In the weeks before this election, Bylines Scotland has written to the leaders of all the main parties contesting seats at Holyrood – the SNP, Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives, the Scottish Greens, the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and Reform UK – with the following 12 questions. Their responses, in full and unedited, will be published as they are received. We will also be noting, clearly and prominently, the responses that don’t arrive at all.
What we’re asking
- Adults seeking an ADHD assessment in NHS Lothian currently wait an average of 37.25 months, over three years. NHS Tayside children wait 154 weeks. Across nine health boards, over 23,000 adults are currently on waiting lists. What specific and cost commitment will your party make to reduce adult neurodevelopmental assessment waiting times in the next parliamentary term?
- Over 1.3 million adults in Scotland, nearly 30% of the adult population, cannot access any neurodevelopmental assessment through the NHS at all, with several board areas having closed their lists entirely. What will your party do to ensure universal adult access to assessment across all NHS board areas, and by what date?
- A private ADHD assessment in Scotland costs between £1,500 and £2,500. However, virtually no NHS boards in Scotland now offer shared care agreements, meaning that even those who can afford a private diagnosis cannot access NHS medication on the basis of it. The NHS will not prescribe ADHD medication without an NHS diagnosis. Is this policy defensible, and what will your party do to change it?
- An undiagnosed young person with suspected ADHD in Scotland is currently blocked from accessing Disabled Students’ Allowance through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, blocked from reasonable adjustments in college examinations, and blocked from NHS medication, all because they cannot get an NHS assessment. Given that waiting lists now stretch to five years in some areas, what is your party’s response to this systematic exclusion from education support?
- The learning disabilities, autism and neurodivergence bill was delayed by the Scottish Government in 2024, with organisations such as People First describing the decision as leaving them “unheard”. Will your party commit to introducing and passing LDAN legislation within the first year of the next parliamentary term? If not, why not?
- The employment rate for autistic adults is just 31%, compared with 54.7% for all disabled people. The Buckland Review of Autism Employment found that 25% of autistic employees are refused reasonable workplace adjustments outright (Buckland Review, February 2024). What specific and enforceable measures will your party introduce to close the neurodivergent employment gap?
- Public bodies, including councils and NHS boards, routinely fail neurodivergent adults by treating medical needs as personal preferences and designing services entirely around neurotypical communication and behaviour. What enforcement mechanisms will your party introduce to ensure public bodies genuinely comply with their existing duties under the Equality Act 2010?
- Many neurodivergent adults cannot use standard GP appointment systems, including phone-only booking, unpredictable callback windows, and lack of advance notice, and as a direct result go without primary healthcare for extended periods. What will your party do to make primary care genuinely accessible to neurodivergent patients?
- Disability Equality Scotland wrote to all Scottish party leaders before this election requesting commitments on accessible and inclusive election campaigning. Not one party replied (Disability Equality Scotland, January 2026). Why did your party not respond, and what will you now commit to in terms of making your campaigning, communications, and Holyrood itself accessible to neurodivergent people?
- In a single, specific sentence, not a general aspiration, what is the single most important action the next Scottish Parliament must take for neurodivergent adults in Scotland?
- Scotland passed the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act in June 2022, nearly four years ago. Yet its key provisions, including the consumer licensing system and restrictions on days of sale and use, have still not been implemented, repeatedly delayed on budget grounds (SPICe, October 2024). For neurodivergent people, veterans with PTSD, and many others, unpredictable explosive noise isn’t an inconvenience. It’s a genuine and serious harm. Why has your party accepted four years of inaction on legislation that Holyrood itself passed? If elected, will you commit to a specific date for full implementation?
- Currently, a neurodivergent person whose rights are ignored by a public body, a council, an NHS board, or a benefits agency has only one realistic avenue: raise a formal complaint, be ignored or fobbed off, escalate, threaten legal action under the Equality Act, and hope a senior manager eventually intervenes. This process is exhausting, intimidating, and entirely inaccessible to many of the people it’s supposed to protect. It also places the entire burden of enforcement on the individual least equipped to bear it. Would your party support the creation of a dedicated, accessible, and properly funded body with statutory powers to investigate and enforce the rights of neurodivergent people with public bodies in Scotland, removing the need for individuals to fight legal battles simply to have their basic needs acknowledged?
We’re not broken, we never were
After I left school at 14, after every institution had given up on me, I discovered something remarkable. Freed from environments built for a kind of mind I didn’t have, I could finally think. I read voraciously and obsessively, following whatever captivated me, one day deep in Imperial Russian history and the scandal of Anna Karenina, the next somewhere else entirely. I wasn’t broken. I’d never been broken. I’d simply been in the wrong rooms, assessed by the wrong measures, punished for the wrong things.
There are hundreds of thousands of people like me in Scotland, adults who grew up without diagnosis, without support, without anyone asking the right questions, and who have spent their adult lives navigating a society that still, in too many crucial respects, isn’t asking those questions. They’re not asking for special treatment. They’re asking for a society that recognises them as they actually are, rather than as a problem to be managed until it goes away.
Whether Scotland’s politicians have the knowledge, the courage, and the political will to do any of that is what we’re asking. They have until 7 May to start proving it.
A note for fellow survivors
Writing this article led me to discover something I hadn’t known. Harmeny Education Trust, which took over the running of Harmeny School from Save the Children in December 1995, is a contributor to Scotland’s Redress Scheme, the Scottish Government’s formal scheme providing financial redress to survivors of historical child abuse in care. On the Scottish Government’s own website, Harmeny Education Trust states: “We offer our unreserved and sincere apologies to anyone who suffered abuse or harm while in our care.”
If you experienced abuse in a residential care setting in Scotland before 1 December 2004, when you were under 18, you may be eligible to apply. The scheme covers physical, sexual, emotional abuse, and neglect. It covers residential schools, children’s homes, hospitals providing long-term residential care, and other similar settings. The standard of proof is the balance of probabilities, not the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt. The guidance explicitly states that panels must begin by presuming that what an applicant says is true. The absence of records or witnesses is not a barrier to applying.
Payments range from £10,000 to £100,000. Free legal advice and support are available to applicants. You apply through the Scottish Government. Be aware that accepting a payment means agreeing not to pursue legal action against the contributing organisations, so it is worth taking legal advice before you apply.
You can find out more and start an application at redress.scot or mygov.scot/apply-for-scotlands-redress-scheme. You can also speak to a caseworker at the Scottish Government who will help you through the process.
You were believed then. You are believed now.
Jason Boyd is a freelance WordPress developer, writer and political commentator living in Whitburn, West Lothian. He is autistic and physically disabled.
Party leaders and candidates are invited to respond to the survey questions above by emailing editor@bylines.scot. All responses will be published in full and unedited.
Bylines Network Gazette is out!
The latest Bylines Network Gazette is out now. Become a Friend of Bylines Network or upgrade to a paid Substack subscription, and you will get access to a vital collection of citizen articles and stories.
Journalism by the people, for the people.
