Committee
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 24 February 2026 [Draft]
24 Feb 2026 · S6 · Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Item of business
Neurodivergence
Georgia de Courcy Wheeler
Watch on SPTV
The committee will be aware that £7.6 million in the draft budget for the next financial year is earmarked for young people I can give a little bit of flavour about where we are at in our thinking.As the minister said, our focus at the moment is on whole-system, needs-based support and we are guided by the neurodevelopmental specification. Along with our partners at COSLA, we are working through how that funding can best be utilised to deliver the biggest impact and change for neurodivergent children and young people and their families.It will, of course, be for the next Government to consider how to take that forward, but I just want to state that, in our thinking and in our work with COSLA, we are ensuring that we listen to the voices of lived experience as well as colleagues in professions such as psychiatry and psychology, the third sector and education in guiding how we might use that additional investment, and with that long-term sustainable change that we know that we need to see for neurodivergent people very much in mind.As the minister has mentioned, we have provided additional funding this financial year, and it very much builds on some of the smaller amounts of funding that we have been able to provide in the previous few years. We are now expanding on some of our work on testing digital assessment tools, and we are working with all health boards on their existing waiting lists to help them identify the support needs of the people on those lists at an earlier opportunity. That digital tool is still in the testing phase, but we are helping that work to progress.We have also provided some additional funding this year to increase health boards’ capacity to assess and diagnose their over-16s. It is a one-off investment, but we are talking about an age group that is at risk of ageing out of services. Although that diagnostic focus does not represent the whole of our policy approach, we recognise that it was valid to use that funding to relieve some of the pressure in the system.We have also invested some of the additional funding in testing digital support for young adults who are at that transition stage of leaving school and moving into further and higher education, in recognition of the fact that such transition stages can be particularly challenging points in people's lives. Furthermore, we have provided some additional investment for family support, because our review work with COSLA highlighted the huge value of third sector provision in such support and in empowering parents to support their children.As we move into next year, we are looking at how we use that funding to build on all that we have learned from the investments that we have made up to this point and, as I have said, to make it more long term and sustainable.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Welcome back. Our next agenda item is our final evidence session in our inquiry into neurodivergence in Scotland. I welcome to the meeting Tom Arthur, who is...
The Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing (Tom Arthur)
SNP
Good morning, convener, and thank you to you and to the committee for the opportunity to contribute to this important inquiry. I welcome the committee’s focu...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you. We now move to members’ questions, and I will kick us off. What concrete actions does the Scottish Government intend to take to ensure that a func...
Tom Arthur
SNP
:I appreciate that that area is of significant interest to the committee, particularly given the evidence that I know you have taken over recent weeks. Simil...
Georgia de Courcy Wheeler (Scottish Government)
As the minister said, we have had the neurodevelopmental specification for children and young people for a number of years and we carried out an implementati...
The Convener
SNP
How will the new £7.5 million of funding for neurodevelopmental assessments reduce waiting times and when will you see measurable improvements?
Tom Arthur
SNP
:I highlight at the outset that I very much recognise the importance of assessment and diagnosis to identity and validation and particularly with reference t...
Georgia de Courcy Wheeler
The committee will be aware that £7.6 million in the draft budget for the next financial year is earmarked for young people I can give a little bit of flavou...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much for that really helpful feedback.
Maggie Chapman
Green
:Good morning, minister, and thank you for joining us this morning. In my first question, I want to build on your previous answer and Georgia de Courcy Wheel...
Tom Arthur
SNP
:I thank Ms Chapman for her important question, which highlights that providing services and investing in ensuring that they are available are one thing, but...
Georgia de Courcy Wheeler
As the minister said, a two-track approach is required. On the one hand, we need to ensure that resources, information and services for parents and families ...
Maggie Chapman
Green
:I will go back to the questions on diagnostic assessments and the different pathways. We understand the point that diagnosis should not be necessary to get ...
Tom Arthur
SNP
:I go back to my earlier points about our work with NAIT and what we are doing to take forward its recommendations across health boards. It might be useful i...
Robby Steel (Scottish Government)
Diagnosis in the whole of medicine is a bit more complicated than is often portrayed. For example, your general practitioner might tell you that you have hyp...
Maggie Chapman
Green
:That was helpful. Some people get a diagnosis privately but then find that that diagnosis is not recognised by the NHS, either for medication—if that is the...
Robby Steel
That was raised at the cross-party summit. As a psychiatrist, I would say that it is a political judgment, because it is about equity of access to NHS servic...
Tom Arthur
SNP
:I am happy to come back on that, given that I am the politician sitting at the end of the table.Committee members will be familiar with the issue of assuran...
Maggie Chapman
Green
:I agree with Robby’s last point about getting to a point where we have a capacity in the NHS to deal with the issue.I go back to something that you said ear...
Tom Arthur
SNP
:In terms of principle and policy, the challenge is around implementation. Considering the new developmental specification for children and young people goes...
Maggie Chapman
Green
:Thanks, minister. I will leave it there, convener.
The Convener
SNP
We move on to questions from Marie McNair, who will be followed by Paul McLennan.
Marie McNair
SNP
:Good morning. I will go back to Maggie Chapman’s point about not needing a diagnosis to access support. Unfortunately, we have heard during the evidence ses...
Tom Arthur
SNP
:Those are very important points. I will ask Robby to come in, but first I reiterate the point about situations in which assessment and diagnosis are underta...
Robby Steel
On the issue of quality assuring private assessments—and you have given the example of an undeniably high-quality private assessment, Ms McNair—the problem w...
Marie McNair
SNP
:I am reassured, for myself and my constituents, that the issue is being considered. I will wait and see where we go with that.What actions is the Scottish G...
Tom Arthur
SNP
:I have always sought to make it clear that Government ministers hugely value the contribution of lived experience, and I recognise that the committee does a...
Georgia de Courcy Wheeler
I would love to share a specific example with the committee. A lived experience organisation that the committee has taken evidence from and that we regularly...
Marie McNair
SNP
:I could flag other examples of barriers to neurodivergent people obtaining blue badges and will quite happily come back to you on that, and I totally agree ...
Paul McLennan
SNP
:I have a few key questions, which come back to the shared protocol. During various sessions, we have heard about equity of access across private healthcare ...