​Tressa Burke reiterates is having a blether about disabled people's right to Self Directed Support as part of a national campaign #SDSblether

It’s your dream job, and you got the interview but your heart sinksb ecause it’s at 9am next Friday. You know your care agency won’t change your slot, so you won’t be able to get there on time.

A friend invites you round for dinner, and you can’t go: the care agency needs you to be in bed by 6pm, so they can move on to the next person.

Disabled people value the same things as everyone else

Tressa Burke

You’ve left school, and you’re raring to go to college – but you’re told, now that you are an adult, you’re not eligible for support. If you need personal care at college, you’ll have to take your mum. Who takes their mum to college?

This week disabled people and our organisations are taking part in a Scotland-wide #SDSblether.

We’ll be blethering with government, councils, allies and partners and with disabled people, about why Self-Directed Support - being in charge of our own support, our own lives - is so important for disabled people, and for Scotland.

Disabled value the same things as everyone else and with choices and the right support, we can contribute. Family. Friendships. Our ambitions. We have so much to bring to a strong, thriving, Fairer Scotland.

Social Care is a crucial investment in the people of Scotland. SDS makes it work for us, and brings our human rights home.

Since the SDS Scotland Act enshrined our rights to choice and control over our support, GDA members have roadtested, collaborated, trailblazed, championed, and been a critical friend, to help see the SDS vision realised in Glasgow, and share our learning Scotland-wide.

SDS is crucial to independent living and to our human rights

Our ‘Future Visions’ project, and its predecessor ‘My Choices’, gave GDA members the support and the confidence to explore ambitions and set goals, and choice and control over the resources to make it happen.

The transformations are incredible: from Andy whose specialist glasses gave him the confidence to go out and volunteer; to Rachel whose travelcard opened up a world of study to become a qualified counsellor; to Tracy who, through employing her own PA is now able to pursue her passion and become a volunteer sports coach.

SDS is crucial to independent living, and to our human rights. Too many services are inflexible, work in silos and are being affected by resource constraints which in turn affect disabled people’s life opportunities.

SDS offers the chance to transform this. From having the right support and equipment to be able to use the loo when you need it - to having the assistive technology to be able to ace your exams.

GDA champions prove beyond doubt that choice and control can transform your life, your health and wellbeing – and unleash our capacity to pay it forward, supporting others.

SDS is a right - worth blethering about!

Tressa Burke is the chief executive of Glasgow Disability Alliance