Chamber and committees

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Brian Whittle referred several times to the Minister for Parliamentary Business as the chief whip, which is incorrect.

That leads me to open up the question to some of the legal experts on the panel.

My question is for Gillian Fyfe. Your submission states that the demand for advice on legal aid has risen by 32 per cent during the pandemic. It also points out that

“legal aid is not currently available for many simple procedure cases”

and that the majority of cases that Citizens Advice Scotland deals with are in the civil legal area.

What impact does that have on your ability to help people to gain access to justice? What changes, if any, do you want to propose in that regard?

Will you repeat the part about provision not being national? Is it a kind of postcode lottery, and has that always been the case?

I have a very brief question. As we know—and as the cabinet secretary confirmed in his letter to us—virtual visits have been really successful. Will they be retained and, if necessary, escalated? If so, will governors take that general approach throughout the estate?

Thank you.

I want to follow up on the line of questioning of my colleague Collette Stevenson. Dr Scott, you highlight in your submission some of the barriers that women and children who are experiencing domestic abuse face. They include

“Scarcity of lawyers ... prepared to take on legal aid cases”,

“Lack of ... quality and skill”

in immigration cases in particular, and issues with

“Child contact cases”.

How acute is the problem? Those issues have been around for a while, but are they getting worse? Will you comment on the scale of the issue?

Thank you—that is helpful.

What measures are in place to help tenants who have fallen behind on their rent as a result of coronavirus and may therefore be at risk of eviction?

I thank my colleague Siobhian Brown for bringing this important debate to the chamber so that we recognise international FASD awareness day, and for highlighting the great work that is being done in her constituency. It is my pleasure to speak in the debate.

As Siobhian said, an estimated 285,000 children, young people and adults throughout Scotland could have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, which are lifelong and life-changing neurodelop—I mean neurodevelopmental conditions. Amazingly, however, less than 1 per cent of them have ever been formally diagnosed and properly supported. Even more startling is the reality that FASD is preventable but, sadly, is not often prevented.

Around seven years ago, I was a member of a children’s panel in the east end of Glasgow. I was fortunate to attend a lecture by—I think—Dr Jonathan Sher of the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland. I apologise if I have confused him with someone else, but I am pretty sure that it was Dr Sher. His knowledge on the subject is beyond compare. He told panel members that many of the children who were referred to us would be suffering from FASD. Much of their behaviour and many of their issues related to having the condition, but many of them were undiagnosed. That made immediate sense to me, and it shone a light on many of the young people whom we saw and the day-to-day difficulties that they faced due to having been exposed to alcohol in the womb.

I also remember that he spoke about the advice that was given to pregnant women at the time, which was that they limit their alcohol intake. He said, however, that the only way to be sure that a child would not be affected by FASD is to avoid drinking entirely, because every person’s body processes alcohol differently. It might have a low impact on one person but be devastating for another. His message was that the only way to avoid giving a baby FASD is to drink no alcohol at all.

In Scotland, we want to give every child the best start in life, and our policies reflect that. However, some children are denied that best start before they are even born. FASD is a family of complex conditions arising from exposure to alcohol at any stage of pregnancy. It affects the child’s physical and mental health and capacity to learn, and it is the most common but unrecognised neurodevelopmental condition in Scotland. It can cause learning disabilities, speech and language difficulties and many other issues, which members have outlined today.

Early diagnosis and support for people with FASD is crucial to avoid the range of issues that they commonly encounter. It is estimated that 90 per cent of those who are affected experience mental health problems in later life. A large number experience unemployment and imprisonment, and many need in-patient psychiatric care.

Last November, the Scottish Government and NHS Education for Scotland launched an excellent FASD e-learning resource that is accessible to anyone. It explains what FASD is, how to prevent it and what support is available.

In 2017, Adoption UK conducted a survey of nearly 3,000 adopters, and looked at a range of issues. It reported that 70 per cent of respondents said that they were not warned when they adopted that their child could be at risk of having FASD. Furthermore, 85 per cent have not been told since they adopted that their child might have FASD and 35 per cent have considered that their child might have FASD.

The survey reported that 55 per cent of children waited two years or longer for their FASD diagnosis and that 78 per cent of parents whose children were diagnosed with FASD did not feel that healthcare professionals are knowledgeable about the condition or its various presentations. As other members have said, Adoption UK recommends improved diagnosis and improved support for people who are living with FASD through the introduction of a dedicated multiyear national strategy for treatment and prevention, combined with increased awareness raising of the risks that are associated with drinking during pregnancy.

In conclusion, I say that FASD is a condition that is entirely preventable. Prevention is not about stigmatising or shaming women; it just requires women not to drink for the entirety of their pregnancy. In what we are facing today, with the scourge of the global pandemic still prevalent, surely that is not too much to ask, in order to ensure that our children get the best start in life.