Health and Care Bill

Debate between Lord Warner and Baroness Watkins of Tavistock

Committee stage
Wednesday 9th February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Warner (CB)]

My Lords, I rise briefly to speak in support of this amendment. I declare my interest as a vice-chairman of the All-Party Group on Autism and the grandfather of a child with very serious autism. In particular, I want to emphasise a point which I think I have made before in this Chamber about the problems of achieving a diagnosis. You achieve a diagnosis when people start to recognise the problems that a young person is suffering from. Carers do not get any kind of services until there is a recognition of the condition by people in the different agencies.

I thoroughly support this amendment, because it would put on a statutory basis the need to improve training for a range of people who are likely to come in contact with the family from time to time, so that they are on the lookout for this condition, which, I can tell the Committee, can be very disruptive to family life and very difficult to deal with. The people who are carers of young people with autism have a terribly difficult job and a tremendously difficult road to travel. So the more help we can give clinicians and professionals in recognising the condition and bringing help to these families, the better.

[Baroness Watkins of Tavistock (CB)]

My Lords, I too support this amendment, which is absolutely in tune with reducing health inequalities for a particular section of our population and should be warmly supported across the House.