How governments manage personal assistance schemes in response to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Governments are obligated to safeguard social inclusion for disabled people through user-led personal assistance (PA) under Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). This scoping review was carried out to map and explore current knowledge on how governments internationally have managed PA schemes in response to the UNCRPD. The review examined 99 documents, and categorised the literature into the following themes; legislation, funding, model of service provision, governance and regulation, and the COVID-19 pandemic response. We include recommendations to co-design legislation and quality improvement policies to ensure that PA schemes are underpinned by a social model of disability mindset. Further research needs to be undertaken to guarantee that policymakers include the voice of PA users in the management of PA schemes. Points of interest This article looked at 99 documents to find out how governments are managing personal assistance (PA). It found out that governments can often decide to spend less money on a PA scheme rather than protect our rights. To overcome this problem the documents recommended that legislation for PA schemes must be designed with disabled people. Governments must redirect their money from institutional services to community-based services. Eligibility criteria to control access and the costs of PA should be removed. This paper suggests that we need to have the voice of the PA user to direct the design and delivery of PA schemes. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2021.1877114.