Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Scotland. A new Parliament has the opportunity, and responsibility, to work with and for people with learning disabilities to deliver change that has been long promised, but not yet realised. 

 As I take up my role as Chief Executive of The Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities (SCLD), I do so at a moment of genuine opportunity: a chance to turn ambition into action, and rights into reality.  

As new MSPs take their seats in the Scottish Parliament, new committees take shape, and new Ministers take up their portfolios, the question for people with learning disabilities remains: will anything actually change in our lives? 

Scotland does not lack ambition. We have strategies, programmes, and commitments. Yet lived experience tells a different story. 

People with learning disabilities continue to face avoidable ill health and early death, lack the support needed to live independently and encounter persistent barriers to employment, financial security, and participation. Many still find themselves excluded from decisions about their own lives. 

Too often, people must navigate multiple systems, health, social care, housing, education, and employment support, that operate in silos. The result is complexity, frustration and exhaustion for individuals and families. There is a clear gap between what we say and what people experience. That gap is where rights must move from principle to practice. 

 A rights-based approach is not abstract.  

If information is not accessible, rights cannot be understood.
If systems are fragmented, rights cannot be claimed.
If support is not available, rights cannot be exercised.
If participation is absent, rights are not shaping decisions.

Making rights real means embedding them in how services are designed, delivered, and held to account.  

SCLD’s Rights. Equality. Inclusion. agenda, alongside our 12 Point Plan for Change, sets out a clear, practical, rights-based route forward for government. It is an opportunity for the next government to take decisive action to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities from day one.  

Together, they focus on four key areas: 

• Strengthening human rights protections and law reform 

• Independent living 

• Health, social care and wellbeing 

• Inclusive design 

 There has been progress. The incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law was one of the most important things we could do to make children’s rights enforceable in practice. Its impact will be greatest for those whose rights are most at risk, including children with learning disabilities and parents who need support. 

But we must go further. The commitment to incorporate the wider human rights framework, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, must now be delivered. Without enforceable rights, accountability is limited, and change remains uncertain. 

It is also important that we recognise the powerful work that people with learning disabilities, their families and carers, and civil society did to help the Scottish Government develop the Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence (LDAN) Bill. Bringing the LDAN Bill forward early in the new parliamentary session would show a real commitment to turning aspiration into action. 

Independent living is one of the clearest tests. Too many people still lack the support to live in their communities. They experience limited access to suitable housing, gaps in social care and barriers to participation in community life. Moving people out of inappropriate hospital and institutional settings, through the implementation of Coming Home, must remain a priority. Independent living is not just a policy aspiration, it is a right. 

Health inequalities present an equally urgent challenge. People with learning disabilities face preventable illness, barriers to accessing services and a lack of reasonable adjustments in healthcare. This is not simply a service gap; it is a failure to ensure the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health. Consistent implementation of Annual Health Checks is a practical and necessary step that can make a measurable difference. 

Mainstream services must work for everyone. Accessibility should be designed into public services from the outset, not added later as an adjustment. People also need advocacy and supported decision-making so they can understand options, make informed choices and challenge decisions when necessary. Services only work when people can understand them, navigate them and claim their rights within them. 

This also requires a different approach to funding and accountability. Rights-based budgeting demands clear duties, measurable outcomes and transparency about whether rights are being realised in practice. Without accountability, even well-funded services can fail to respect, protect and fulfil rights. 

Participation is central to this. “Nothing about us without us” must be more than a slogan. People with learning disabilities are still too often excluded from decisions about their own lives. Participation is not charity. It is a right. People with learning disabilities and their families consistently say they want to be part of the solution, listened to, to shape services and policy, and to be recognised as leaders in their communities. 

As people with learning disabilities have consistently said through SCLD’s work: “We just want the same chances as everyone else.” 

Through Scottish Learning Disability Week, the Include for Good Rapporteurs programme and participatory initiatives, SCLD supports people with learning disabilities to speak directly about their experiences and priorities. This is not just consultation – it is leadership. When people with learning disabilities lead conversations about policy and services, systems begin to change. 

As one contributor to SCLD’s work put it: “Listen to us. We know what needs to change.” 

That is not simply good practice. It is a core human rights principle. Participation strengthens decisions. It improves services. It ensures accountability. More than that, it recognises something fundamental: people with learning disabilities are rights holders. Not recipients. Not passive beneficiaries. Leaders.  

We saw a great example of that with the launch this week of the Equally Safe and Supported Training Resources designed and delivered in partnership with People First Scotland’s Equally Safe Group, with the aim of ensuring that women and girls with learning disabilities, and the services who support them, are better able to recognise and report abuse, and to access justice and support. 

One member said “Too often decisions are made about us with no involvement from us.  Our voices are overlooked and our experiences are ignored or misunderstood.  Coproduction directly challenges that and makes sure that training reflects real experiences, real barriers and offers information that actually helps” 

Alongside lived experience change must also be focused on evidence about learning disability in Scotland. Since its establishment in 2003, SCLD has helped build the national evidence base through initiatives such as Learning Disability Statistics Scotland and partnerships with the Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory. Projects such as the How’s Life? survey provide vital insight into housing, relationships, wellbeing and community inclusion. Reports such as State of Our Rights have helped shift the national conversation from viewing learning disability as a service issue to recognising it as a human rights issue. 

A SCLD and Fraser of Allander Institute research report on Learning Disabilities and Financial Security last year highlighted over 50% of participants were in relative poverty. The social security system and the social care system can be confusing to navigate, and there is a lack of advocacy support. Poverty is one of the biggest human rights issues facing people with learning disabilities, affecting the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to health and the right to participate fully in society. 

Evidence like this allows policymakers to identify where inequalities exist, particularly around poverty, health and independent living, and to design better responses. 

That evidence needs to be connected to communities, professionals and policymakers. That connecting role is essential to overcoming the fragmentation people experience when navigating health services, social care, housing, and employment support. 

Initiatives such as the Human Rights Town App, and partnerships focused on areas such as positive behaviour support and restraint reduction, help bridge the gap between knowledge and practice. By connecting people and ideas across sectors, we can turn evidence into real improvements in people’s lives. 

Our 12 Point Plan for Change together with Rights. Equality. Inclusion. provides the new government with a clear vision and framework to deliver lasting change to people’s lives. 

These are not new ideas. They are well evidenced, widely supported, and achievable. The question now is whether we will act.  

SCLD stands ready to work with the new government, with partners across Scotland and with people with learning disabilities and their families to turn rights into reality.  

Because if we get it right for people with learning disabilities, if systems are accessible, joined-up, accountable and shaped by those who use them, then we get it right for everyone. 

As one person told SCLD: “Rights should make a difference to my life.”  

This is the standard by which progress should be judged.