Tackling Child Poverty in Scotland: A Discussion Paper – 05.01.11
i.
Capability Scotland works with disabled people of all ages and their families and
carers throughout Scotland to provide a broad range of flexible, personalised
education, care and health services. We are also a campaigning organisation,
committed to using the influence we have to ensure disabled people achieve the
same human and civil rights as the rest of society.
ii.
Capability Scotland welcomes the opportunity to respond to the public
consultation on this discussion paper.
GENERAL COMMENTS
I.
Capability Scotland believe that the Discussion Paper on Child Poverty and the
forthcoming Scottish Child Poverty Strategy must do more to highlight the impact
disability has on the resources of households with children and the proportion of
children and families experiencing poverty.
II.
Currently, households which include someone with a disability are 3 times less
likely to earn over £40,000 than other households. Furthermore, 49% of
households including someone with a long-standing illness, health problem or
disability have net annual incomes below £15,000. 1 Disparities of this kind are
likely to increase as a result of the current economic climate. Indeed, a recent
poll found that two thirds of parents who have a child with a disability are finding
it more difficult to pay their bills than they were a year ago. This compares to
only 45% of other parents2.
III.
The Discussion Paper fails to address the link between disability and child
poverty in any meaningful way. This failure not only undermines the potential
effectiveness of the strategy, it is also contrary to the Scottish Government’s
legal obligations. The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 disability equality duty
(soon to be superseded by the Equality Act 2010 public sector equality duty), for
instance, gives the Scottish Government a duty to promote equality of
opportunity between disabled persons and other persons. It also has a duty to
take steps to take account of disability, even where that involves treating people
with disabilities more favourably than other persons. The discussion paper
implies that this duty is not being complied with in relation to child poverty.
IV.
The Scottish Government also has legal duties under international human rights
treaties (such as the International Convention on the Rights of Person with
Disabilities) to take positive steps to ensure that people with disabilities have
equal access to human rights. This includes the right to an adequate standard of
living, the right to private and family life and the right to be free from inhuman
and degrading treatment. Again, the discussion paper suggests that these duties
have not been considered in relation to child poverty.
V.
It is also essential that the Scottish Child Poverty Strategy specifies the action
the Scottish Government must take to tackle the existing links between disability
and child poverty. While many of the causes of the socio economic
disadvantage experienced by disabled families relate to reserved matters such
as tax and welfare, the Scottish Government still has the power to dramatically
increase the household resources of these families. It has, for instance, the
capacity to tackle issues such as employability, social care, education, childcare
and support for disabled parents.
1
Scottish Government (2009) Scottish Household Survey Annual Report - Scotland's People
2
Parenting Across Scotland (2010) MORI Poll Survey of Parenting Experiences in Scotland
2
VI.
There is also a more general need for the Scottish Government to mainstream
equalities and disability issues into all its wider strategies to ensure that the
experiences of people with disabilities are not forgotten in the development of
policy.
SPECIFIC COMMENTS
1. What are your views on the Scottish Government's current approach to
tackling child poverty, outlined in this paper? In particular: does it capture the
key areas where action is required to ensure the greatest impact on reducing
child poverty, and are there any important steps to be taken by the Scottish
Government that are not covered in this paper?
1.
Capability Scotland is deeply concerned that the Scottish Government’s current
approach as outlined in the discussion paper does not adequately address the
links between disability and child poverty. Consequently, we are concerned that
the resulting Child Poverty Strategy will not have any significant impact on the
lives of the disabled families who are currently living in poverty.
2.
Below is an overview of how the main issues raised in the Discussion Paper on
Child Poverty relate to disability and how these issues should be addressed by
the Scottish Government. It is essential that the Scottish Government give these
issues full consideration in drafting the Scottish Child Poverty Strategy and in
developing future poverty reduction strategies.
Employment
3.
The Discussion Paper on Child Poverty notes that “appropriate work remains the
best way for families to escape poverty”. Capability Scotland agree with this
statement and believe it is essential that there is acknowledgement in the Child
Poverty Strategy of the huge barriers to work faced by many parents with
disabilities and parents of disabled children.
4.
One third of non-employed lone parents and two thirds of non-employed couples
reported a disability or long-term illness. Indeed, just under half of disabled
people in Scotland are in paid employment, compared to around 75 per cent of
the general population3. As a result, children growing up in families with a
disabled parent are particularly likely to experience poverty.
5.
In some cases a person’s disability or ill-health may prevent them from working.
However, health problems are not the only cause of economic inactivity for
people with disabilities and long term conditions. Other major barriers to work
include discrimination, prejudice, low confidence, and a lack of opportunity in
relation to education and training. It is essential that the Scottish Government
takes action to address these barriers to employment by increasing funding to
innovative supported employment schemes. The Scottish Government must also
steps to tackle discrimination by raising awareness of disability amongst
employers and staff. It is also vital that the Scottish Government invest to ensure
3
A Working Life for All Disabled People: The Supported Employment Framework for Scotland: 2010
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that people with disabilities can access information, advice and advocacy on
their rights in relation to employment and dismissal.
6.
People with disabilities are also at a disadvantage in relation to employment
(and at higher risk of experiencing poverty) because of the barriers that can exist
to accessing school, further and higher education and vocational training.
Studies have consistently found strong links between disability and low
educational attainment. Indeed, Capability staff directly involved in service
provision reported that the level of service and support provided to people with
disabilities by further educational establishments is hugely variable, with some
further education establishments not providing for disabled students at all.
Capability staff working in this area have reported a lack of consistent, staged
progression for disabled students. In many cases this leads to young people
repeating ‘life skills’ courses, or leaving with few prospects, rather than
progressing on to accredited mainstream courses.
7.
Furthermore, evidence shows that a lower proportion of disabled people work in
professional and managerial occupations and a higher proportion are
unemployed or engaged in unskilled or semi skilled employment. There are
several reasons for this which should be acknowledged and addressed in the
Child Poverty Strategy.
-
Firstly, anecdotal evidence from Capability staff working at ground level
indicates that the education system may have been inaccessible to many
disabled people because of a failure on the part of mainstream schools to
make reasonable adjustments and to provide appropriate additional support
to disabled pupils. This can be particularly pertinent in the senior phase,
where mainstream schools can feel unable to provide appropriate
continued curriculum, and so encourage young disabled people to make
the transition to further education before their peers.
-
Secondly, those who leave school with no qualifications are more likely to
experience socio-economic disadvantage which can result in a higher risk
of mental health problems, mental illness and poor physical health which
could in turn result in disability, for themselves and for any children they
may have.
4
Employability and Health
8.
The ability of an individual to work or participate in education is often dependent
on his/her health. Unfortunately, numerous studies have highlighted the
discrimination faced by disabled people in accessing health services. This
relates to physical access, staff attitudes and quality of service4. Indeed,
research conducted by the Disability Rights Commission has shown that some
groups of disabled people (such as those with learning difficulties/impairments or
long term mental health problems) die younger than non-disabled people, often
from preventable conditions such as respiratory illness. Learning disabled
people are four times more likely to die from a treatable illness (the term
"learning disabled" covers the 1.5m people in the UK with an IQ of 70 or under.)
Employability and Childcare
9.
Many parents of disabled children do not have the choice of work available to
them because of a lack of suitable, affordable childcare. Capability Scotland’s
report “Nobody Ever Wants to Play with Me: Childhood Poverty and Disability”
found that nearly 70% of working parents with a disabled child relied on family
members to care for their disabled child and half of them said they did so
because of a lack of suitable childcare. Many also stated that having a disabled
child often means that the decision about whether or not to go back to work can
be more difficult.
10.
An additional obstacle to child care (and resultantly employment) is the fact that
there appears to be a higher proportion of single parent families with disabled
children. Research conducted by Child Poverty Action Group supported this
conclusion and also found that “the cost of childcare, not wanting to leave the
child with a stranger, lack of accessible childcare places all combine to make it
very unlikely that a lone parent with a disabled child will be able to work.”5
11.
Many Capability staff involved in the delivery of services have highlighted the
benefits that would flow from increased investment in before and after school
care. In the case of children with certain disabilities this time might be spent
working on specific life skills and developing capacity for independent living
based around the Health and Wellbeing Curriculum for Excellence.
4
Including from the British Medical Association (Disability equality within healthcare: BMA, June 2007),
and the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (The experiences of visually impaired users of the NHS:
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, 2004).
5
http://www.cpag.org.uk/info/Povertyarticles/Poverty109/disability.htm
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Short Breaks and Respite Care
12.
There is a lack of provision of short breaks and respite care for disabled children
and their families which is not addressed in the discussion paper. This can
deprive parents of some of the flexibility and free time required to hold down
employment as well as leading to increased levels of stress and in some cases
family breakdown. A paper by for Scotland’s Disabled Children highlighted some
of the obstacles experience by parents in accessing short breaks for themselves
and their disabled children:
-
Services are often restricted to those with more intensive care needs
meaning children with mild to moderate disabilities are sometimes not
eligible for short break support.
-
Many parents struggle to transport their child to and from respite services
because they do not have their own transport and cannot afford alternative
transportation costs.
-
There is a general lack of consistency in the approach to a needs
assessment, often dependant on the skill, empathy, understanding,
knowledge and experience of the assessing worker(s).
-
Many local authorities have a narrow definition of short breaks and respite
care. This should be widened beyond residential or family-based services
to take account of the range of opportunities that non-disabled children and
young people have access to, including: youth organisations, after school
clubs, summer activity programmes, etc.
Reducing Pressure on Household Budgets
13.
Capability Scotland believes that the Scottish Child Poverty Strategy should
acknowledge and address the added pressure on household budgets that can
come from being disabled or from having a disabled child. Research conducted
in 2008 found that disabled people face extra costs related to managing their
impairment that amount, on average, to approximately an extra quarter above
normal expenditure, compared to non-disabled people. The extra costs can
result, for example, from paying for adaptations to their home, social care
support, mobility aids or communication aids6.
14.
This is something which should be acknowledged in the Scottish Child Poverty
Strategy. The Scottish Government should also use this as an opportunity to
reflect on the improvements that national and local government could make to
policies relating to charging for social care support, adaptation and
communication and mobility aids.
6
Disability Poverty in the UK: 2008, Leonard Cheshire
6
15.
Local authorities in particular should take into account the additional cost of
living with a disability when they calculate the charges they make for social care
and support. In England, (unlike in Scotland) local authorities take disability
related expenditure into account when they calculate what it is reasonable to
charge people with disabilities for services. ‘Disability Related Expenditure’ can
include costs such as:
-
The cost of any specialist items caused by disability (eg. food meeting
special dietary needs, special clothing / footwear, additional bedding and
heating costs, transport costs over and above mobility component of DLA)
-
Payment for a community alarm system
-
Costs of any privately arranged care services, including respite care
Scottish local authorities rarely take these costs into account when they are
calculating charges - even though the legislation is the same here as it is in
England7. This results in many families with disabilities being charged more than
they can afford for non-residential care. It is essential that the Scottish
Government works with local authorities, disabled people, parents, carers,
voluntary sector providers and COSLA to address this issue.
Capability Scotland comes into contact with numerous families who are
struggling to meet the added costs of disability. See Appendix 1 for a case study
illustrating this.
Supporting Children and Families
16.
While the discussion paper highlights the importance of supporting families, it
does not mention the support needs of children or parents with disabilities.
Capability Scotland has come into contact with many disabled parents who have
been unable to access sufficient support in their parenting role. This appears to
be a problem throughout parenthood, relating to antenatal services, pre-school,
and school age children.
17.
An example of this is the lack of provision of support for those disabled parents
who as a result of their disability might benefit from support with tasks such as
the school run, lifting their child out of the bath etc. Many parents’ who approach
local authorities for this support report being continually redirected between
education, children’s’ and adult services, with nobody willing to take
responsibility for helping and supporting them.
7
In both countries local authorities are not allowed to charge more than is reasonably practicable (see
Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.
7
18.
Lorna, for example, has hemiplegic cerebral palsy and was pregnant with her
first baby. She wanted advice about carrying the baby particularly up and down
stairs. She spoke to her midwife who suggested she contact an occupational
therapist. Her GP said she should contact the social work department which she
did, but heard nothing more. She did eventually get an appointment at a local
disability resource centre, however, due to the process taking so long, the baby
was born before she could attend.
19.
Further, while the Discussion Paper makes reference to the Additional Support
for Learning Act, it fails to address the additional barriers to accessing education
that can often exist for disabled families when insufficient support is available.
Ally, for example, has 2 young children and is a wheelchair user. She has been
unable to take her children to school because of ill health and has no informal
networks that can consistently do this for her. Although the family live less than
a mile from the school, the local authority did provide a taxi service to take her
oldest child to school. However, when her youngest child began attending
school full time, she was told by the taxi driver that he was only able to take the
oldest child that week and that the service was stopping the next week. When
the family challenged this decision, the local authority agreed to provide the
service if the family paid £300 per school year. The service is not guaranteed
and could be withdrawn if another child is deemed to be in more need. This is
causing the family a great deal of worry and stress.
20.
There is a correlation between parental poverty and lifestyle and the delivery of
a low or very low birth weight baby. Such babies have very complex support
needs and families require significant levels of support. For many babies their
condition will be life limiting, The costs of support are very high and the number
of very low birth weight babies is increasing. Failure to plan and to intervene
leads to higher future cost and contributes to the cycle of deprivation.
21.
These experiences do not reflect the Getting it Right for Every Child approach
which puts children and young people’s needs first and requires all services for
children and young people to work together to give them the best start. 8
Transitions to Adulthood
22.
8
Capability Scotland believes that it is unacceptable that the section in the
discussion paper covering ‘Transitions to Adulthood’ makes no reference to the
experiences of children and young adults with disabilities who often experience
particular difficulties during times of transition. Particular issues include the
following:
-
Young people and their parents/carers require access to high quality guidance
and support to enable them to make the transition from school to post school
education, training and employment;
-
Young people also require readily accessible ongoing guidance and support to
assist them with subsequent transitions.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Young-People/childrensservices/girfec/programme-overview
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23. There is a real need for information covering all aspects for life after school
including; employment and training; further education; day opportunities; welfare
rights and benefit changes; housing; advocacy and mediation services;
guardianship; health and social care; leisure and recreation.
24. Furthermore, there is often a simultaneous difficulty in the transition from child to
adult social care and support services. Capability’s Transitions Co-ordinators have
highlighted that in many areas, while there may be well planned services for
young children and those at school, there is scarce or inappropriate provision
post-school, and often insufficient planning and knowledge to access those
services that do exist.
25. Within East Lothian, for example, children with High Functioning Autism and
Asperger’s Syndrome do not meet the assessment criteria for Children’s Disability
Services, but could qualify for support within Adult Social Care (ASC). As ASC
support does not usually begin before a young person is 16, this can lead to
inadequate preparation for the transition from school to adult life, which is
particularly problematic as this cohort of young people will need a much longer
lead-in to ensure that anxiety is minimised and their transition is successful.
26. There is a real need for early, low-level intervention through adequate planning
and preparation at times of transition. This may prevent needs escalating to crisislevel post-school, saving the local authority and other partner agencies, the
associated and possibly long term increase in costs. More importantly, this kind of
early intervention will help to move young people on to a positive experience postschool - rather than the possibility of failure and subsequent mental health issues.
Physical Environment – Housing
27. The Child Poverty Discussion Paper states that “the quality of [a child’s] living
conditions can have profound effects on their wellbeing and outcomes”. Capability
Scotland strongly agrees with this statement. We are, however, concerned that
the discussion paper makes no mention of the shortage of housing suitable for
individuals with physical disabilities or the impact this can have on a families
health and wellbeing.
28. Capability Scotland’s recent housing involvement events highlighted the massive
shortage of accessible homes in Scotland. The scale of the problem cannot be
overestimated, with only around 9% of the need for wheelchair accessible housing
being met9. This means that across Scotland there are hundreds of families in
which a parent or child is unable to use the bathroom, get upstairs or in some
cases leave the premises without assistance. This clearly creates an obstacle to
their ability to interact with their child and to playing with them or putting them to
bed.
9
DTZ Pieda (2004) Mind the Gap: An economic evaluation of owner occupation for disabled people
9
29. Similarly, many disabled parents face long waits before they are given assistance
from their local authorities to fit aids and adaptations. Again this can limit their use
of the family home and, as a result, they and their child’s experience of family life.
Families with disabled members also face housing problems relating to :
-
Lack of information on housing options
-
Harassment and victimisation
Lack of opportunities in private rented sector
-
Difficulty finding an accessible family sized home
-
Difficulty finding accessible accommodation close to family, support networks,
places of employment and places of education.
Appendix 1: Case Study
Katherine is a 4 year old girl with a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy, epilepsy, visual
impairment and hearing impairment. Katherine lives with her mum (Molly), Dad (Paul)
and younger brother Adam.
Katherine attended a partner provider nursery 3 days per week from the age of 1 to 3.
This allowed Molly to work part time and Paul to work full time. Family were able to look
after Katherine’s younger brother when required but were not comfortable supporting
Katherine’s needs therefore there was very little respite for the family.
When Katherine turned 3 the nursery told Molly that they could no longer support
Katherine as the room for 3 year olds was up one flight of stairs and there was not
enough room in the building to install a lift. They gave Molly 3 months notice to find
alternative childcare.
At this time Katherine started attending a local authority special education nursery 3
days per week. As this nursery provided transport Katherine had to be picked up from
home between 8 and 9 o’clock and dropped off at home anytime after 3pm. Katherine’s
partner provider nursery agreed to provide childcare from 3-6pm on each of these days
so that Molly could keep her job. However, the 3 months notice still applied.
Molly looked into finding a childminder however this was unsuccessful. Katherine
requires 1-1 care which would result in childminders not being able to care for any
other children and therefore would lose out on money. One child minder offered Molly
the option of paying for 3 places (£16.50 per hours as the childminder would normally
have 3 children at a time. Molly refused as she could not afford this.
Capability Scotland’s Childcare for All service suggested Molly looked into applying for
direct payments. She could then employ someone privately to look after Katherine in
the family home 3-6pm three days per week using the Direct Payments money.
Molly contacted her social worker for help. By this point it was apparent that Molly was
finding the situation very stressful. After two months of repeatedly chasing up her social
worker regarding her options Molly was told she would not qualify for direct payments
as her house was not suitable for an employee to work (as Katherine’s bedroom was
10
up one flight of stairs and she is too heavy to be carried). Molly argued that there would
be no need to access the bedroom as the kitchen, playroom and bathroom were all on
ground level. This was rejected by social work. Her other option was to use a sitter
service however her social worker told her there was a two year waiting list for this.
By this point Katherine was no longer in her partner provider nursery and Molly and
Paul were trying to juggle their jobs to be home in time for Katherine returning from
school. This resulted in Paul getting a warning from his work and Molly loosing her job.
Molly was now very stressed, emotional and worried about the financial difficulty she
was facing without a job. On top of that Katherine was growing very quickly and
required a new bed, wheelchair, standing frame, hoist and car seat. Some of these
items were provided by the NHS but the rest had to be bought by the family.
After six weeks of unemployment, the agency that Molly had registered with had found
a suitable job for her. Molly was financially dependent on working three days per week
so returned to the stress of trying to find childcare. Eventually Capability Scotland’s
Childcare for All service found a nursery that were willing to charge Molly for the three
hours per day that Katherine required (all other nurseries had rejected this saying that
parents had to pay the full fee for a half day which was an extra £10 per day).
Katherine settled into the nursery well and Molly started her new job and the family now
have a payment plan in place to settle their debt which accumulated over a few short
months. Also, the family were offered a respite place at Capability Scotland’s Westerlea
Early Years on a Friday morning which will allow Molly to have some time to herself.
This case study highlights the daily difficulties and expenses faced by the parents of a
disabled child. Child care is difficult to access and help from friend and/family is not
always available when the child’s needs are complex. This family could have easily
fallen into very difficult financial circumstances within a few more months if the situation
had continued.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this consultation. If you require any
further information please do not hesitate to contact:
Hanna McCulloch
Senior Policy Adviser
Capability Scotland
Head Office Westerlea
11 Ellersly Road
Edinburgh
EH12 6HY
Tel: 0131 347 1037
hanna.mcculloch@capability-scotland.org.uk
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