Strategic Plan – key engagements and achievements

Objective One

To build on the commitment in Programme for Government (PfG) to promote a fair, accessible and inclusive Scotland.

During previous years MACS work in this area has been successful with the adoption of wheeling in the top tier of the sustainable transport hierarchy and PfG having a more equality and inclusion focus running through the commitments.

We have continued to work from, and to, PfG commitments and as stated previously spent a great deal of time this year working with the Alliance Health and Social Care Academy and Disability Equality Scotland to run a series of four themed webinars looking at the 20-Minute Neighbourhood concept from 2020-2021 PfG. This included:

Event 1 - Introduction to 20-Minute Neighbourhoods
Event 2 - Getting around and accessing essential services
Event 3 - Housing and Greenspace
Event 4 - Designing the 20-Minute Neighbourhood

These events were well attended and a great success. A report from the events, with key recommendations for actions around the 20-Minute Neighbourhood concept has now been produced with the link already provided in page 6 of this report.

The 20-Minute Neighbourhood concept has gained attention internationally and has been developed in cities such as Melbourne, Portland and Paris. The concept looks at having basic needs – health and social care, shops, work hubs, places to socialise – met within a 20-minute walk, wheel or cycle from where you live.

The Scottish Government's 2020-21 PfG announced the ambition of 20-Minute Neighbourhoods and the concept has gained significant traction since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with people staying closer to home to access support and services. This event series was an opportunity to explore the benefits and challenges of 20-Minute Neighbourhoods and provide a space to consider what's required to make them truly inclusive, accessible and transformational for everyone in the community.

Each event involved a panel of expert speakers and a Chair. Speakers included those with an interest and knowledge of the themes.

The 20-Minute Neighbourhood video aims to provide a snapshot of some of the key themes and discussions that came out of the series. Please see the video link below:

20-Minute Neighbourhood Event Video

At the MACS Scoping Day in November 2021 we again reviewed the 2021-22
PfG and agreed areas for refocus in our 2022-2023 work plans to support the delivery of commitments and assist Ministers in delivering on their wider policies.

View MACS Work Plans 2022-23.

The work plan covers the following areas necessary to deliver on our strategic remits and progress our objectives:

Engaging with disabled people (listening, learning and advocacy)
Engaging and collaborating with key stakeholders (providing advice, challenge and scrutiny)
Engaging with Scottish Ministers and providing advice on the travel needs of disabled people
Responding to consultations and calls for evidence (advocacy)
Providing guidance and scrutiny to the National Transport Strategy (NTS2)
Developing and learning as a Committee, and
Monitoring and reporting on our performance.

During 2021-22 MACS prioritised and engaged more intensely in the following areas:

Closing the "Mobility Gap" through the NTS2 ("Reducing Inequalities" priority) and the Accessible Travel Framework
Making active travel work more inclusive for disabled people, including through Spaces for People initiatives
Motability and the Scottish Government's Accessible Vehicle and Equipment Scheme (AVES)
Transport to Health and Social Care, including the review of Adult Social Care Services
Demand Responsive Transport, including highlighting inequalities with the National Entitlement Card (concessionary travel) and taxi schemes (linked to tackling inequalities and reducing the mobility gap)
The 20-Minute Neighbourhood concept, and
The National Islands Plan and Islands Connectivity Plan.

The above areas also linked to developing policies such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and Mobility Hubs.

We will continue to review the PfG commitments on an annual basis as part of our planning cycle between November and March. This allows us to ensure our work remains on focus and relevant and advocates the needs of disabled people in relation to transport and travel.

Objective Two

To work across Cabinet and Ministerial portfolios to ensure the need for an accessible transport system is recognised and cited as an enabler.

MACS continues to have a good relationship with Scottish Ministers across the range of portfolios and through our advisory role, we have used this well to raise awareness, gain commitments and push for more progress, with more urgency and at pace, on the travel needs of disabled people. We have provided a "Ministerial Engagement" section within this report, which will give you a little more detail on who we met, what we discussed and what commitments were made to improve the travel and journey experiences of disabled people.

Our key message in these meetings has been that transport is an enabler of human rights and is critical to keeping people connected and ensuring everyone has equal opportunities, with no one left behind. We focused heavily on the need for transport to be Available, Accessible and Affordable. MACS's Triple A check.

Objective Three

To ensure that the Scottish Government makes it clear that public bodies and local authorities have a duty to respect the legislation regulating improvements of the accessibility of public transport service provision and the surrounding infrastructures.

MACS continues to advise Ministers on the need (and the legislative duty) to involve disabled people at the inception stage of EqIAs.

We have raised this in our meeting with Patrick Harvie, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights when we met on 21 October 2021, where we also highlighted the issue of the Avenues Scheme in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, where the removal of some kerbs had caused particular issues for those with sensory and sight loss. This has resulted in this area being a "no go" area for a MACS member and others with sight loss. This example emphasises that infrastructure changes can create more barriers, if proper consultation with all relevant groups of users is not undertaken, again highlighting the need for proper and meaningful EqIAs, including engaging with disabled people or their representatives.

We also raised EqIAs with the Minister for Equalities and Older People, in the context of the review of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and the seven proposal areas, which will seek to address the inconsistency by public bodies when fulfilling their legislative remit. MACS are fully aware that there are good examples of EqIAs being undertaken but sometimes this falls down when work is tendered out, with quality diminishing. We are pleased to say that the Minister asked her officials to look into this further and feed back directly to her.

MACS has also pushed this issue in various meetings of the NTS2, Transport Transition Plans and the Island Delivery Plan and we will continue to do so.

MACS has responded to a large amount of consultations over this past reporting year – see Appendix 2. We wish, to highlight our response to the high-profile consultation on Scotland's pavement parking prohibitions. MACS welcomed the opportunity to respond to the consultation; however, as the majority of it relates to process and procedures, we decided to focus on Question One. "Do you agree or disagree with the proposed characteristics that would allow Local Authorities to consider an exemption order for the pavement parking prohibition?

MACS strongly advises against this and advocates that there should be no exemption orders issued for pavement parking. We believe that it should be what it says on the tin – a national ban – and Local Authorities should not have the ability to impose exemptions.

We also raised our concerns in relation to the lag time it has taken to move from legislation being passed in 2019 to the current timescale for implementation now being scheduled for 2023. We strongly believe the focus should be shifted from exemptions to enforcement by Local Authorities.

MACS also responded to the consultation on the impact assessments (undertaken retrospectively by a consultancy agency contracted by Transport Scotland - AECOM) on the NTS2 Delivery Plan. This included various impact assessments as highlighted in the box below. The link to MACS full consultation submission can be found in Appendix One.

The assessments undertaken by AECOM on behalf of Transport Scotland were:

A combined Social and Equality Impact Assessment (SEqIA – including Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment, Fair Scotland Duty Assessment and Equality Impact Assessment)
Islands Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA)
Health Inequalities Impact Assessment (HIIA)
Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA)

Objective Four

To advocate for engagement with MACS when developing or revising policy, plans or contracts by officials to gain expert advice and ensure accessibility is given a priority consideration. This includes using procurement and franchise opportunities when awarding contracts to promote accessibility in transport provisions.

MACS continues to engage in the Transport Transition Plans (TTP). In October 2021 the TTP National Advisory Group put out a call for MACS input to the Scottish Government's Covid-19 baseline measures. This was requested at short notice and MACS responded highlighting the risks, and areas that required a deeper understanding around the basic measures to control/suppress the virus.

During this reporting period MACS has also had more engagement and connection with the Active and Sustainable Travel Team within Transport Scotland given the PfG commitment that 10% of the transport budget will be spent on active travel and the drive to reduce car kilometres by 20% by 2030. It is MACS's opinion that it is critical that in progressing these issues, the needs of disabled people and older people are at the heart of policies and strategies. MACS will continue to build and strengthen their relationship with the Transport Scotland Team to ensure a just and fair transition and that no one is left behind.

We have also engaged more extensively with Sustrans Scotland, particularly in relation to Places for Everyone's ongoing review of the programme and the allocation of funding to Spaces for People temporary infrastructure programme. MACS will continue to support Sustrans going forward particularly around assessing applications and criteria around accessibility and inclusivity of the proposed projects and designs.

In July and August 2021, the Convener assisted the Transport Scotland Active and Sustainable Travel Team in the process of identifying potential pilot projects to test various elements for the delivery of the Scottish Government's 100-day manifesto commitment to provide a free bike for every child who cannot afford one. This assistance has included connecting the Active and Sustainable Travel Team to the network of organisations that MACS has been engaging with to tackle the exclusion of disabled people from bike hire schemes including on-street schemes. Simon Watkins is the MACS lead representative for this initiative. We are pleased to say that the first pilot Schemes were launched in August 2021 with half of them offering non-standard/adapted bike options with systems in place to signpost from other Schemes to these Schemes where there is demand.

Following the May 2021 election and the formation of a new Cabinet, the Convener wrote to the then Minister for Transport, Graeme Dey, MSP. At the request of MACS' Rail work stream, the Convener also took the opportunity to bring to the Minister's attention the need to focus on accessibility at railway stations and to ask that MACS be involved in the imminent work to prepare for the Scottish Government assuming the role as ScotRail's Operator of Last Resort. This approach was reinforced by a letter from MACS' Rail work stream to Transport Scotland's Director of Rail. In particular, this letter asked that if there was an intention to establish a project board or forum to take forward the work of STPR2's Recommendation 19 (building on Intervention 12 in Phase 1 i.e. "Infrastructure to provide access for all at railway stations"), then MACS stood ready to offer assistance in order to ensure that the views and needs of disabled people would be integrated into the planning and deployment of all the measures to be undertaken at Scotland's railway stations.

The Ferries Lead, Hilary Stubbs, has continued to work closely with the Ferries Team within Transport Scotland and this year has seen the draft of the Island's Connectivity Plan, which will replace the Ferries plan when it expires in 2022.

MACS also sought to feed into the early development of the Islands Bond, which is responding to the needs of our Islands communities. We made several suggestions which received a positive response including:

should the qualifying criteria explicitly state that the bonds couldn't be used for a second home?
acknowledgement that these bonds were welcome and intended to focus on re-population, but caution that the draft "felt" discriminatory to disabled and older people;
could older islanders take advantage of the bond to return to the island or indeed for older people to move and settle there?
would the bond cover accessibility adjustments to homes or new purchases to make homes accessible and allow people to live out their lives in their family home?

This year was also the last year of the Ferries Accessibility Fund, which has supported improvements to ports/harbours, terminals and helped ferry operators and owners to introduce more accessible facilities and services. Hilary Stubbs and Naghat Ahmed sat on the panel which considers the applications to the fund, with £20,250 being allocated this year to two successful applicants. This will be used for accessibility improvements, including signage and kerb drops, and upgrading existing facilities currently on site such as passenger shelters and accessible toilet blocks.

Again this year, we have worked closely with officials in Social Security Scotland as they take forward the smooth transition of the Accessible Vehicle and Equipment Scheme (AVES). We have kept officials updated on all our discussions with Motability and Motability Operations, including our asks for them to consider our proposals of returning excessive profits to customers as we continue to push for better value for money for customers. We fully recognise the importance of the scheme to customers and as responsibility for Scottish Child and Adult Disability Payments are transferred from Westminster to Holyrood, we have informed Scottish Ministers of our concerns, and of our hope to see fundamental change once the transfer of responsibility for disability payments has been completed.

This year MACS also invited guests along to inform us of their work and protect times for discussions and mutual learning. Our guests included a wide range of organisations as shown below.

ScotRail, Accessibility Manager
Network Rail, Access and Inclusion Manager
Sustrans Scotland, Head of Infrastructure and Delivery
Scottish Human Rights Commission, Chair
Motability Chair and CEO of Motability Operations
HITRANS, Partnership Director
Tactran, Senior Strategy Officer
Go Upstream
See Me Scotland
Allied Vehicles
Scottish Rail Work Commissioner

As a result of the above engagements MACS produced two good practice guides this year and links to these guides can be found below.

Temporary Street Measures during the Coronavirus Crisis (Revised Guidance, October 2020)

Small Changes Can Make A Big Difference

To ensure ongoing delivery under Objective Four, MACS will continue to actively pursue opportunities to provide expert advice to ensure the appropriate consideration of transport accessibility issues whilst encouraging the design of more inclusive infrastructure (including the adoption of the Place Principle). In doing so, we will continue to work constructively with officials on the design of inclusive plans, which will form a framework for future developments (for example TTP's, Infrastructure Investment Plan, NTS2, STPR2, Islands Delivery Plan, Islands Connectivity Plan, AVES and MaaS).

MACS aim to evidence progress in this objective by seeing policy, legislation, contracts and good practice guides acknowledge the importance of accessibility and the travel needs/experiences of disabled people.

Objective Five

To review the National Transport Strategy and the Accessible Travel Framework Annual Delivery Plan on an annual basis, acknowledging progress, identifying blockages and gaps and make recommendations to assist with the delivery of commitments.

During this year MACS continued to input to the National Transport Strategy (NTS2) through regular discussion with Transport Scotland policy officials, by sitting on the NTS2 Delivery Board chaired by the Minister for Transport, through the TTP National Advisory Group and the Transport Equalities Network (TEN) chaired by Transport Scotland.

Our membership of these groups ensured that we could give advice on the transport needs of disabled people, while providing scrutiny to the production of the objectives of the NTS2, including via various impact assessments and in the production of the Working with Partners document to be produced later this year.

As well as input through these fora, MACS also raised issues, and gave advice, through regular dialogue with the Minister for Transport, including at our Scoping Day. This was aimed at ensuring MACS continues to review and scrutinise the progress of the NTS2 and the Accessible Travel Framework (as covered on the Scoping Day) on an annual basis, to identify progress, barriers and make recommendations aimed at escalating the delivery of the commitments.

This work was complemented and assisted by the relevant Transport Scotland Policy Teams who continued to offer an open door to MACS and be open to scrutiny and suggestions to assist with the delivery of various transport policies. The developed relationship between MACS and Transport Scotland Ferries Policy Team being an exemplar of good practice in developing the Islands Plan with MACS also now contributing via the Islands Delivery Board.

We are grateful and thank the Transport Scotland Teams for their "open door" approach and jointly acknowledge that there is more work to be done and that the pace needs to be accelerated, particularly around the "reduces inequalities" priority of NTS2, the ATF and to "close the mobility gap".

This year should see further progress and closer relationships built between MACS and Transport Scotland Sustainable and Active Travel Team and the Transport Scotland Rail Team as new work stream leads settle into positions and bring fresh perspectives and new challenges.

Previous | Contents | Next