Seòmar agus comataidhean

I thank Rona Mackay for bringing the debate to the chamber once again and allowing Parliament to recognise fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. As she will know, I have participated in these debates because the issue is close to my heart, and I really appreciate her bringing it to the chamber.

It is important that we continue to highlight FASD’s impact on Scotland’s communities and raise awareness of the long-lasting impact that exposure to alcohol during pregnancy can have. As other members have highlighted, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder affects 4 per cent of Scotland’s population, which is a startling figure, given that—as others have said—it is preventable. The UK chief medical officer recommends that the safest approach for people who are pregnant or are planning a pregnancy is not to drink alcohol at all. That will keep the risk to the baby to a minimum.

Of course, it is important that people understand the risk of drinking during pregnancy, but a point that I would make, and which Rona Mackay made, too, is that we, as elected politicians, must take our responsibility in this regard seriously. We live in a Scotland that normalises alcohol; in fact, excessive alcohol culture is almost normal, up to the point where it becomes a problem. Therefore, we must, as Ms Mackay has said, understand this issue as a public health situation, and we must have more debates about population-wide measures to reduce alcohol-related harm.

Research indicates that individual women are often not aware of the advice not to drink alcohol during pregnancy, so clearly more can be done with regard to public health messages that can improve awareness, especially given that, as colleagues have said, 46 per cent of pregnancies in the UK are unplanned. I would hope that putting out that messaging early to young women could be useful.

The Government’s “Women’s Health Plan” commits to providing accessible information and advice on pre-pregnancy care, which is welcome. In the medium term, there is a plan to develop a framework for pre-pregnancy care to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of optimising health before pregnancy. That might be an area on which we could work with the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health to ensure that we get accurate information and that we can talk about the use of alcohol in pregnancy.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress being made in developing the next phase of the “Women’s Health Plan”. (S6O-05005)

I thank the member for making that important point. Interestingly, I have been involved in a discussion on young women’s health, and I think that young people would appreciate our talking about these things much more openly, so that the information is out there and that they can make up their own minds about what they are going to do.

Healthcare professionals do a fantastic job out there, but we know that they find it quite difficult to discuss alcohol consumption, particularly when a woman attends healthcare services for pregnancy-related issues. For those who work in maternity services, raising awareness of the dangers of drinking is not part of their area of expertise. We know that they find it difficult, so there are perhaps some things that we could do to help them, such as exploring women’s drinking habits.

We could also have a look at whether alcohol brief interventions might be a valuable tool, and how widely it is used by maternity services and midwives. Again, that might be something that we could work on across the health portfolio as part of the considerable work that needs to be done to reduce the prevalence of FASD.

I would say more, but other members have already said it. I will just end by saying that, if we work together, we can make a difference. This is a cross-party issue, and I know that other members in the chamber really want to see a change in this area. Let us hope that, if we are all back here again next year discussing the issue, there are some real improvements that we can talk about.

I thank the minister for that update and for the way in which she keeps us all apprised of progress on the plan. I know that the minister will be aware of the situation regarding maternity services in Wigtownshire and the concerns around last week’s decision to keep services at Galloway community hospital closed. That comes despite strong opposition from the Galloway community hospital action group, which fears that the closure puts mothers and babies at risk. The group has described current maternity care in Wigtownshire as being

“like something out of the Middle Ages”.

Even the new Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland, who met the group only two weeks ago, feels that there is a “gap in care”.

Women are fearful, so will the minister join me and other interested parties in meeting the group to listen to its concerns directly and hear the testimonies of some of the mothers affected?

Good morning. I have three questions, the first of which is on pathways and thresholds for assessment. As part of the inquiry, the committee is considering petition PE2156, which describes a “postcode lottery” of access to pathways and support for people with ADHD. What is the impact of differing pathways for neurodevelopmental assessment across Scotland? What steps could be taken to address any differences in assessment pathways by area, if you have any knowledge of that?

Do you want to come in, Dani Cosgrove? You are nodding.

Thank you. Does anybody else want to add anything?

I appreciate your point. Some of my colleagues will ask a little bit more about that as we go through the evidence. Thank you very much. Do you want to come in, Bill?

Thanks very much for coming today. I will cover theme 2, which is the impact of receiving a diagnosis or waiting a long time for a diagnosis, and I know you have touched on that in responding to the first questions. What is the role of diagnosis in a neuro-affirming society? How much difference does that make?

I appreciate everybody’s responses and it gives us a lot to think about in how, when we are reporting back, we place those things.

One of the other questions that I had was about what impact a neurodivergent diagnosis can have on people’s mental health and wellbeing. You have brought that in already, understandably, so I might put that back to people but also ask what actions would enable neurodiverse people to access support to improve their wellbeing. What could we be doing now to help improve people’s wellbeing? If anybody would like to add to that, I would appreciate it.

Thank you, and thanks for sharing the quotes, of course.