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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 20 January 2026 [Draft]

20 Jan 2026 · S6 · Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee

Item of business

Neurodivergence

Dr Crabb Watch on SPTV

The work is absolutely consistent with the pillars of work that we recommended in our multisystem report, which was published in October. As you pointed out, we cannot keep doing what we are doing. That is the definition of insanity—doing the same thing and expecting the result to be different. Alternatively, we could find a ring-fenced piece of money, do a waiting list initiative, invest in more assessments and do more pilot projects. In the next 12 months, we need to move to delivering the pillars of work that we have recommended, across society.As you highlighted, it is about asking what reasonable adjustments are in schools, colleges and universities, and what reasonable adjustments employers can provide in workplaces. If somebody feels that they need those adjustments, they should be provided. I find it remarkable in my practice, when we speak to tutors at colleges, teachers at school or—with people’s permission—employers, and they say, “Of course, I would have done that ages ago if I had known it would be helpful. That is not a big deal.” It is about having really clear advice about reasonable adjustments across society, because they will be helpful whether someone has a formal diagnosis or traits. Even for a child or young person who is not neurodivergent, there may be a benefit to them if a school is able to offer things such as a movement break.We ask the committee to use its influence to ensure that a cross-government approach is taken, because this is way bigger than just health or social care. We need clear guidance in the benefits system, criminal justice system, the workplace and the education system about what reasonable adjustments should be provided in practical terms, so that there is no delay, such adjustments can be put in place and people do not get stuck but can keep moving on in their lives.The second thing is that we need to have really clear evidence-based advice for the public and family members, so that they do not get stuck waiting for people like us to tell them what might be helpful. We need services such as NHS Inform to make really clear evidence-based guidelines available to the public. People need to know where they are. Guidelines need to inform the whole system, such as health visitors giving advice on things such as screen time, exercise, caffeine and sleep, right through the life course, so that people can start to work through the factors that can make neurodiversity more challenging.We then need to commission, at scale, on a once-for-Scotland basis, initial self-help and peer support groups for people. There are really good models in place—we have so many pilots across Scotland that show that you can take a range of approaches. The models usually involve coaching and peer support—which can be run by third sector partners—that people can access whether they have a diagnosis or not, and they can dip in and out of that support, depending on what is happening in their life. Those things are the bottom tiers of support that society needs to move to a better place.

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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 20 January 2026 [Draft]

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