Hansard

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 ...