Occupational Therapy News OTnews November 2019 | Page 20

FEATURE MOBILITY
Blue Badge Scheme in Scotland
Following the September issue’s article on the changes to the
Blue Badge scheme in England, Sarah Sutton and the Blue Badge
Assessors Working Group in Scotland focus on the scheme there
W
20 OTnews November 2019
strategies, rather than potential risk associated with
the diagnosis.
There are 232,534 Blue Badges issued in Scotland
and at present it is not possible to disaggregate the
numbers who have received badges under the ‘Risk in
Traffic’ criteria, as distinct from the other discretionary
criteria, although this functionality will be available in
the future.
Anecdotally, local authorities have noticed a slight
increase in numbers, varying from a few applications
per year to 200 per year.
Currently the ‘Risk in Traffic’ application cannot be
completed online, as section three requires it to be
completed by a professional who has been involved
with the applicant for at least a year.
This can include a class teacher, occupational
therapist, art therapist, psychologist, speech and
language therapist, nurse, social worker, or doctor.
The questions asked (Transport Scotland (2018)
Risk in Traffic criteria) are:
• Why do you require a Blue Badge and how is it
going to help you?
• Can the applicant follow the route of a familiar
journey on their own?
• Can the applicant follow the basic instructions
such as ‘slow down’, ‘stay here’ or ‘stop’?
hat is the main purpose of the Blue
Badge Scheme? Why do we have
it? Who should benefit from this
scheme? And how do we foster
an enabling culture, rather than one of criteria
entitlement?
These are some of the questions we have
contemplated recently following changes to the
Blue Badge Scheme in England in relation to hidden
disabilities (OTnews, September 2019, page 32).
The new criterion is for England only and does not
apply to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Similarly to England, Scotland made significant
changes to the criteria under the discretionary section
in 2012 and then in 2014. In 2016, Scotland piloted a
‘Cognitive Impairment’ criterion, which then changed
to be entitled ‘Risk in Traffic’ in 2018.
The extended criterion considers whether a
person’s behaviour puts them (or others who are trying
to keep them safe) at risk in situations involving traffic
in such a way that they are a danger to themselves or
their carer.
Successful applicants under this criterion are
primarily those with severe autism or severe dementia
and are linked to actual risk through unsafe behaviours
that cannot be adequately managed with conventional