- Conference
- 2021 National Disabled Members' Conference
- Date
- 5 July 2021
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
This conference commends work ongoing in Scotland to protect and promote the rights of people with Autism and with Learning Impairments. This includes the Our Voice Our Rights Campaign, led by the organisations ENABLE Scotland, the National Autistic Society Scotland, and Scottish Autism, to make Scotland the first place in the world to have an Autism and Learning Disability Commissioner to protect and promote their rights. So far this has led to manifesto commitments from four of the five parties that are represented in the Scottish Parliament including the Scottish National Party, and Labour.
Conference knows that disabled people face many inequalities in their lives, including employment. In a 2020 Office of National Statistics publication, “Outcomes for Disabled People in the UK: 2020”, it was reported that 81.3% of non-disabled people of working age are in employment, reducing to 52% among disabled people.
However, there is great disparity in employment among disabled workers based on the type of disability, and the disability employment gap is greatest among those with Autism or Severe or specific learning impairments at 21.7%, and 26.5% respectively.
In March 2020 Jane Harris of the National Autistic Society observed that autistic people were being let down by a lack of employment support. In November 2020, a survey of managers by the Institute of Leadership & Management noted 50% of managers held a bias to recruiting a neurodivergent job applicant, with 26% of respondents saying they felt uncomfortable employing an applicant with Autism.
Conference calls on the National Disabled Members’ Committee:
1. To commend the work of the Our Voice Our Rights campaign in Scotland and the concept of establishing a commissioner for autistic people and people with a learning impairment.
2. To share the good work ongoing in Scotland to establish an Autism and Learning Disability Commissioner and lobby to establish similar roles across devolved nations in the UK.
3. To raise awareness of the inequalities and inequity facing autistic people and those with severe or specific learning impairments and provide best practice guidance to branches on supporting these groups gain and maintain meaningful employment opportunity.