On the 1st September 2026, the Scottish Government has published its Programme for Government. Here’s what it says and what it actually means for disabled people in Scotland. In this explainer our policy and research officer Maia Pace explains what was in the Government’s Plan for the next four to five years and what was missing.
Disability Equality Plan
Announced: £3.5 million a year.
The issue: This funding doesn’t account for inflation up to 2031. Its real value will shrink every year.
What we need: The funding must be index-linked to inflation so it keeps its value over time.
Why it’s important: Meeting access costs and working inclusively and directly with disabled people across Scotland costs money. As with any other organisation, when costs rise we have to limit what we can do. We can’t do that when we are the organisations committed to support Scottish Government delivery of the Disability Equality Plan.
Domestic Violence
Announced: A fund to leave domestically violent relationships, and pregnancy as an aggravating factor in domestic violence cases.
The reality:
– Disabled women are twice as likely to experience abuse as non-disabled women.
– Disabled people are more likely to experience abuse from an adult family member (14% vs 6%).
– 80% of transgender victims have experienced domestic abuse, but there are no shelters that take transgender men. Of 571 trans and non-binary respondents to a Scottish Trans survey, 67% considered themselves disabled.
– Many domestic violence shelters are inaccessible.
– Disabled people often have their Social Security Scotland claims linked to their partners, trapping them in relationships.
– Geographical requirements for healthcare can also trap disabled people in abusive accommodation.
What we need:
– Disability and being transgender should be considered aggravating factors.
– A commitment to map how many domestic violence shelters are accessible and how many accept gender diverse people.
– A commitment to create accessible LGBT+ domestic violence shelters.
Why it’s important: Women, Transgender and non-binary disabled people are more likely to experience domestic violence and need access to refuge when in danger. Social security, housing, health and social care support, or shelter accessibility/availability must never be a reason why disabled people are unable to leave domestically violent situations and tying our access to social security, social care support, or housing to our partners situations can do this.
Council Tax Reform
Announced: A 10-month engagement with local government partners on restructuring.
The issue: Where is the council tax reform promised since the Salmond administration?
What we need: Clarity on plans for actioning council tax reform.
Why it’s important: Households with a disabled person or people in them are over 50% more likely to experience poverty, including higher costs associated with disability.
Our current council tax system is unfair and unjust. We, disabled people, have to pay council tax too. But we also have higher costs of living and many of us have to pay for social care support as well – an extra tax in addition to council tax.
Social Care Support
Announced: Three months of engagement with local authorities, trade unions, and healthcare and service providers to agree on social care reform. The First Minister’s speech also proposed making Social Care Support accountable to Health and announced a 3 month consultation period that did not include supported people or DPOs.
The reality:
– Where are the plans to fix palliative care, as promised during the assisted dying vote?
– Disabled people, DPOs and lived experience groups have been central to discussions on social care support until now. Where are we in this list of stakeholders?
– We have been actively involved and involving supported people in the reform of social care support for nearly 10 years. Making health accountable for social care support could put people’s support outcomes further out of reach than they already are.
What we need:
– A commitment to continue codesign of social care support reform with people who need and use it, and our DPOs.
– Removal of social care charges.
– Service mapping to fund different areas equitably and eradicate the postcode lottery.
– The Care Inspectorate and Audit Scotland to be properly resourced and equipped to address cases of abuse, neglect and discrimination.
– Investment in Self-Directed Support (SDS) so it provides early support that prevents crisis.
– Social Care Support should not be accountable to Health. Its outcomes should be linked to independent living, not the state of the NHS. A medical model of disability should not be applied to it.
– A realistic way to assess and record unmet need at individual and local level – it’s already statutorily required but not done. This data should be used to plan and progressively meet disabled people’s needs and rights.
– Investment in good quality independent advocacy, including peer and group advocacy.
– A fair funding and staffing commitment.
– A commitment to using the social model of disability within health and social care support.
Why it’s important: Social care support is the bedrock of a care society but most people needing support aren’t getting their needs met or have had such poor experiences accessing it, they give up. Disabled people and carers have been telling the Scottish Government what’s needed for years. Nothing that we said appears in this plan, and neither are we included.
Health
Announcement: The current 14 health boards will be replaced by two strategic health boards, covering the east and west of Scotland. Swinney described this as the “most significant structural reform of our NHS in the devolution era,” aimed at cutting inequalities in access to healthcare and reducing duplication. A target has been set that by the end of 2031, no one should wait more than 26 weeks for treatment.
The reality:
– It may formalise current informal reciprocal arrangements for a number of treatments and procedures that are only available in one or two current health board areas.
– Loss of Local Voice- changing 14 health boards to 2 could take power out of local communities, including current plans to give voting rights to carers, supported people, and third sector members of Independent Joint Boards .
– There have been calls for more consistency in current arrangements for health and social care integration in different local authority areas e.g. Highland, for many years.
What we need:
– Assurance that restructuring of health and social care support does not cause further disadvantage and inequality.
– A specific health inequalities plan for people living in island communities.
Housing
Announced: 111,000 new homes, with 37% for social rent.
The reality:
– Only 1% of our current housing is accessible.
– Over 40,000 disabled people are on social housing waiting lists.
– Between 61,000 and 80,000 disabled people are waiting for adaptations.
– This issue is worsening and contributes to local division.
What we need:
– 20% of all new builds to be housing for varying needs, with a wider review of housing fit for the life cycle (adaptable housing).
– An implementation update on the Housing to 2040 plan.
Why it’s important: Accessible housing is crucial to meet a range of other rights especially regarding independent living. This number of disabled people living in inaccessible housing means their other rights are not being realised. No new housing should be built without our access needs designed in.
Education
Announced: “…ensure that every child with additional support needs has access to appropriate, including specialist, support.”
The reality: We have a two-tiered system where many disabled children cannot access school.
What we need:
– How will this be achieved?
– What funding will be allocated?
– What specific actions or new programmes will be introduced?
– How will councils be held to account if they do not provide schooling for disabled children?
Why this is important: everyone has a right to education. No child should be excluded because they are disabled.
Buses and Accessible Transport
Announced: Lower bus fares.
The reality:
– Many Highland and Island communities do not have buses, let alone accessible buses.
– Even when buses are accessible, drivers often do not support disabled people properly – wheelchair spaces are used by buggies, and buses don’t stop blind people who can’t see to signal.
– Floating bus stops present risks for people with visual impairments.
The SNP have not fulfilled their 2016 Accessible Transport Framework.
What we need:
– Ensure bus services and Community Transport are both available and accessible in all communities, particularly rural and island areas.
– Enforcement of driver training and passenger priority rules.
– Fulfilment of the 2016 Accessible Transport Framework.
– Disability Equality Scotland is working with the Scottish Government on an Accessible Transport Strategy, and we look forward to seeing a strategy with realistic and achievable aims.
Why this is important: Disabled people are more likely to have to rely on public transport and frequently a lack of access to transport create barriers to employment, accessing health care and participating in our communities.
Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence (LDAN) Bill
Announced: Nothing. The Bill has been dropped from the programme entirely.
The reality: The Bill ran out of time in the last parliament. There should have been a commitment to pick it up from where it left off. Extensive work had already been done, including nearly 900 consultation responses and years of engagement with DPOs and APOs, including with learning disabled people, autistic and neurodivergent people. The Scottish Government has now confirmed it will not proceed, leaving no national plan to address systemic injustices.
What we need: A commitment to reintroduce the LDAN Bill in the first legislative programme after the 2026 election, building on the work already completed with Disabled People’s Organisations, Autistic People’s Organisations, and other stakeholders.
Why it’s important: Tinkering at the edges of legislation isn’t enough. We need commitment to legislation putting people with learning disabilities experience and expertise at the front and centre, so that our needs are no longer ignored.
What Happens Next
We will continue to push for these commitments and we need your voice to do it. Disabled people must be at the centre of decisions that affect our lives. We are planning a small number of meetings with MSPs who we think could have influence on various areas of policy and delivery that are important to disabled people. Using the themes in our Manifesto for Inclusion 2026 [LINK}, we will work with an individual disabled member or a DPO representative to bring evidence and lived experience to their attention, potentially creating further opportunities to influence our Scottish Parliament.
Your experience matters. If you’d like to discuss any of these topics with us and help inform our work, please email us at research@inclusionscotland.org. We’d love to hear from you.
Get involved:
– Share this with your networks.
– Contact your MSP.
– Join our campaigns.
Together we can demand better.