Scotland’s only high-security psychiatric facility is facing mounting criticism over plans to increase the number of autistic and learning-disabled individuals it detains — a move that has reignited accusations of government backsliding on disability rights.
New job listings reveal that the State Hospital in Carstairs, Lanarkshire, is actively recruiting staff with experience in learning disabilities, ahead of the opening of a new women’s unit later this year. The revelation comes despite repeated assurances from SNP ministers that autistic individuals would be moved out of clinical environments and into community care.
A Contradiction in Policy
The job adverts, posted on Talent.com and other recruitment sites, state explicitly that applicants will be working with patients who have “a range of mental disorders including Intellectual Disabilities.”
That detail has triggered alarm among campaigners and families, many of whom have fought for years to end the practice of locking up autistic individuals in secure hospitals — often for indefinite periods.
One parent, Tracey Gibbon, whose son Kyle has been detained in the State Hospital for over 15 years, told The Mail on Sunday she fears more families will soon share her experience.
“We were promised change. Now it looks like they’re building new facilities to keep even more people like Kyle inside. It’s devastating,” she said.
The Locked Up for Being Autistic Campaign
The backlash comes on the heels of The Mail on Sunday’s “Locked Up for Being Autistic” campaign, which has won awards and national attention for exposing the prolonged and often unnecessary detention of neurodivergent individuals in psychiatric institutions.
The campaign spotlighted cases in which autistic people, some of them teenagers, were placed in high-security environments despite having committed no crime. Many were held for years, sometimes in solitary-like conditions, under mental health laws designed for individuals with severe psychiatric disorders.
Following public outcry, Scottish Government ministers pledged to overhaul the system — including promises made as recently as 2023 to remove learning-disabled individuals from hospital-based care.
Yet, despite those commitments, the recent developments suggest a reversal in momentum.
Diverging Paths Across the UK
Scotland’s apparent pivot is in sharp contrast to policy directions south of the border.
In England and Wales, new legislation is under consideration to make the detention of autistic individuals in hospitals without mental illness a thing of the past. The UK Government has signaled its intention to bring forward legal reforms that would bar such placements entirely, placing the emphasis on community support models.
In Scotland, however, legislative reform has lagged. While consultation papers have been circulated and expert panels convened, there has been little in the way of binding change. Critics now argue that the Scottish Government has chosen inertia over reform — and may be quietly expanding institutional capacity instead.
Silence from Ministers
The Scottish Government has so far declined to comment on the Carstairs expansion, or on the suggestion that the women’s wing will house more autistic or learning-disabled patients. NHS Scotland also declined to specify how many patients the new unit will serve or what proportion would be neurodivergent.
Disability rights advocates have called for immediate transparency and a halt to any admissions that contradict the government’s stated policy aims.
“This is not just disappointing — it’s dangerous,” said one legal advocate working with families of detained patients. “Every day spent in hospital for someone with autism who does not need to be there is a violation of their rights, and potentially a traumatic experience.”
Longstanding Criticism of Carstairs
The State Hospital at Carstairs, built to accommodate patients deemed too high-risk for regular psychiatric care, has long been a lightning rod for controversy.
Originally intended for individuals with serious mental illness and violent histories, the facility has increasingly housed individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions, often as a placement of last resort. Lack of appropriate residential care and supported living arrangements in the community has led to vulnerable individuals being institutionalised for years.
Several Scottish Mental Health Tribunal reports and independent reviews have flagged concerns about the inappropriateness of such detentions. In some cases, autistic individuals were admitted following minor incidents or episodes of distress, then unable to meet the criteria for release.
Families Left in Limbo
For families, the gap between political rhetoric and lived reality is growing harder to ignore.
“I don’t know how much longer my son can survive in there,” said Gibbon. “Every time we hear about reform, we get our hopes up — and then we see this.”
Campaigners are now calling for a moratorium on further admissions to secure hospitals for autistic or learning-disabled individuals, pending a full review of Scotland’s mental health legislation and care infrastructure.
