Meeting of the Parliament 01 April 2025
I thank Daniel Johnson for bringing the debate to the chamber.
Even during my campaign to be elected back in 2016, it was clear that more support was needed to help autistic and neurodivergent people in all walks of life. Many members will be aware that, in 2017, Annie Wells and I co-founded the cross-party group on autism, and I remain its convener. The CPG remains one of the most well-attended groups, and I am delighted to welcome some of its members to the public gallery today. Unfortunately, however, the improvement in attendance at the CPG has been inversely proportional to the decline in service provision, and the recent cuts will only make the situation worse.
The proposed LDAN bill has been a key topic at the CPG, and many members took part in the Government’s consultation last year. It was a great disappointment, therefore, when the Scottish Government dropped the bill from its programme for government, kicking it beyond the 2026 Holyrood election. It was even more disappointing that the minister declined an invitation from the CPG to discuss the bill’s future. CPG members feel abandoned by the Scottish National Party over its lack of accountability and clarity about whether there will be any real action by the Government to improve support and services for autistic people and those with learning disabilities. I take this opportunity to again invite the minister to meet with the CPG on autism.
The debate comes at a time of an unfolding national crisis in autism and ADHD assessments. Delays in waiting times for assessments for both adults and children and a growing backlog of referrals to child and adolescent mental health services mean that the service has now reached boiling point, with assessments being withdrawn altogether.
In Aberdeenshire, the IJB has pulled out of the current adult autism and ADHD assessment service due to a lack of funding from the Scottish Government. A total of 1,800 adults, some of whom have already waited for nearly four years for an assessment, now have no idea when or even if they will get one. NHS Tayside has halted new CAMHS referrals for autism and ADHD, leaving vulnerable children at risk of getting no support, adding insult to injury by announcing it on Facebook. I am glad that, at First Minister’s question time last week, the First Minister had the grace to admit that that was poor communication.
Services are screaming for more money from the SNP Government, which, instead, spends millions on trivial pursuits rather than the real issues facing the people of Scotland. Late diagnosis and a failure to provide support only cost individuals and Scotland more in the long run, but it is no surprise that the economically illiterate SNP is unable to see that. I therefore ask the minister to confirm today what action she will take to ensure that there will be access to diagnostic services and not a postcode lottery in support.
The minister will also be aware that I have an autistic constituent who has been held in the state hospital for more than 15 years. Despite years of pressure and the publication of the SNP’s own “Coming Home Implementation: A report from the working group on complex care and delayed discharge”, the Government is still sending autistic people to the state hospital, more than doubling the number of vulnerable adults who are being locked away with some of Scotland’s most hardened criminals. That remains a national scandal.
From the motion for debate today, it is clear that the SNP Government has had its eye off the ball for years, standing by as services are now being removed altogether. Some of our most vulnerable children and adults are at risk, and that simply cannot continue.
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