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Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care submission of 16 December 2021

PE1837/BB - Provide clear direction and investment for autism support

Thank you for the recent opportunity to meet with the Committee. May I assure the Committee that we remain committed to improving the lives of autistic people who do not have a learning disability and/or mental disorder through our Towards Transformation Autism and Learning Disability Plan.

As you have requested, I now respond to provide further details of how we will ensure people with autism who do not have a learning disability and/or mental disorder can access appropriate local support a) in the short-term and b) in the context of the new Bill and how we will ensure this support is available on an equitable basis across Scotland.

We understand that many autistic people and their families have faced added pressures during the pandemic and we, therefore, provided additional support to address those pressures. We established a £500,000 fund to ensure local carer organisations could continue to provide advice and emotional support during an incredibly difficult time. Additionally, £170,000 funding was provided to national autism charities to help them deliver vital front line support to people struggling as a result of Coronavirus (COVID-19) and help reduce social isolation.

We continue to work collaboratively with the national autism charities and autistic led organisations to deliver a national autism post diagnostic support service which we launched in December 2020. This support aims to enable individuals to understand, embrace and develop their identity as an autistic person. It also aims to ensure that parents and carers will have access to information, support and advice to enable them to support their child’s development and personal growth. We also want to make sure that those with a late diagnosis can access support and connect with peers, should they choose to.

The charities involved reported good uptake of the post diagnostic support services and the sessions they ran. We will be publishing an independent evaluation of this work, with its recommendations, in January 2022.

We will be conducting further scoping work on post diagnostic support and have already engaged with Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) about the local support they provide. HSCPs need to ensure that appropriate support is in place locally. We have also continued our support through the pilot programme as we conduct further work. This is currently extended to the end of March 2022 and we are in further discussion with those charities.

This complements our new pilot work on adult neurodevelopmental diagnostic pathways. Working with the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT), we will be conducting trials in four HSCP areas of new ways of achieving diagnosis in adults without a complete reliance on mental health services. This will draw in, for example, the role of Allied Health Professionals and Primary Care.

Each pilot area will have a local neurodevelopmental strategy or planning group with representation across relevant stakeholders and knowledge of the current local Autism, ADHD and Intellectual Disability provision and needs, together with local primary mental health care developments. Consideration will be given to third sector involvement, employment support provision and inclusion of people with lived experience in local decision making. Experiences of pilot sites will contribute to learning for all HSCPs and inform their future planning. The pilots will take place over 12 months, starting soon.

With regard to the proposed Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill, our work to develop the new Bill will need to include detailed consideration of the powers and duties of a Commission or Commissioner. The extent to which that body will be able to ensure the equitable provision of services will depend upon its legislative powers. Clearly, this is likely to be the subject of some debate and differing views that we will seek to reconcile. However, the establishment of this body will be a significant step forward in ensuring transparency around the funding and provision of services and accountability where there are gaps. We would welcome the Committee’s views on the issue of powers and duties, and how this may compare to the powers available to other Commissioners.

I note the Committee is also interested to know how we intend to collect and disseminate examples of good practice in relation to services available to people with autism, but without a learning disability and/or a mental disorder, so that these can be replicated on a Scotland-wide basis.

As part of the diagnostic pathways and post diagnostic support work, we intend to collate and analyse good practice. In addition, NAIT is establishing a network amongst HSCPs to support the pathways work which will allow early dissemination of good practice and sharing among all HSCP areas.

I would be happy to provide the Committee with a further update in due course.