The Path to Independent Living Support

Kiana Kalantar-Hormozi outlines the challenges to be faced and the decisions needed to enable Independent Living for disabled people in Scotland.

These would need to cover areas such as:

•  Budgets – the need to give every single person who needs personal support or care the budget they require to pay for that support and to not overly complicate the assessment criteria
• Workforce – how we recruit, train and pay an effective, professional workforce to meet the requirements of the people who need Independent Living Support. The need to also create training programmes led by people needing support where they are paid to prepare the workforce for the real job they need to do
• Legislation – the right to Independent Living Support should be solidified in legislation, as people do not have the means to access those rights, or to ensure their rights are not violated
• Evidence – the lack of evidence in supporting innovative methods and solutions to our current ‘care crisis’

Conclusion:
Kiana concludes that, as a person whose life depends on 24-hour Independent Living Support in one form or another, the issue at hand is not actually complex.

She states that:

‘We do not need to wait for evidence, there is no unsolved problem without a solution.

There are actions to be taken and specifically in the order of budgets, workforce and legislation. Choice is necessary, evidence is not.

Independent Living Support is a pillar of our human rights. We must put our money where our values are. And that is a choice for government leaders to make, and soon.’

You can read Kiana’s full article here:

https://www.iriss.org.uk/news/feature-articles/2022/05/02/path-independent-living-support

You can also connect with IRISS’s Social Care podcast here:

https://podcast.iriss.org.uk/a-new-model-of-support-for-independent-living