To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to make funding available to deliver the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy.
The Scottish Government faces a very challenging situation as we continue to manage our finances through the current financial year and look to set the Scottish Budget for 2025-26.
Notwithstanding the very difficult financial situation, we are delivering a range of actions which contribute to improving transitions for disabled young people. This includes:
- Providing almost £400k in grant funding between 2023-25 to ARC Scotland to continue the work of the Scottish Transitions Forum and to support the wider implementation of Principles into Practice and Compass.
- Investing nearly £19m since opening at the end of 2017 in the Independent Living Fund Scotland’s Transition Fund to support young disabled people to make a smoother transition from childhood into adulthood.
- Providing £361k in 2024-25 for Enable Scotland (Leading the Way)’s ‘Stepping Up’ transitions programme, which connects disabled young people to fair work, education and productive activities designed to support a successful transition into adult life and work.
We are currently undertaking analysis of our recent engagement with over 500 people to identify what currently works well and what could be even better, in order to consider possible actions for the strategy. The costs of the final strategy will be determined by the actions which are ultimately included in it.