Meeting of the Parliament 11 December 2025
I thank the member for that important intervention; I have had that issue raised with me in casework.
I believe that colleagues in the chamber have heard very similar requests from constituents. More recently, I have heard about the use of the private sector for assessment, which can be incredibly stressful, as other members have mentioned. Many children—and, as we now know, adults—are seeking private assessment after having made many attempts to get an assessment through the national health service. The long NHS waiting lists and the lack of service mean that exhausted families are often using much of their own money and resources to get a diagnosis. That is very stressful, and even after they do that, there is no clear pathway for them.
Many of us in the chamber have heard about how poorly co-ordinated shared care is. That has been mentioned today, so I will not go over it again. However, I note that families are often rejected not just for medication, but by GPs and CAMH services. A constituent raised with me a similar situation in our education system. Parents seek a diagnosis, and then, within the education system, children are denied community services such as occupational therapy or speech and language therapy because their private diagnosis does not link in with the school’s way of recording and reporting, and supporting people.
Parents report to me that they feel that public services—health services, social care, education and criminal justice—lack a basic understanding on the front line. That is an important point, and I will finish on it. The resources are often there, at what has been described to me as quite a high level, but the question is how we enable the front-line teams to pick up on the issues.
I would have liked to say more, Deputy Presiding Officer, but I appreciate the time.
13:12