Our History

In 1954, five sets of parents of children who had learning disabilities met in Glasgow to share their experiences and support each other to challenge society’s attitudes towards learning disability. Those parents reached out to more parents, and the charity which became Enable was born.

When the Mental Health (Scotland) Act was passed in 1960, the organisation had its first office and a member of staff.

In 1964, the charity – now the Scottish Society for Mentally Handicapped Children – had grown to 40 branches across Scotland, with the addition of respite services.

In 1974, after a hard-fought campaign by the charity, all children in Scotland were given the right to go to school. This basic right had previously been denied to children who had learning disabilities.

In 1984, the charity encouraged 33,000 people to sign a petition to the Secretary of State for Scotland. This called for a properly costed and comprehensive strategy for learning disability services. It would take 16 years and a new Scottish parliament before one was delivered.

In 1993, we became Enable Scotland, and a new era of rights-based campaigning and advocacy was born.

That same year, we set up a committee for adults who have a learning disability — the Advisory Committee of Enable Scotland, or ACE. This group advises Enable, and others, about the things that matter to people who have a learning disability.

Enable Scotland members were at the forefront of the long-awaited review of learning disability services in 1999. The Scottish Government’s report in 2000 placed people who have a learning disability, and their family and carers, at the heart of learning disability policy and plans.

It was in the noughties when all of Scotland’s long-stay hospitals finally closed. Enable Scotland helped many people make the transition from hospital to a home of their own. We provided advocacy services and community-based support, and developed supported housing.

A decade of growth and impact saw the birth of our PA Model, the creation of Enable Works and Enable Cares. There was significant campaign successes on issues as diverse as transport, education and accessible voting.

Enable Works was created in 2011, and increased our capacity to deliver specialist employability support into 27 local authority areas. Enable Works has supported 2,500 people to achieve the skills and qualifications needed to gain and sustain paid employment.

Our members also helped to shape the Social Care (Self Directed Support) Scotland Act 2013. Our PA Model emerged as a key innovation in the delivery of human rights driven, self-directed support for all. Enable Cares was established in recognition that our model can support any person.

We campaigned successfully for the rights of the social care workforce to be paid the same hourly rate for every hour worked, including overnight support.

We grew our ACE network to 22 local groups, and established ACE Youth.

Award winning campaigns mobilised our supporters to get involved in campaigning online, and to fundraise in their largest ever numbers through events such as the Kiltwalk.

In 2019 we celebrated our 65th anniversary with a reception in the Scottish Parliament, attended by Scotland’s First Minister. In the same year, our Scottish Council elected its first ever convenor who has a learning disability.

Our innovative Breaking Barriers programme arrived to create opportunities for people who have learning disabilities and additional support for learning needs to access higher education and graduate employment opportunities.

In the 2020s, Enable supported people, communities and our employees through the impact of the global Coronavirus pandemic. Since that unprecedented time, our focus in the early 2020s has been on work to end the practice of delayed discharge and out of area placements for people who have learning disabilities.

Our Enable Cares team facilitated some of the most complex hospital discharges, true to our historic commitment to deinstitutionalisation, and demonstrating that better is possible.

We secured a commitment for the world’s first Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill, and have been at the forefront of policy and practice development to build Scotland’s National Care Service.

We celebrated our 70th anniversary by hosting Inclusion Europe's Europe in Action conference in 2024, bringing over 450 delegates from 40 countries to Glasgow to share learning and ideas to deliver positive change for people who have a learning disability across the continent.

Enable is established as one of the fastest growing charities in the UK, committed to realising the rights of every citizen through:

• self-directed, human rights driven health and social care – Enable Cares

• inclusive employment, education and training – Enable Works

• empowering inclusive communities for all – Enable Communities