Social Focus On Disability 2004

Social Focus On Disability 2004

18/08/2004

This Scottish Executive statistical compendium explores the characteristics and position of disabled people in Scotland. It includes over 100 tables and charts and is intended to provide an overview of Scotland's disabled population.
 
Some of the key findings from Social Focus on Disability include:
 
Disabled Population:  Just under one in five adults in Scotland have a disability and / or a long-term illness.
 
Households and Housing: The 2001 Census shows that there are just under 2.2 million households living in Scotland, of which 37 per cent (800,000 households) contain at least one resident with a limiting long-term illness, health problem or disability.
 
Neighbourhoods (Perceptions and Participation): Disabled adults and adults with a long-term illness are likely to find anti-social behaviour more common in their local neighbourhood than those without a disability or long-term illness. There are 35 per cent of disabled adults who find 'groups of young people hanging about' very or fairly common. The comparable figure for adults without a disability is 31 per cent.
 
Qualifications and Education: Over half (58 per cent) of disabled adults have no qualifications (of those listed in the SHS1). This compares to 24 per cent of adults without a disability or long-term illness.
 
Labour Market: Economic activity rates for both disabled men and women are much lower than those for non-disabled people.
 
Health and Care:  Over 50 per cent of adults with a disability or long-term illness rated their health over the last year as 'not good' compared with 5 per cent of non disabled people.
 
Income and Benefits:  Households with at least one member with a disability are more likely to have an annual household income of less than £10,000 (41 per cent) than those households with no disabled members (26 per cent).
 
Transport: Just under half (47 per cent) of all adults with a disability do not use their local bus service more often due to health reasons.
 
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 defines disability as: "A person has a disability...if he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse affect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities." It is important to note that the definition of disability differs between data collections. Information in this publication is sourced primarily from the Scottish Household Survey, the Labour Force Survey and the 2001 Census.  Each of these sources rely on self definition of disability or illness using questions based around the Disability Discrimination Act definition of disability, so they ask the respondent (or, in some cases, another household member) whether they consider themselves to have a disability or long-term illness. Other administrative sources have also been used in certain sections of the publication. Within social care the information collected focuses on impairment type as defined using medical language and assess by specialist staff. This is to ensure that the services which are provided meet the specific needs of the individual. On the other hand, information collected in the education field focuses on impediments to learning rather than on any impairment that a child might have and the definitions used are different from those within social care. 

Social Focus on Disability 2004 is available here.  

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