Scottish Government

5 FOCUS OF DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS

5.1 Across Scotland the majority of both national and local disability organisations operate and/or provide services for all disabled people. That is they are not just for, or of, people with a specific impairment - these have been termed as pan-disability organisations.

5.2 From the mapping exercise pan-disability organisations account for around two-fifths of all disability organisations in Scotland - that is 39% (84) of national organisations and 43% (517) of local organisations. Their location across Scotland is shown on the map on page 21. Further discussion of geographic representation is presented in Section 8.

5.3 Around a tenth of local disability organisations (9%) focus upon supporting unpaid/informal carers of disabled people. In Scotland five national organisations represent carers of disabled people. These organisations are pan-carer - working for all carers, not just those of people with specific impairments.

Table 5.1: Focus of all identified organisations

(Source: Mapping Database)

5.4 Looking only at national organisations that focus upon specific impairments, the map of Scotland shows that the sector is dominated by two impairments - sensory impairments and learning disabilities.

5.5 Around a third (34%) is for sensory impairments such as deafness and blindness and a quarter (27%) of all impairment-specific national organisations are for people with learning disabilities or difficulties.

Table 5.2: Focus of impairment specific organisations only

(Source: Mapping Database)

5.6 The predominance of sensory impairment-specific organisations at national level is not mirrored by local activity. Less than a fifth (18%) of local impairment-specific organisations have sensory impaired people as their main focus, compared to a third of national bodies. The opposite is true for mental health organisations. A tenth of national impairment-specific bodies are mental health-specific, compared to a quarter of all local impairment-specific organisations. At local level, there is also a predominance of organisations specific to learning impairments.

5.7 Within the online survey organisations were asked whether their activities were concentrated on particular people or communities such as rural populations, children or minority ethnic communities for example. The purpose was to identify the extent to which organisations represent the whole population - in particular harder to reach groups and those who may experience inequalities (listed in Table 5.3).

5.8 Only a very small number of national and local disability organisations are specifically aimed at any particular equality group. Most of the organisations responding to this question did so to indicate that their organisation is for everyone and includes all the equality groups specified in the question. This has resulted in the numbers being higher than if only specifically focused groups had responded.

Table 5.3: Number of organisations reporting specific equality group focus

(Source: Online Survey)

5.9 Nearly a fifth (19%) of national disability organisations reported that their work focused upon older people. A slightly higher proportion of local organisations (24%) reported this focus.