Question reference: S6W-14782
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 9 February 2023
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Current status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 23 February 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what interim steps it is taking, in advance of its proposed Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill being introduced in the Scottish Parliament, to improve mental health support for people with autism and other learning disabilities.
Answer
We know that currently not everyone has the same experiences or outcomes when they engage with mental health services and supports. We want to ensure that everyone’s needs are met, including those with learning disabilities and autism.
We are committed to publishing a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy in Spring 2023, building on the implementation of our Mental Health Covid Transition and Recovery Plan. The new strategy will allow us to look ahead to make sure we are doing the right things to meet changing mental health needs over the coming years; and will set out a clear vision for future population mental health, wellbeing and care; and our priorities to help us get there.
In September 2021, the Scottish Government published the National Neurodevelopmental Specification for Children and Young People which sets out seven standards for service providers to ensure that children and young people, who have neurodevelopmental profiles with support needs, receive the support that they require. To support implementation, we have provided funding to NHS Boards to build capacity to provide access to specialist neurodevelopmental professionals.
We are now developing quality standards to support general adult secondary mental health services. These aim to improve the quality and safety of mental health services, and will be part of a suite of standards and specifications for mental health services, building on the work of the CAMHS service and neurodevelopmental specifications.
The Scottish Government has worked with people with lived experience and stakeholders over the last 18 months on a new leadership and engagement framework to develop policy around mental health support for autistic people and people with learning disabilities.
This new way of working puts people’s voices and experiences firmly at its heart and is about real sustainable change and has included literature reviews, workshops to collect views and experiences, reports and an evaluation of the process. Currently there are working groups to implement the actions following the workshops and reports.