Who we are

NDAS is a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and practitioners united by a common goal – to provide the highest quality autism assessments for individuals across Scotland and beyond.

Established in 2003 with support from the Scottish Government, NDAS was the first all-age autism assessment service operating at a national level in Scotland, offering first and second opinion assessments' for children, adolescents, and adults. The service was provided through Scottish Autism in Alloa until April 2022, when it was established as an independent national enterprise operating from our premises in the centre of Glasgow.

Since then, our drive to make high-quality autism assessment the norm in Scotland has only grown. We’ve expanded our team of experts, allowing us to reach even more individuals who need our services, and provided over a thousand assessments for adults and children across Scotland, the wider UK, and even internationally, with some travelling specifically for our expertise. In addition to individual assessments, we have continued to support the NHS through strategic partnerships that help reduce waiting times for local authorities, as well as offering urgent assessments for courts and other organisations in need of specialist input for complex cases.

At NDAS, the patient is at the heart of everything we do. We are proud to be Scotland’s trusted national service for autism, delivering compassionate, reliable assessments for those who need us most.

We take a distinctive approach to autism assessments. Unlike some services, where a single individual conducts the evaluation, every one of our assessments is carried out by a fully qualified, three-person multidisciplinary team with expertise across a range of clinical and educational specialisms. While other services may claim to offer a multidisciplinary approach, in reality, only one or two professionals may be involved in the actual assessment.

As a nationally recognised service that also trains other regional and local services, we hold ourselves to the highest standards. Every member of our team is selected for their exceptional expertise, and all have achieved national or international recognition in autism research, clinical practice, or policy development.

Our assessments are universally accepted across a wide range of settings, including the NHS, education services, insurance companies, and both civil and criminal courts. Due to our expertise, we are often called upon to reassess previous diagnoses that fall short of meeting the criteria required by these institutions. At NDAS, you can be confident that your diagnosis will meet global standards and be recognised everywhere.

Our leadership

Our team is led by Tommy MacKay, widely regarded as one of the UK’s most accomplished and highly-honoured psychologists, as well as a globally recognised leader in autism research and clinical practice. Described by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown as ‘a visionary and an inspiration’, he has played a transformative role in shaping autism understanding, assessment, and policy.

A former president of the British Psychological Society, his credentials include co-founding the National Centre for Autism Studies, advising the Scottish Government through the Autism Reference Group, and serving as a Visiting Professor in autism studies at the University of Strathclyde. He is qualified and chartered as an Educational and Child Psychologist, a Health Psychologist, a Clinical Neuropsychologist, a Teacher in Psychology, a Researcher in Psychology, an Accredited Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapist and a Chartered Scientist. He is a Founder Member of the Faculty of Paediatric Neuropsychology and of the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology.

Among a number of awards, he is the recipient of the British Psychological Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Professional Psychology, and the national Award for Challenging Inequality of Opportunity for ‘outstanding achievements’ in challenging discrimination in relation to ‘gender, race, language, disability and, most particularly, socio-economic status’.