ARU Final Report

Full Report – May 2021 25 5. Discussion and suggestions for change The aimof this small-scale studywas to ascertain the experiences of support that a group of young people with disabilities received during the pandemic. The findings suggest that Covid-19 has, in some cases, exacerbated pre-existing challenges for some young people with disabilities, although examples of good practice are also evident in the data. This overall finding is supported in the wider literature although it is important to recognise that we did not find any studies that explored the experiences of the pandemic from the perspectives of children and young people with disabilities themselves within a UK context. Rather this data was collected as part of family studies (see for example The Disabled Children’s Partnership, 2020 and Rogers et al., 2020) or not at all. Shakespeare, Ndagire and Seketi (2021) emphasise the importance of consulting and communicating with people with disabilities post the pandemic and in ensuring they are involved in policy development, programme design, and implementation. In exploring a disability-inclusive Covid-19 response in the UK at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, Kuper et al. (2020) concluded that this response is indeed paramount. It also requires the inclusion of data collected from those with disabilities themselves and tailoring appropriate responses to the pandemic for this group of people. In addition, we propose that the views of children and young people with disabilities also need to be gathered to generate a wider picture of the pandemic. These views need to be sought from children and young people themselves rather than relying on data reported about them or on their behalf. These unique views will not only help in planning for future pandemics or indeed other imminent lockdowns during this current pandemic, as noted for other groups of people, but will enable the voices of children and young people with disabilities to be heard post the pandemic in relation to decisions that are made about and for them. Findings fromour study suggest that althoughmany youngpeoplewith disabilities have practical support in place around their accommodation, finances, and education, this is not the case for everyone. It is likely that the stress of the pandemic impacted the living arrangements of some of the young people in our study. Although our numbers are small, some described chaotic living environments where they did not feel safe and supported by anybody: I moved from a men’s homeless hostel to temporary, supported, transitional accommodation. I am in the process of moving to another shared house that will be better and safer for me. Others described several moves during the pandemic which impacted their sense of vulnerability, security and belonging. Consequently, the provision of safe affordable accommodation is paramount to the welfare of young people with disabilities; particularly so for those living independently and not being supported by assisted living arrangements. Our data showed that some young people in this cohort were often involved