Disabled People's Cabinet Forum: report

3. Purpose, Aims and Intended Outcomes of the Cabinet Forum

The Disabled People’s Cabinet Forum was created to give disabled people a direct route to influence ministerial thinking and move beyond traditional engagement models, establishing a meaningful platform for lived‑experience leadership to shape government priorities across portfolios. Through direct dialogue and shared problem‑solving with Cabinet members, the Forum examined the real‑world impact of current systems, surfaced areas requiring improvement, and informed the direction of future policy.

At its core, the Forum aimed to strengthen understanding of disability justice, inform rights‑based decision‑making, deepen ministerial awareness of the barriers disabled people face, and support progress towards a fairer, more inclusive Scotland. It demonstrated how lived‑experience leadership drives more responsive and equitable policy development.

To deliver these aims, the event was designed to strengthen meaningful participation by giving disabled leaders a direct platform to articulate experience, challenge assumptions, and shape Scotland’s policy agenda. It modelled co‑production, showing how shared power and collaborative decision‑making can yield more responsive, inclusive, and effective policy. It also deepened understanding within government of the barriers disabled people face across social security, social care, mental health, transport, and wider infrastructure so that these factors are accounted for at the outset of policy planning.

The Forum further built the case that responsibility for disabled people’s outcomes must be shared across the Scottish Cabinet, with policy actions taken on a cross‑government basis. It identified priority areas for improvement using lived experience to highlight gaps, inconsistencies, and points where urgent action is needed; and it strengthened relationships between Ministers, DPOs, and disabled people to support continued dialogue and shared accountability.

Finally, it laid the foundation for lived experience to inform future delivery of the Disability Equality Plan, including ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and accountability.

Short‑term outcomes include actionable insights to inform immediate policy work, improved communication between Ministers and disabled people, and progress in building disability competence within the Scottish Government.

Long‑term outcomes include embedding co‑production in policy processes, creating more consistent and equitable systems across Scotland, and strengthening the Government’s ability to design policies that uphold rights in practice and avoid creating further barriers.