Written question WQ83012

The Welsh Government is committed to ensuring that all children with a neurodevelopmental condition including Tourette’s syndrome have access to the services and care they need. I am aware that each neurodevelopmental (ND) condition brings challenges for children and adults and their parents and carers.

To help to ensure that children and their families get the support they need in a straightforward and timely way, the Together for Children and Young People Programme has been working to develop the NEST/NYTH Framework in Wales. The Framework is a planning tool to assist the development of a whole systems approach for all children and young people with mental health and neurodevelopmental needs. This will help to ensure children are referred to the correct service and receive early support and help at the right time. The neurodevelopmental work stream of the Programme is supporting the roll out of the Framework across Regional Partnership Boards.

We are aware that the demand for assessment and diagnosis of all neurodevelopmental conditions continues to increase. COVID-19 has also added to these pressures. We have committed to undertaking a review of all age neurodevelopmental services and this work commenced in February this year. The review will take a whole systems approach to understand the current situation across the seven regions of Wales, including identifying the demand, capacity and design of neurodevelopmental services for children, young people and adults. The review is due to be completed by March 2022, and the final report will include options for future service improvement to create sustainable services.

We have also recently published our Code of Practice on the Delivery of Autism Services and this has given us a solid foundation from which we can consider the wider needs of the neurodiverse population. The lessons we have learned from developing this Code of Practice will also inform our plans for developing sustainable needs based neurodevelopmental services across Wales.