Neurodiversity: Ministerial Role

Graham Stuart Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Westminster Hall

[Graham Stuart (in the Chair)]

I will call Adam Dance to move the motion; I will then call the Minister to respond. I remind Members that they may make a speech only with prior permission from the Member in charge of the debate and from the Minister. As is the convention for 30-minute debates, there will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up. We will still have to finish strictly on time at 11.30 am.

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the potential merits of appointing a Minister for Neurodiversity.

About 20% of the population are what we would call neurodivergent, yet there is no one person working across Government Departments to ensure that the needs of this 20% are considered. Neurodivergence is an umbrella term that describes people who think, learn, process, inform and interact with the world differently from the normal. It captures both medical and non-medical differences, including attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, autism, dyslexia and so many others. I myself am very neurospicy, as I call it. Although each of those traits and learning difficulties is unique, we use the term not only because there are overlapping traits but because people with ADHD and autism, for example, share a lot of challenges with their health, school and work.

For years, the main challenge when it comes to Government has been an unacceptable lack of understanding of neurodivergence. Policymakers just have not got it and have made life harder, not better, for that 20% of the population. In fact, that lack of understanding is why I got involved in politics in the first place, campaigning to stop the closure of the youth club that helped to save my life when I was struggling with severe dyslexia, ADHD and severe bullying. It just made no sense to me that the Government and the then Conservative-run Somerset county council could not understand the damage they were doing by cutting youth service funding by 100% in Somerset, particularly for neurodiverse people.

Even after we saved my youth club, the feeling that decision makers just do not understand has followed me through politics. It is what drove me to stand for election and to be in this place today. For far too long, it has felt like the world has been set up by someone else, and like neurodiverse people are an afterthought.

--- Later in debate ---

[Adam Dance]

I thank the hon. Member for her intervention; I totally agree with you—

[Graham Stuart (in the Chair)]

Order.

[Adam Dance]

Sorry—I totally agree with the hon. Member. It is really good to have cross-party support. Just as the Prime Minister has argued that we need mayors as a force to drive change in local authorities’ areas, we need one person in Government to drive positive change on neurodiversity policy.

You are probably thinking, “Adam, that is all great, but how are you actually going to do it?” To put it simply, I am asking the Government to do three things: first, to make way for a new Minister by restructuring current posts or amending the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975 to expand the number of Ministers we can have; secondly, to give the new Minister funded statutory powers, by presenting Parliament with a cross-departmental strategy for neurodiversity that the Minister would be responsible for implementing, because this does not work if the Minister does not have teeth; and thirdly, to appoint a Minister for neurodiversity, which is probably the most difficult and political part of the whole process.

That is obviously easier said than done, but, as with most things, the answer is there: it just requires political willpower. Look at the new Minister for Artificial Intelligence post in the Cabinet Office. We see this time and again with Government: we are told, “Oh, that is too complicated,” or, “Oh, that wouldn’t be practical,” but then the public kick up a fuss, and, suddenly, it is not too difficult and can actually be done rather quickly. Let us not forget that this is about 20% of the public.

Obviously, though, the Minister today cannot snap her fingers and promise to do this—I would love it if she could. That is just not how this works, and I get that. Instead, I ask the Minister to commit today to starting the process by having civil servants review cross-departmental policy on neurodiversity and the merits of a neurodiversity Minister, and then to meeting me and campaigners to talk through the findings with us and hear our suggestions in more detail.

I know that this proposal is ambitious, but it is the lack of ambition on neurodiversity policy that has got us into this mess in the first place. It is only with bold action that we are going to make a difference, because I do not want to live in a country where the next generation of neurodiverse kids feel as I did when they tried to shut my youth club, and where decision makers just do not get it and just do not care. I thank everybody for listening.