Children and young people - National Neurodevelopmental Specification: implementation review report

Financial Context

In December 2024, the Scottish Government set out its spending and tax plans for 2025-26. The Scottish Government has committed to investing £21.7 billion for Health and Social Care, including £16.2 billion for health boards. Of this, approximately £1.5 billion^[1] is expected to be invested in mental health services, including neurodevelopmental services. The 2025-26 Budget will also deliver funding of over £15 billion for local authorities.

Complementing direct allocations in this financial year, the Scottish Government will provide £123.5 million to health boards and Integrated Joint Boards (IJBs) under the Mental Health Enhanced Outcomes Framework. This offers a single, flexible funding stream for NHS boards and IJBs, providing flexibility in how they configure and organise mental health services, including neurodevelopmental services, to deliver better outcomes to meet the needs of their local populations.

However, whilst there has been significant investment, the public sector continues to operate in a challenging fiscal environment. There are widespread, substantial funding and capacity challenges across the public sector that impact delivery of services. Further consideration needs to be given to the resource required across partners to effectively deliver the Specification. As we consider this, it is important to ensure that existing investment is effectively targeted to best deliver sustainable and high-impact services and support. As noted in the joint Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the duty of Best Value applies to Scottish Government, local authorities and all public bodies in Scotland and is relevant both to new programmes of work and to how we use existing funding in the system to improve performance and outcomes.