Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee session evidence relating to private ADHD assessment: FOI release

Information requested

“Please provide all information held by the Scottish Government, from 1 January 2023 onwards, relating to private ADHD assessment standards and/or quality assurance during ongoing shared care arrangements with GP practices. This request includes, but is not limited to:

all correspondence (including emails, letters, and attachments) which were received from or sent to:

• the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCCP),
• the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP),
• Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS),
• Care Quality Commission (CQC),
• the General Medical Council (GMC), and/or
• any health board;
• minutes, notes, and action logs from any meetings held between Scottish Government officials (including medical officers and advisors) with the RCCP, RCP, HIS, GMC and/or any health board.
• Please provide all evidence, briefing notes, or reports which formed the basis of the following statements made by Mr. Robby Steel (Principal Medical Officer) during the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee session on 24th February 2026:
• “…the argument being that those who can afford a private assessment will get the opportunity to jump the queue because of the strain on the shared care protocol. For example, once medicine has been prescribed for ADHD, a person’s blood pressure needs to be monitored and repeated assessment is needed to see whether they are still benefiting from it or whether it is causing more harm than good— that particularly applies to children, because it has an effect on growth potential. If people who can afford a private assessment jump into that limited resource for follow-up, they can inadvertently end up blocking those who cannot afford it.”
• “...the problem with shared care is that GPs who are asked to prescribe a medication in which they are not experts understandably want the clinical reassurance that, if they request a specialist review, they will know whether the person still needs the medicine, whether the correct assessments were made of the person’s physical health before they started it and so on. Although that can be arranged through a shared care arrangement with the specialist provision in your health board, it is much more difficult to get that agreement with a private provider.”

In case it is helpful, the aspects of these statements that we are particularly interested in are:

• details of the “queue” Mr Steel referring to;
• whether there is an assumption that shared care arrangements with private providers expect the GP or other NHS service to do this ongoing monitoring (hence the reference to “limited resource for follow- up”;
• whether there is any evidence that GP practices in shared care arrangements with private providers have been unable to, or have any evidence to substantiate a concern that they will be unable to, request the specialist reviews with the private providers;
• the basis upon which it is more difficult to get agreement with a private provider (especially given that the whole point of a shared care arrangement is that it is an agreement between the GP and the private provider).”

Response

I enclose copies of the information we hold that falls within scope of your request. This consists of 16 documents, including emails, letters, and briefing material.

Some information has been removed because it is out of scope of your request. This includes material within email chains or attachments that does not relate to private ADHD assessments, shared care arrangements, or the statements referenced in your request.

The Scottish Government does not hold recorded information relating to the specific points raised about the statements made by Mr Robby Steel at the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on 24 February 2026. These points sought clarification or explanation of comments made during oral evidence, but no recorded information exists that addresses these matters. I therefore give notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the information is not held.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the minutes of the Neurodevelopmental Summit held on 2 March 2026 because this information is intended for publication within 12 weeks. This means that the exemption at section 27(1) (information intended for future publication) of FOISA applies.

Some information has been redacted because it is personal data of individuals who are not senior public officials. This includes names and contact details of Scottish Government staff below Senior Civil Service level, and personal data of individuals in external organisations. This information has been withheld under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202600509859 - Information Released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

1.1 MB