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You talked about the element 3 funding, and I know that East Lothian and Midlothian have received some of that funding. In the discussions that I have had with families and the council, I have heard that it has made a real difference, and I can see the benefits that are coming down.

My final question, which is also for Ms Don-Innes, is on the Promise. Obviously, the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill—the Promise bill—is progressing, but what is the budget doing to pick up some of the key issues? What does the budget deliver for our delivery of the Promise?

Before I get on to my questions, I will comment on the point that Miles Briggs made. The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee is doing an inquiry just now into neurodivergence. We had some parents in yesterday, and one of the issues that they were talking about was cross-agency support. The Royal College of Psychiatrists paper, which colleagues have probably seen, is very supportive of such support. Cabinet secretary, you mentioned the important issue of parents’ awareness, both of what is actually available and of their human rights. The committee will be reporting back on that. We must recognise the importance of health and where education sits in that regard.

I will talk about some broader issues. We are obviously getting close to an election—we can see that from the questioning today, which is what I would expect from Opposition colleagues. However, there are a couple of key things for me, and one is the context. We talked about difference that free tuition makes, and that is really important. We talked about child poverty, and we have the lowest rate in the UK, which is also really important. Another key thing for me is early learning, which we talked about earlier. I think that the funded hours are equivalent to around £6,000 per child. I remember my kids, who are now 32 and 28, having to go through that challenge with their kids, when nothing was available. It was really tough for a lot of families then, so the funded hours make a real difference.

There are two key points for me. One is what the budget does to expand early learning, which is incredibly important. It is still an issue that I hear about from constituents. The second point, which quite a few people have touched on today, is what the budget is doing in relation to whole family support more broadly. I know that there is a crossover with other budgets, but what are we doing with regard to whole family support?

We are talking about additional support needs for children, which impacts on families and the family dynamic. It is about early learning, but it is also about whole family support. I will come to the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise first.

There was a commitment to spend £500 million on whole family wellbeing and I know that that has not been fully spent. I also know that East Lothian was one of the recipients of the funding. What lessons about the whole family wellbeing fund can you take into the next session of Parliament? That is a key aspect of understanding why the budget has not been spent. Are there opportunities to say what lessons we will learn in taking the work forward?

You are spot on, because, as we have heard colleagues say, you can go to school or to a GP, and some will be aware of that duty and others will not be. That is a real issue.

Can I bring in Marion McLaughlin and then Carolyn Scott?

I am a member of the committee and the MSP for East Lothian.

When I met you guys, a key thing that came through in our discussion was the need for a multi-agency approach. I think that you are right to say that the Government needs to lead on that. Jim Crabb mentioned the fact that there is a postcode lottery, but even within the same school, some teachers have a better understanding of the issue than others, and within the health service, some doctors understand it better than others. Therefore, the issue also needs to be looked at from a health board and a local authority perspective.

Workforce planning is important, too. Do we have enough qualified people in this area, given that there has been an explosion in the number of people who are seeking treatment? If we do not, do we need to start planning to address that now? We can clearly see the restrictions that there are with regard to the waiting list, so do we need to look at workforce planning? If we are to deal with the issue properly, we can put guidelines and structures in place, but if we do not have the people in place, that will cause delay. Do you agree that it is important that workforce planning—in local authorities, in GP surgeries and in the services that you provide—is looked at?

We had witnesses from the Royal College of Psychiatrists in before you, and a couple of key things came up. I remember meeting with them previously, and they talked about the cross-agency approach. All the evidence that we have heard this morning shows that there is not one, single solution.

There are a couple of key questions. First, awareness in workplaces is incredibly important, and can be very mixed. Is legislation required on that, or are guidelines enough? We have legislation on various other issues, which employers should be picking up on.

My second question is about the broader issues. You mentioned the health and social care partnership, and we talked about shared care. The health and social care partnership is one example, but education is key as well. We heard that some of you got a diagnosis when you were in your 20s or 30s, but there are kids who are getting diagnosed earlier, so does more need to be done in education?

I do some work with an organisation called Stronger Together for Autism and Neurodivergence—STAND, too—which some of you might know about. It talks about awareness in schools. In schools, the picture can be very mixed. It depends very much on teachers’ awareness. There could be one teacher in a school who is very good, and another teacher in another classroom who does not understand the issues.

I suppose that that is about shared-agency working. Your outcome very much depends on who your employer is, what your school is and who your GP is, so we could pick that up and it could improve the situation for some people, but not others. Does that mean that we need legislation as well as investment into services?

That is an important point.

Last week, we were talking about the public sector equality duty, which is a duty on those in the public sector to make sure that there is equality in all their systems. I do not think that this area has been a focus. We have heard about figures that show that some 10 to 20 per cent of the population are neurodivergent. That is a huge amount of people. We might be able to influence how the things that we are talking about are embedded across those systems, either through legislation or the public sector equality duty. That is certainly a consideration that I will have when we talk about this in more detail.

12:15

Thank you—that is very helpful.