commitment to review grant making processes across Scottish Government, we will make improvements to DPOs’ experiences of going through the funding process. Our Fairer Funding principles respond to the long standing issues relating to late notification of grants and inflexible grant conditions. This reflects prior learning that showed flexible grant conditions, good relationships, and proportional reporting measures mean third sector stakeholders can respond quickly to support communities.

2. We will commission a roundtable with Scottish Funders Forum and DPOs to look at funding processes from the application stage to monitoring & evaluation, in order to improve disability competence and take into account the unique characteristics of DPOs.

3. We will strengthen our resilience and emergency planning to ensure appropriate, accessible, and timely responses for disabled people in times of crisis. Civil Contingencies Division and the Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights will do so by working with DPOs to create a resourced plan setting out how we will enhance our disability competence and learn from the lived experience of disabled people.

4. Our transition to Net Zero and a climate resilient Scotland will be fair and just for disabled people. Working with DPOs and disabled people on the co-design of our Just Transition Plans, we will ensure that their needs are reflected in plans, and in wider Scottish Government climate change policy.

5. As part of the annual winter planning and readiness work, the needs of disabled people are considered by related policy teams as part of their identified priorities and actions for winter. Consultative roundtable exercises were held with representatives from DPOs and other social care stakeholders as part of the plan’s drafting phase to ensure the continued alignment of disabled people’s needs within identified priorities and actions outlined in the Health and Social Care Winter Preparedness Plan 2024-2025, published 24 September 2024.

6. We will undertake several actions to address the barriers faced by disabled people in rural and island communities. These actions will link into future partnership work being undertaken to improve holistic support in communities, through a revised approach to service design based on people’s needs:

• We will continue to work in an inclusive way with our rural communities to ensure the needs of disabled people living in a rural context are understood so they can be addressed. This community-led approach around rural need, and what is working, will in turn influence wider rural development policy and actions.
• We will work with DPOs to ensure disabled people’s needs are considered in island communities following the recent islands’ consultation and subsequent analysis.
• We will work with DPOs to develop DPO representation and build capacity in rural and island communities to provide vital support for disabled people in these areas.