I should say at the outset that many of the action points on supporting children and young people with autism that you outline in your email are the responsibility of the Scottish Government. Autism is a national priority for the SNP Scottish Government, and we have developed and created a new Scottish Strategy for Autism is to ensure that progress is made across Scotland in delivering quality services in a holistic, joined-up approach. This includes steps to improve diagnosis and assessment, to create consistent service standards, to match resources to need and to underpin this with appropriate research and training opportunities, harnessing these to develop a national ten year autism strategy which addresses the entire autism spectrum and the whole lifespan of people living with ASD in Scotland.
There are also some good examples of work being done in our communities to improve life for people with autism. For example, the National Autistic Society and Aberdeenshire Council launched a new partnership, seeking to make Aberdeenshire Scotland’s first ‘autism-friendly local authority’. In April 2015, the Scottish Parliament became the first public building in Scotland to get an Autism Access Award.
While we recognise that there is still a lot more that we can do together to improve the lives of people with autism in Scotland, it is very clear that positive things are beginning to happen and are benefiting families. I am confident that with our continued good work we can achieve our outcomes through innovation and improvement.