Charity Welcomes Independent Living Taskforce

On Tuesday this week, the Disability Rights Commission launched the findings of a major review of independent living in Scotland, highlighting the benefits that independent living can offer to people with disabilities.

As a result the DRC has urged the Scottish Parliament to establish an Independent Living Taskforce in order to ensure that people with disabilities can participate fully in Scottish life.

Alistair Welsh, service manager at leading Scottish social care charity Quarriers, said: “We would certainly welcome a task force of this nature. Much has been done in Scotland since devolution regarding the promotion of independence for people who have a disability however much is still to do. If a task force was established we would hope that it would give some drive and focus on progressing things.

“If we had the opportunity, we could pull things of a similar theme from our manifesto e.g. that there still exists a postcode lottery for services and resources in Scotland; the need still for significant development of public transport to promote people’s independence. Our hope would be that a task force of this nature could address some of these issues.”

Quarriers is Scotland’s leading and most diverse social care charity providing support to around 18,000 people through 127 projects for children, young people, adults and families who are known to be experiencing extreme difficulties or who are typically hard-to-reach.

The organisation has grown and changed considerably since it was founded in 1871 by William Quarrier at Bridge of Weir, expanding to meet the needs of young homeless people, children and adults with a disability, people with epilepsy and carers from across Scotland and beyond. Staff numbers are now in excess of 1800 and the charity has an expected turnover of £38M this year.