Today, Reporting Scotland is off on another bad news stories based one parent of an autistic adult’s complaints and a ‘charities claim‘ source:
Hundreds of people with learning difficulties are still locked up in residential placements far from home despite a pledge to move them out. The Scottish Government said last year it would end inappropriate stays for many patients….charities claim more people are going into care than coming out.
This report is not being covered elsewhere in the MSM nor on the BBC Scotland website. It is another feed, prompted by an opposition politician, grooming one understandably worried parent, with good links to individual staff in BBC Scotland. It doesn’t explain why or how the story has become news. It does not offer precise reliable data with a source, nor does it state or note the unreliability of the other sources – ‘charities claim‘.
Note the key words ‘inappropriate’ and ‘many.’ Many patients cannot be released because of the risk they pose to themselves and/or to the public. Autism in a young child might be easier to cope with than in a large strong adult.
The reference to ‘last year‘ reminded me that this is a rehash.
In August 2022, we had this:
BBC Scotland, advertising their timid wee pals at Disclosure, tell us:
Scots with learning disabilities and autism have been locked in secure hospitals and psychiatric wards for decades, a BBC investigation has found. They remain unable to get out despite [Labour] Scottish ministers saying 22 years ago that they should be living independently in the community.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-62477095
They find 40, interview 4, 0.0026% of the estimated 150 000 living in Scotland with learning difficulties or autism
I know, 99.9% isn’t 100% and I recognise that even one wrongly kept in those conditions is a personal tragedy but, in a system of such size, can a less than 0.1% failure rate really be national news?
Talking-up Scotland 
Just typical BBC Scotland rehashed to make SNP bad,like you one is to many to keep locked up.
O/T but interesting.
The wrong kind of economic record to ser. From
@ONS
just now: “Public sector net debt (PSND ex) at the end of May 2023 was £2,567.2 billion and provisionally estimated at 100.1% of GDP. The last time the debt-to-GDP ratio was above 100% was March 1961”
Guess who was the Government then.
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The Scottish Gov is funding nurture/ nature practitioners and other specialists to go into schools to help additional needs pupils. Teacher training should include more additional needs information.
Schools should have a quiet place for additional needs pupils who can get overwhelmed and anxious. Improvements are being made. Every person in Scotland has a right to diagnosis. It can take a while but is still worthwhile. Additional needs provision can be put in place. Too many teachers still think pupils with additional needs are being badly behaved or naughty.
The pupils cannot help being anxious, and even aggressive, when being over tired or overwhelmed, by too much noise etc. Simple measures can be put in place to help. Some pupils refuse to go to school if overwhelmed or anxious. 20% of people will not be able to read or write, exemplary, but have other skills that can be developed. Music, sports or vocational skills. Exceptional talents can be developed and supported. Especially with computer skills. All the tech gurus etc are on the spectrum. Silicon Valley etc.
The Scottish Gov has ring fenced education spending, Councils (unionists) employ too many class room assistants, instead of teachers, to keep class sizes down. A lower ratio. The Councils use the statutory limit (30), instead of keeping class sizes down. Schools are not built until there are the pupil numbers to fill the school. Leading to higher class sizes when new houses are being built.
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I forgot about this article, sorry.
I did some volunteer advocacy work for a carer charity some time back, some of which involved supporting parent carers of adults with autism.
Again, the lack of appropriate care settings for those at the most challenging end of the autism spectrum, goes back to the days of Labour rule and English rule in Scotland.
Only those with more severe disabilities, (not ‘difficulties’ I’d doubt anyone in that category is kept in a locked ward in a healthcare setting) have to be looked after in mental health hospitals or care homes, if places are available, which is the problem. It’s tragic, stressful and very upsetting for the families and of course for the person needing to be kept in a facility for their own safety and that of those around them. There just aren’t enough places for people needing round the clock care, so the burden is on the family, which is when things can become unmanageable.
I don’t know what it’s like now, but to build specific care facilities for those children and adults with autism, who cannot be looked after at home, and who need round the clock care, would take massive funding and time.
That was never on the Labour party’s list of priorities, they were too busy sending £billions back to Westminster saying ‘nothing to spend it on in Scotland’ and wasting public money on their PFI scheme, to build inadequate schools and hospitals, handing £billions to huge private companies.
Since the disaster that is Brexit, and Scotland being dragged out of the EU, no doubt
things are not going to improve anytime soon. No EU funding to help build new facilities or infrastructure. With England holding the purse strings, Scotland’s hands are tied.
Just as a wee note, autism specific care is scant in Scotland, and my sons support is based in England, but delivered in Scotland via an autism organisation/charity.
Labour have a heck of a lot to answer for re their neglect in building and providing adequate and appropriate care for those needing support in Scotland. SNP need to make a big thing about the terrible legacy of English rule over decades and more, in Scotland.
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