Services for People with Autism

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Care (Caroline Dinenage)]

I would like to start by adding my voice to those paying tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan). It is thanks to her pioneering autism private Member’s Bill that we now have an adult autism strategy. This year, it will be 10 years since that Bill passed into legislation as the Autism Act—10 years during which she has been the most fantastic, steadfast and passionate champion for autism and autistic people. I think that I speak on behalf of the whole House when I say that we all send our love and our thoughts both to her and her loved one.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman) for so beautifully representing my right hon. Friend and her words today, and indeed all the other Members who have contributed to the debate, as well as the Backbench Business Committee for selecting it, particularly in the run-up to World Autism Awareness Week next month. Several Members have made some excellent points. I will try to get on to as many of them as possible in the time allowed, but I will write to anybody I miss out.

Much progress has been made to improve the lives of autistic people since the first cross-Government autism strategy. There is now improved diagnosis and greater awareness, and more organisations are ensuring that they make reasonable adjustments. However, 10 years on, it is very clear that there is still so much more that we can do to ensure that public services meet the needs of autistic people. The autism strategy was updated in 2014, but this year we are undertaking a comprehensive review, “Think Autism”, to ensure that it remains fit for purpose. As the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) pointed out, it is so important that young people and their families feel supported. We want our autism strategy to work for autistic people of all ages, and that is why, working closely with the Department for Education, we will be extending our strategy to include children. That refreshed cross-Government strategy will be published towards the end of this year.

People with a learning disability and autistic people continue to face significant health inequalities. This must be addressed. It is absolutely that right that learning disability and autism are both now clinical priorities in the NHS long-term plan. Autistic people must be at the heart of any improvements we make to their care and support. That is why last week the Government launched a national call for evidence to hear the views of autistic people, their families and their carers, as well as those of professionals. We want to know what is working, but also what needs to be done to transform care and support. In the week since that call for evidence, we have already had 875 responses. I would urge hon. Members across the House to share our call for evidence in their constituencies and via their social media networks.

I am delighted that so many Members across the House have taken the opportunity to highlight some of the amazing work and fantastic organisations in their communities. Autism-friendly communities such as the one in Bodmin that my hon. Friend the Member for North Cornwall (Scott Mann) spoke about—he wins the prize for the most intriguingly named constituent: Tigger Pritchard—sound like a way to support people much better.

As many Members have said, raising awareness is not enough. It is acting on that awareness that makes a real difference. We recently launched a consultation on mandatory training on learning disability and autism for health and care staff and will report the findings in the summer. Crucially, that applies to not only medical professionals but all health and care staff. For example, we all know that a negative encounter with a receptionist or front of house staff can immeasurably change our experience or perception of services. Work is under way in other sectors such as education, employment, prisons and transport to raise awareness of autism and adjust services to make them more accessible.

The hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) and many others talked about the importance of early identification and timely and accurate diagnosis of autism. No one should have to face a long wait for an autism diagnosis, but we hear far too often that the NICE recommendation of a wait of no more than three months is exceeded. There is a geographical disparity, and this postcode lottery must end. The NHS long-term plan commits to testing and implementing the most effective ways to reduce those waiting times. Critically, we are collecting data to support that, which will be published later this year for the first time. This will mean that each area can be held to account and action can be taken.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Trudy Harrison) said, it is not just getting a timely diagnosis that matters but having timely information, support and services after that. This summer there will be new and improved guidance for health and care commissioners and a best practice toolkit, to improve diagnosis and post-diagnosis services for autistic people. Health Education England is also developing an autism core skills and competency framework for health and care staff and staff in organisations with public-facing responsibilities.

My hon. Friend the Member for Dudley South (Mike Wood) and a number of other Members highlighted the particular challenges that autistic children face in schools. My hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle said that children have to fail before they get the support they need, and that is why including children and young people in the autism strategy for the first time is so important.

The SEND reforms that the Government introduced were intended to support all young people to achieve their potential in education. Since 2014, we have invested £391 million to help implement those reforms, but we know that there is more to do. We have funded the Autism Education Trust to provide autism awareness training for more than 195,000 school and college staff—not just teachers, but administrators and support workers—which I hope will go some way to helping diagnose women and girls, who we know are very much under-represented in the diagnosis statistics. We also know that a disproportionate number of autistic children are excluded from school; my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley South mentioned that. Edward Timpson is currently reviewing how schools use exclusions, so that we can better understand why that is the case and what we can do about it.

The hon. Member for Bristol West (Thangam Debbonaire) and many other Members highlighted the need to do more to support autistic people into employment. It is a lost opportunity all round that only a relatively small number of autistic people are in work either full time or part time. Through the Disability Confident scheme, we are helping employers to promote the talents and abilities of autistic people, and Access to Work has a hidden impairments group that gives guidance to employers.

My hon. Friend the Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster) spoke about the huge value of these people in the workplace. My hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Anne-Marie Trevelyan) told me something I did not know—that autism spectrum automatically disbars someone from the military. I will be raising that with the Minister for the Armed Forces, not least because I fear her infinitely more than I fear the Minister.

My hon. Friend the Member for North Cornwall, the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) and many others spoke about some of the tragic cases where autistic individuals have not received the right care and support in mental health in-patient settings. We are committed to learning from those and working harder than ever to improve how care and support is provided. Some people will need access to time-limited in-patient services, but this should be as close to home as possible for as short a time as possible, with discharge plans in place. When people do need to go into hospital, they must be safe from harm and abuse, and they should never be subject to inappropriate or restrictive practices.

The hon. Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) and my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell) spoke about improving the criminal justice system. In the initial police learning and development programme, police officers are already given training, and many police forces have developed their own. Liaison and diversion schemes are being rolled out with 100% coverage expected by 2021. My hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed also spoke about how autism should not be classed as a mental disorder. We will be keeping this very closely under review, as she made a very good point.

The Government are fully committed to improving the lives of autistic people, but there is much more to be done, and Autism Awareness Week is a great reminder of that. Our refreshed cross-Government autism strategy, which we will publish later this year, will help to deliver this and provide the route map for the years ahead.