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A recent report has found that only £14m of a £20m fund created to move people with learning disabilities out of institutional care has been used. According to the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC), £12.5m is still unspent, while the remaining £6m is unaccounted for. The SHRC also criticised the Scottish government for its “clear failures” in moving locked-in patients out of hospitals and into their own homes. The government has said it is committed to ensuring the necessary changes are made for people with learning disabilities.
Despite years of promises from the government to support people with learning disabilities and autism to live in their communities, hundreds remain stuck in hospital. In a separate study, the Mental Welfare Commission found that 55 people with learning disabilities have been in Scottish hospitals for ten or more years. Plans to move the majority of patients out of hospitals by March 2024, which were announced in February 2022, have not been implemented.
The SHRC stated that people are still being admitted to hospital for having a learning disability, which breaches their human rights. It also noted that existing policies and interventions are unable to get people out of hospital care. The SHRC called for urgent action and new laws in Scotland to protect the right to independent living, which is currently being breached daily.
The SHRC report also discussed funding, noting that only £1.4m of the £14m it could trace had been spent. While the researchers could not locate £6m, they said the missing money was not due to it going missing but rather the lack of transparency and accountability in annual accounts. The report called for a greater level of transparency on the council level to address this matter
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