People with learning disabilities are appealing for a rethink of the way support workers’ hours are managed so they can go on a night out without having to head home early so they are in bed before the end of their carer’s shift.

The campaign group Stay Up Late Scotland says too many adults are being prevented from having the social life others their own age enjoy because support worker shifts end at 10pm, meaning they have to head for home from pubs and gigs before the night gets going and the main act takes to the stage.

Writing for healthandcare.scot, journalist and campaigner Michael McEwan, who set up Stay Up Late Scotland to enable people with learning disabilities to enjoy good social lives, says people with learning disabilities as much as anybody else should be able to celebrate the reopening of venues following the pandemic:

“We're working on a campaign at the moment called #Nobedtimes.

“Support workers rush service users from a night out, to put them to bed before the end of their shift.

“Our aim is to influence change for more flexible support hours or consideration of giving free time to enhance service users' quality of life.

“We are working together to affect change. We want people to be able to lead the kind of social lives they want.”

Mr McEwan says, instead of everything coming to an end by 10pm, online events held during the pandemic have gone on all night:

“We held our first online event in May for Learning Disability Week, with two rooms on Zoom: one room for DJs and one room for bands.

“Unlike previous venue events, the virtual rooms still had people in them right up to 4am the next day.

“There were no support staff clocking off, no taxis waiting, no barriers to the night people want.”

Stay Up Late says the lack of freedom to choose when to go to bed is just one of a series of things that adults with learning disabilities are asking for as part of the campaign’s ‘manifesto for an ordinary life’, which includes being able to choose how they live their lives, how they spend their time, who they spend their time with, and how the media portrays them because they have a learning disability.

Read more:  A manifesto for an ordinary life; In full: Plea for caution from at risk Scots; Learning disability nurses leave in worrying numbers; Insight: Learning disability “pandemic of loneliness”.

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