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Long waits for neurodevelopmental support are unacceptable. Health boards and children’s services partners are responsible for working together to ensure that children and families receive support and access to services that meet their needs at the earliest opportunity. To support this, we have provided almost £250,000 in 2024-25 to fund a range of individual projects to improve neurodevelopmental assessment and support for children and young people. This includes nearly £54,000 for services in the Lothian area.

We have also directly allocated £123.5 million to NHS Boards and IJBs for the Enhanced Mental Health Outcomes Framework. The Framework provides a single, flexible funding stream to support continued improvements and better outcomes across a range of mental health and psychological services in line with the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy including neurodevelopmental services for both adults and children.

We are also continuing to work with Health Boards and local authorities to improve our understanding current levels of need and the level of support children and young people currently receive, and how this could be used to support improvements for children and families.

For adults, we have commissioned the National Autism Implementation Team to support NHS Boards to develop, enhance and redesign adult neurodevelopmental services. Our £1 million Autism Support Fund for Adults funds organisations that support people with ADHD, especially where this co-occurs with autism.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to update planning guidance for local authorities on unlisted buildings and building preservation notices. Section 3 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 already sets out that a planning authority may serve a building preservation notice if it appears to them that an unlisted building is of special architectural or historic interest and is in danger of demolition or of alteration in such a way as to affect its character as a building of such interest. It also sets out that the planning authority will request Historic Environment Scotland to consider listing the building that is subject to a building preservation notice.

There is no data available on the use of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scans (DEXA) for the diagnosis of obesity in NHS Scotland.

While DEXA scans provide detailed body composition analysis, they are not routinely recommended for obesity diagnosis in clinical practice.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends using BMI as a practical measure of obesity. However, BMI is not a direct measure of central adiposity – the accumulation of fat around the abdominal area. BMI can overestimate and underestimate the presence of excess body fat.

In adults with a BMI below 35, measuring waist-to-height ratio and BMI, gives a better estimate of body fat. These measurements help to assess and predict health risks.

As part of the process to determine applications made under Section 36 and 37 of the Electricity Act 1989, consultees are asked by the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) to provide comment on the contents of gate checks. The purpose of a gate check is to set out how comments made by consultees and Scottish Ministers in the scoping opinion are to be addressed by the applicant and taken forward in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, should an application be submitted. Application documents, including EIA reports, are publicly available on the ECU portal: https://www.energyconsents.scot/ApplicationSearch.aspx

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of supported accommodation places that are available.

Supported accommodation is provided by a range of providers, including local authorities, the third sector, and the independent sector. The number of places available will be known locally by partnerships or health boards.

Whilst evidence shows that people feel more able to talk openly about their mental health, we know there is more work to do in tackling stigma and discrimination in relation to complex, severe, and enduring mental illness and we all have a role to play.

This work remains a key priority for the Scottish Government, which is why our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy sets out a vision for a Scotland, free from stigma, discrimination and inequality. This is also reflected across our strategy Delivery Plan, Suicide Prevention Strategy, Self-Harm Strategy and Mental Health Workforce Action Plan.

Key actions include:

• Providing £5 million funding over 5 years since 2021 to See Me as our key delivery partner on tackling mental health stigma and discrimination to work with a range of other partners to drive forward anti-stigma and discrimination action.
• Investing £66 million since 2021 in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults, which includes a focus on supporting those with mental illness. We are also working with the National Rural Mental Health Forum and SAMH’s The Changing Room: Extra Time programme to reduce stigma and discrimination, including in disadvantaged areas.
• Working nationally to raise awareness and reduce mental health stigma through our Mind to Mind, Parent Club Young Scot and Aye Feel campaigns and resources for adults and young people.
• Working in partnership with Public Health Scotland and See Me to support employers to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination in the workplace and to promote mentally healthy workplaces.

The £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP), in collaboration with local authorities, commenced in 2021 and will deliver 47 school infrastructure projects across Scotland. The LEIP builds on the success of the £1.8bn Scotland's Schools for the Future Programme, which completed in 2021, and delivered 117 school infrastructure projects.

In the current parliamentary session to date, the Scottish Government has distributed a cumulative amount of £13.6m through the LEIP in revenue grant payments to projects that are open to pupils. For those open projects, we expect this to total £24m by the end of this parliamentary session.

The outline business case estimated costs at £1.3 billion. Design and expected costs will be confirmed as part of the Full Business Case (FBC) submission which is expected in late 2025- early 2026. The 2025-26 budget provides funding to support development of the FBC. Funding for construction is not allocated until the business case process is complete; this ensures appropriate due diligence of major capital projects.

It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to manage their school estate, therefore, school design is ultimately a matter for them.

However, our Learning Estate Strategy - which was produced in collaboration with COSLA - underpins the £2bn Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP), and its guiding principles make clear that learning environments should support the wellbeing of all learners and meet varying needs to support inclusion.

All LEIP projects were announced prior to the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s recommendations being published. To date, 10 projects are complete, 17 are in construction and the remainder are in development.

Guidance is currently being developed with a wide range of stakeholders, and is planned to be applicable to both existing and future projects either within the LEIP or across the learning estate as a whole. This guidance is expected to be published before the end of this year and, in the interim, local authorities can reference a publicly accessible standard which is titled: Design for the Mind – Neurodiversity and the Built Environment.

Communications were discussed in detail at the ASL Project Board’s meeting on 30 January 2025 when the Project Board agreed to engage Enquire to draft a communications strategy.

It is anticipated that the strategy being produced by Enquire will focus on bespoke clear, key messages for a range of different audiences including children and young people, parents and carers. The work will also recommend bespoke communications channels for each audience.

Regular updates on the progress of the strategy will be provided to the ASL project Board. Further information, is available on the ASL Project Board’s dedicated Scottish Government webpage at: https://www.gov.scot/groups/additional-support-for-learning-project-board/.