Question reference: S6W-07860
- Asked by: Stephanie Callaghan, MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 5 April 2022 Registered interest
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Current status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 April 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the development and wellbeing assessment tool currently being piloted by South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership could be a viable and cost-effective option to reduce screening waiting times for young people with suspected neurodevelopmental conditions.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s understanding is that the wellbeing assessment tool being piloted by South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership called the Autism Resource Co-ordination Hub (ARCH), is a support service for children, young people, adults and their families. It is not intended to replace services already provided by health, education or social work with regard to assessment, diagnosis or treatment of neurodevelopmental conditions.
The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the National Neurodevelopmental Specification: Principles and Standards of Care for Children and Young People, published in September 2021, which specifies service standards that all children’s services should follow, to ensure access to support is effective and consistent across Scotland. The ARCH service complements existing services and the Principles and Standards set out in the Neurodevelopmental Specification by providing the support provided by universal services, and the neurodevelopmental assessment pathway provided by NHS Lanarkshire community paediatrics and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
To support improvements across Scotland, £3.06 million was allocated to NHS Boards in 2021-22 to build professional capacity within Boards to support children and young people with neurodevelopmental support needs.
In March 2022, Scottish Government also provided over £750,000 to five local authority areas to run tests of change on the implementation of the Neurodevelopmental Specification. These tests will run over the next six months and will provide learning and evaluation to be shared across other local authorities and health board areas to inform and assist national implementation of the Specification.