Many of you reading this post are likely to be former users of the Pines website, which aimed to support families, practitioners, and educators who wanted to learn about neurodevelopmental differences. What you probably don’t know, though, is the most amazing part of it – that the Pines website was created, planned, and maintained as a voluntary exercise, with contributions from professionals who saw the need for such a space and then gave their time, energy, and expertise to make it happen.  

Over time, the Pines website became an integral tool for professionals, families, and individuals in the Scottish Highlands (and far beyond!). By bringing together information on neurodivergence from related disciplines, creating and presenting training sessions, and offering opportunities for parents to learn useful strategies, the people behind the Pines website made sure they were giving out the best info possible to everyone who needed it. Providing that support for so long, to so many, is the Pines website’s great legacy.

Unfortunately, due to changes in funding and available resources, the Pines website ceased to exist in September 2025; the need for support in understanding neurodevelopmental differences, however, did not. If anything, the need for that support has only increased as pressures on statutory services have increased over the past decade. Recognising that there would be a significant hole left by the Pines website ceasing, many of the partners involved with it worked to build a new space that would meet the current day need. That is how the Highland ND Hub was born.

Those of you who were faithful Pines website fans will notice that the Highland ND Hub is more than just a new skin on the original Pines website. This is purposeful: the landscape we are in today is a very different one, logistically and methodologically, to the one that the Pines website was built to serve. The past five years alone have seen significant advancements in academic understanding, professional practice, and the inclusion of lived experience as a trusted source of worthwhile learning. Additionally, with the current lengthy wait times for requesting and receiving neurodevelopmental assessment, the type and breadth of information that is needed by families particularly is very different.

So, what are the differences, you ask? Here is a quick rundown:

• The focus of the ND Hub is very tightly on understanding neurodivergence from an affirming perspective.
• The tighter focus meant deciding what was out of scope for that objective – in other words, what information wasn’t specifically about understanding and supporting neurodivergence. Any information that is more general or covered elsewhere has therefore not been included (ex., the purpose of a Child’s Plan; when you need a Coordinated Support Plan; ASL legislation; encouraging exercise in children, etc.).
• Information has been tailored to our three primary audiences so that, whatever your role, you have information that is accessible and useful. Part of this was building the long-wanted and frequently-requested Child and Young Person section.
• To ensure they are easy to find, all of the Resources, including things like visual support tools, are housed together in one multi-searchable and filterable database.
• More in-depth concepts are explained in the Quick Start Guide documents rather than on webpages, allowing people to download them and take as much time with them as they need.
• A Language Guide, available both as a webpage and as a PDF download, discusses the differences between Medical Model terminology and Social Model terminology, as this is a fundamental concept in neuro-affirming methodology.
• There is a very thorough, searchable Glossary of all the terms everyone would most need to know while learning about neuro-affirming language and practice.
• The services that contributed to the Pines website (Speech & Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Child Health & Disability, etc) are still represented under the ‘Our Partners’ section, with contact details for getting materials directly from them.
• Because people frequently ask for clarification on what services are available in their local area, a searchable Local Services page has been added as a key feature.  
• Our other Frequently Asked Questions have been answered in a new FAQ page so that you have the answers you need without having to wait for the right person to get back to you.
• A Highland ND Hub Facebook Page has been created (please go and Like it!) so we can share with everyone relevant new information as widely and in as timely a fashion as possible.

One significant difference that folks are likely to notice is that the Hub doesn’t have a Training calendar. This isn’t because the Pines website has gone, though; it is due to staffing changes that mean the professionals who usually provide these services are not available to do them at this time. It is our great hope that that will change, but, for the foreseeable future, there isn’t capacity amongst the individuals upon whom that training depends. You can still find recordings of previous training sessions on the Pines YouTube channel.

If there’s something related to understanding neurodivergence that you think is missing, please drop us a note (from the Contact form on the Home page) to let us know. Our only aim is to do everything we can to serve the needs of the neurodivergent community in the Highlands. We hope that you will join us while we do that.