Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting children and young people with autism, under which PDA is categorised, to enable the right support to be put in place early and reduce the longer term impact.

The Scottish Government has not issued guidance in respect of pathological demand avoidance syndrome (PDA). PDA has no official diagnostic status or recognition within current autism diagnostic practice.

The Scottish Government wants all children and young people to get the support they need to reach their full learning potential. Education authorities and other agencies have duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 (as amended) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. An additional support need can arise for any reason and be of short or long term duration. Additional support may be required to overcome needs arising from learning environment, health or disability, family circumstances or social and emotional factors. Education authorities can ask other agencies, including social work services, health boards and Skills Development Scotland, for help in carrying out their duties under the Act.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting children and young people with autism, under which PDA is categorised, to enable the right support to be put in place early and reduce the longer term impact.

We acknowledge that the complexity of autism, and the multi-faceted nature of the needs of those with autism, poses particular challenges to professionals and commissioners. The Scottish Government wants to make sure that clinicians have the best possible knowledge and resources available for them to make recommendations on the care and management of autistic children and young people.

In the NHS, clinicians will diagnose autism in line with guidance. There are currently two major diagnostic classification systems in use: the International Classification of Diseases, version 10 (ICD-10) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition (DSM-5). These systems are the ‘gold standard’ for autism diagnosis and neither of them recognises PDA. Since Scotland is committed to standards of best practice, and as stated in SIGN 145, Assessment, diagnosis and interventions for autism spectrum disorders: A national clinical guideline , all professionals involved in diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder in children, young people or adults should consider using either one of the current versions of these classification systems. SIGN guidance does not recognise PDA as a distinct category for diagnosis.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting children and young people with autism, under which PDA is categorised, to enable the right support to be put in place early and reduce the longer term impact.

The Scottish Government wants all children and young people to get the support they need to reach their full learning potential. Education authorities and other agencies have duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 (as amended) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. An additional support need can arise for any reason and be of short or long term duration. Additional support may be required to overcome needs arising from learning environment, health or disability, family circumstances or social and emotional factors. Education authorities can ask other agencies, including social work services, health boards and Skills Development Scotland, for help in carrying out their duties under the Act. PDA has no official diagnostic status or recognition within current autism diagnostic practice.

The Scottish Government remains committed to improving the lives of autistic people in Scotland. In partnership with COSLA we have published the updated priorities for the next phase of the Scottish Strategy for Autism.

This publication can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2018/03/1405 . These new priorities were developed following an engagement exercise with autistic people, their families and carers and professionals in the field. More than 1,200 participated in this exercise through either or online questionnaire or one of our four engagement events.

Scottish Ministers have set the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland the financial targets of achieving:

A three per cent efficiency saving on their unit costs; and

An increase in Registers of Scotland’s commercial income of 5%.

In addition, the keeper has set the following service standards for her department:

A copy of the document has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 57782).

Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, wrote to me on 4 February 2016 setting out proposals for reforming the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and enclosing a copy of the draft consultation paper and impact assessment.

I responded on 24 February 2016 to set out the Scottish Government’s position. Whilst we have welcomed confirmation that the budget for the RHI will continue over the next five years to supports new installations, the Scottish Government has raised a number of issues around the proposed changes to the incentive scheme. This includes the uncertainty for industry from:

A proposal to introduce an in year cap on the total budget available to support renewable heat generation projects;

The basis for the rationale for proposals to substantively change the level of, or remove, support for new installations of certain technologies; and also

The differing level of impact of proposals on households in geographies across the GB, including Scotland.

I have consistently pushed for consideration of the specific concerns raised by Scottish businesses and the particular circumstances of homes in Scotland in relation to the RHI. We are further north and temperatures are therefore on average lower requiring more heat to reach similar temperatures to equivalent homes in the south. It cannot be avoided that it costs more to heat homes here.

Despite my request for analysis on the impacts of proposals to include data on Scottish homes so that it can take account of Scottish housing stock and Scottish climate, the UK Government has not considered this important enough to prioritise. This means that Scottish stakeholders cannot properly assess the implications of the proposals to households and businesses in Scotland.

This is another example of the UK Government failing to pay regard to distinct problems in Scotland.

The UK Government published a consultation on proposals to reform the RHI on 3 March 2016, and I would encourage Scottish stakeholders to take the opportunity to respond to the consultation and request analysis from the Department of Energy and Climate Change on Scottish housing before the deadline of 27 April 2016.

I have considered the context and opportunities for establishing a Scottish business development bank. The case for action, and identification of areas for progress, was described in our report, The Market for SME Finance in Scotland, published in August 2015.

As I set out on 18 January 2016 to the Finance Committee, the challenge we face is how to establish the most appropriate investment approach given the UK Government accounting arrangements within which we are required to work. Our purpose is to support the business finance market to work more effectively and ensure Scotland remains a strong, vibrant and diverse economy, creating the opportunities we need.

I believe that the best approach is to enhance the remit of the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) and for Scottish Enterprise to offer a wider range of business investment approaches to address some of the marketplace gaps to improve the supply of funding. I am grateful too for the support of Highlands and Islands Enterprise in furthering this approach.

I have asked Scottish Enterprise to lead on this work and a copy of my letter, setting out the critical factors in the way ahead, has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 57715).

I am pleased that, despite a tough financial settlement, I have been able to use the draft budget to allocate £21.5 million of financial transactions funding to Scottish Enterprise in 2016-17 to help in developing the SIB to meet its new objectives.

I have asked Scottish Enterprise to submit an outline plan before Friday 11 March 2016 for how they will take forward action during the 2016-17 year, so it can be made available to this Parliament.

The decision to enhance SIB’s remit comes alongside other moves, such as the Scottish Government’s recent launch of public procurement for a £40 million fund to provide investment to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Taken together, these are part of the broader Scottish business development bank approach, including wider Scottish Government and public agency finance initiatives for SMEs.

Our approach will help to ensure support for company growth, particularly to scale up existing small companies to become the medium-sized and larger enterprises that Scotland needs.