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The Scottish Government wants to improve opportunities, outcomes and support for autistic people, people with learning disabilities, and neurodivergent people. To this end, we have committed to introducing a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill. This Bill will ensure that the rights of autistic people, people with learning disabilities, and neurodivergent people are respected and protected.

To help make sure the new legislation is championed when it is implemented, we intend to consult on the creation of a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Commissioner through the new law.

Further details about the timing of the public consultation on the Bill will be announced in the Programme for Government in September 2022.

A decision on the timing of the Bill’s introduction to Parliament will be taken by Cabinet in the context of setting the content of future legislative programmes.

The report of the study on goosander and cormorant diet on four Scottish rivers will be published imminently.

The Scottish Government is piloting Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways to support Boards to implement a single diagnostic pathway that will include ADHD and Autism. The pilot started in January and will last for 12 months. The results of this work, including a final report, will be available next year.

A new National Post Diagnostic Support Service pilot was launched on 1 December 2020. This has now been extended until end of March 2023.

Post Diagnostic support is provided by seven organisations, where, following a diagnosis of autism, individuals, parents and carers living across Scotland are routed to appropriate support to understand and embrace their identity as an autistic person.

The Scottish Government has provided funding for Post Diagnostic Support which totals £500,000 in financial year 2020-21 and £544,000 in financial year 2021-22.

The Learning Disability and Autism team meets Health and Social Care Partnership leads on a regular basis and since October last year, has met individually with 21 of the 31 HSCPs to discuss their local work on learning disabilities and autism.

In addition the team attends the regular meetings of the relevant Social Work Scotland sub group at which all HSCPs are represented.

Dates and Partnerships met with are:

Since Scotland’s Redress Scheme was launched in December 2021, 1468 survivor applications and 88 next of kin applications have been received. All applications are reviewed within six weeks of receipt and this review identifies those requiring further information and those ready for verification prior to sending to Redress Scotland for determination.

189 redress applications have been passed to Redress Scotland for consideration and of those, 136 have had an initial determination made.

Each application varies in complexity, with survivors and applicants requiring differing levels of support to complete the application and a dependency on other organisations to complete the required verifications around care settings and any previous relevant payments made.

We recognise that, for some applicants, the process is taking longer than they expected. We continue to work with them, and partners, to look at ways to improve the scheme and remain committed to ensuring it continues to be swifter and less adversarial than taking court action.

Circulars to enact the 4.5% pay uplift for NHS Medical and Dental staff were published on 5 August 2022.

This pay uplift will be backdated to 1 April 2022.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information you request regarding defibrillators in schools. Decisions on whether to install defibrillators in schools are a matter for local authorities, in light of local circumstances and priorities.

The Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021- 2026 sets a clear aim of increasing the number of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests which have a defibrillator applied before the ambulance service arrive from 8% to 20%. Work is ongoing to build the evidence base on the location of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Scotland, and the existing locations of defibrillators. This will support the strategic placement of defibrillators across Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to early diagnosis which is why we continue to invest in our £44 million Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme. In 2021-22, DCE funded the North Cancer Alliance to support community pharmacy in the identification of patients with symptoms suspicious of cancer and, where necessary, prompt referral to an urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) pathway.

Learnings from this early work will be shared with the Early Cancer Diagnosis Programme Board and help inform possible wider roll-out across NHS Scotland.

A new early cancer diagnosis vision is under development as part of Scotland’s new cancer strategy, due to be published Spring 2023, and will consider the role of community pharmacies in supporting earlier diagnosis efforts.

The Scottish Government fully supports the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) in its efforts to meet the needs of children and young people with additional support needs. Every child’s individual needs are considered by SCRA, based on information provided by other agencies and professionals. SCRA has, for a number of years, worked on support and assistance for neurodiverse children and families. They are creating sensory spaces in their hearings centres, the first of which opened in March this year, and have updated information material and internal guidance to staff in conjunction with the charity Reach for Autism. They are currently working on plans to develop a network of local neurodiversity champions to further promote and address the specific needs of children and families in Children’s Hearings.

The new SCRA digital case management system, now in its second full year of operation, is capable of recording specific data relating to protected characteristics and SCRA are considering how this can be used to the greatest effect.