The recent weakening of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) protections is not an isolated development. It forms part of a wider and deeply concerning pattern in which the rights of autistic people and people with learning disabilities are being steadily eroded across health, social care and education.
For many years, disabled people and their families have fought for recognition that liberty, autonomy and human rights matter equally to everyone. Yet recent changes risk reducing independent scrutiny and removing vital safeguards that exist to protect people from inappropriate restrictions, exclusion, institutionalisation and abuse.
These concerns sit alongside broader reforms to the Mental Health Act and ongoing changes within the SEND system, where many families report increasing barriers to support, reduced access to specialist provision and growing pressure on essential services. Rather than strengthening rights, too many recent policy decisions appear focused on limiting eligibility, reducing oversight and managing costs.
This is occurring against a backdrop of increasingly hostile public rhetoric around disability. Disabled people have been subjected to repeated narratives about welfare dependency, benefit “crackdowns” and alleged “over-diagnosis” of autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions. Such language risks undermining public understanding and fuels the perception that support and legal protections are privileges to be restricted rather than rights to be upheld.
Taken together, these developments represent a serious threat to the human rights of autistic people and people with learning disabilities. We should be moving towards greater inclusion, stronger safeguards and enhanced self-determination—not dismantling protections that exist precisely because disabled people have historically been denied equal rights, equal opportunities and equal respect under the law.
We demand that the Government reverses any weakening of legal safeguards as a matter of urgency and ensures that future reforms are co-produced with autistic people, people with learning disabilities and their families, with human rights, dignity and equality at their core.