Shaping policies that impact neurodivergent people

Last September, we were pleased to join a ‘roundtable’ discussion, led by Parenting across Scotland, of third-sector organisations and people with lived experience seeking to improve outcomes for parent-carers and those they support. Last month, we co-published a briefing paper that highlights an important yet under-represented policy area – parenting with adults.

Some of the recommendations made in the paper include:

• Research should be commissioned that identifies the number of parents providing significant support for their adult children in Scotland, the issues they experience and their support needs.
• Parenting adults needs its own emphasis within national policy, whether that is within the National Carers Strategy and/or National Parenting Strategy.
• Parents of adults should be supported to understand and access their rights and the rights of their adult child(ren).
• There must be increased emphasis on early intervention.
• More support is required for adult children and parents. Access to holistic and person-centred services should be determined by need.
• A key worker should be identified for each family to navigate the system for / with parents.

You can access the full briefing paper below.