Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you. It is a little strange to be back in a committee room. I have participated in committee meetings over the past while, but this in-person stuff is going to take some getting used to again.

I am grateful for the opportunity to give evidence to the committee on how the Scottish Government is supporting autistic people.

The Scottish Government published its plan “Learning/Intellectual Disability and Autism: Towards Transformation” in March. The plan considers the actions that are needed to shape supports, services and attitudes to ensure that the human rights of autistic people and people with learning and intellectual disabilities are respected and protected. We are taking forward exciting new leadership and engagement plans with central roles for autistic people and people with a learning disability, putting them in the driving seat.

The Scottish Government has just published the “Evaluation of the Scottish Strategy for Autism”. The evaluation concludes that the strategy delivered valuable resources and services but that more work needs to be done to meet the Government’s ambition of allowing autistic people to be supported to live productive lives and of seeing change at the local level.

In response, I was delighted to announce £650,000 this financial year for tests of change on adult neurodevelopmental pathways for diagnosis and support. I also announced new funding of £425,000 to trial the Scottish Government’s new learning disability and autism leadership and engagement work, and £400,000 for the understanding autism project charity funding for a second year.

The Scottish Government also established the national autism implementation team, which supports health and social care partnerships to consider best practice and improved service in the redesigning of autism diagnostic services.

On Wednesday 8 September, the Scottish Government published the “National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People: Principles and Standards of Care”, and on 14 September I announced £5.25 million for NHS boards to build professional capacity to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.

Additionally, we have listened to the calls for a commissioner and have committed to publishing a learning disability, autism and neurodiversity bill and to creating a commissioner to uphold and protect the rights of autistic people and other people with neurodevelopmental difference. We are committed to that and will commence scoping work on the bill shortly.

Let me be clear that although money is always important, this is not just about money. It is about how we treat people with neurodevelopmental difference in our communities, our workplaces and our schools. It is about innovation, focus and working together across national and local divides to provide solutions that work for the people we are here to serve. That is what our new engagement will support and, as members will be aware, I am committed to ensuring that the voices of those with lived experience are at the heart of all that we do.

I am interested to hear the views of the committee and I look forward—or maybe not—to your questions.

I gave you some numbers earlier on, convener, but I will repeat them for you. However, I do not have at my fingertips the figures that Mr Torrance asked for with regard to the number of people diagnosed each year or any statistics showing regional variation. Ms Campbell, who is the fount of all knowledge, might well have them, and if not, she will without a doubt find them. As I said earlier, there are approximately 44,133 autistic people in Scotland—I did say “approximately”, but it is quite a specific number.

On the question of regional variation, I will pass over to Ms Campbell.

I will not pre-empt the consultation on the national care service. We have posed a number of questions in the consultation document with regard to what should be in the service, and we will look at the views that we get back. I know that some folk think that some of the questions and proposals are a little bit controversial. No matter what, the national care service will be extremely important as we move forward, because it will set high-quality standards across the board. That is what people want from services, whether they be in or out of the national care service, and that high-quality standard is what we require across the board, including in autism and neurodevelopmental services.

Service users in the autism community and in others are often very frustrated about accountability, and we must ensure that they know who is accountable for the delivery of services. We cannot afford to have a continuation of the postcode lottery in which people who live in one place get a very high-quality service while those in the authority next door have much less of an entitlement. We need high-quality standards, no matter whether services are in or out of the national care service.

We must look closely at all the recommendations and find a way forward to ensure that we provide better support and create better opportunities for people with autism.

I am sure that the committee will pick up on this, and I can go into further detail if required, but the fact is that, although the services provided to people with autism and learning difficulties are very good in some areas, I cannot claim the same for other parts of the country. We need to do our level best in all parts of the country to ensure that we are providing the services and help required to all folk with a neurodevelopmental condition. That will take quite a bit of work.

In all of that, and in light of the recommendations, we all have a duty to continue to listen to the voices of those with lived experience about what works and what does not work for them.

It is not like me, convener—and it is not like you either, but there we go. [Laughter.]