Report to the People
Education for All
If you’re a fan of political thrillers and TV shows like "The West Wing" your mental image of a professional politician’s day will probably be a collage of high-risk gambles, deals being done over dinner and fiendishly complicated power games.
And, while that’s what the Recruiting Sergeant told me when I joined up, it is, sadly, not so.
Much of my work is fairly routine. Like most people, I spend a lot of time going to meetings, making phone calls and writing letters. But, when you are in the business of changing the law to change people’s lives, you rarely see instant results. The fact that it can take years for proposals to go from the consultation document to the statute book, can sometimes make you lose sight of the bigger picture.
But every so often, you become involved in something which reminds you why you do the job.
One such case began with a chance meeting at a church function in Larkfield. I met a bright young man who, because he happened to be disabled and could not communicate verbally, was being denied an education.
He had identified a suitable college course, was assessed, found suitable and was ready to apply. But there was a catch. He needed to have his own £5000 communication aid. And he didn’t have a spare five grand.
An outrageous situation of course, but the question was – as it always is when dealing with a bureaucracy – "who’s responsible?". The Education Department? The Scottish Executive’s Lifelong Learning Department? Social work? The NHS? The college?
I was in no mood for bureaucratic buck passing and so simply pursued them all. And, thankfully, it paid off.
The local Health Board has now informed me that funding may be made available for my constituent to receive a communication aid.
And it wasn’t just a result for my constituent. After I told her about this case, Deputy Health Minister, Mary Mulligan, discussed it with her ministerial colleagues and action is now being taken to sort out the problems faced by those in need of this equipment. A group set up by the Scottish Executive is also set to knock down the bureaucratic walls which confront people in such cases.
Your right to access to education cannot depend on the colour of your skin, the God you worship, the size of your wallet, whether or not you are in a wheel chair or any other ground.
All that counts is the quality of your mind.
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