Meeting of the Parliament 23 November 2023
The inability to define that formed part of the crux of the challenges that we faced regarding the accuracy of the financial memorandum. We know now—and we already knew—about the challenges faced by young people with additional support needs who are desperate for a diagnosis and about the waits that are required.
We felt that the bill would introduce conflict into an already cluttered legislative landscape. The committee heard that many children and young people, as I have just said, face long waiting times for diagnoses, and that some young people do not wish to pursue a diagnosis or view themselves as disabled or as having a disability.
For those reasons, the committee is concerned that the bill would place a statutory duty on local authorities to provide transition plans to disabled people and young people, but with a lack of clarity on how they would identify the eligible children in the area.
Worryingly, we heard that the current legislation has not had the positive impact that was envisaged. Many witnesses described it as complex, cluttered and difficult to navigate for young people and their families.
Several stakeholders highlighted local authorities’ poor deployment of co-ordinated support plans, despite their statutory nature. Many stakeholders spoke about the considerable difficulties that are faced by those who work to support young people in their transition to adulthood, with extreme pressures on resources in local authorities and health and social care systems, and the precarious nature of funding in the third sector.
We heard about issues around organisational cultures, particularly regarding the differences between children’s and adult services and the difficulties with information sharing. We do not believe that the bill would resolve those issues with resourcing or the interactions between children’s and adult services. However, we agreed that urgent action must be taken to address those issues, and the Government must ensure that that happens.
I have not had time to cover all the issues that were raised during our scrutiny of the bill, but I look forward to hearing from other members of the committee during the debate.
The Education, Children and Young People Committee supports the aims behind the bill and commends Pam Duncan-Glancy for bringing the bill before us. However, for the reasons that were set out in our report and in my comments, we were not convinced that it should progress beyond stage 1.
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