Autism

Cheryl Gillan Excerpts

Thursday 29th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dame Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House notes that World Autism Awareness Week 2018 runs from 26 March to 2 April; believes that there is a lack of understanding of the needs of autistic people and their families; and calls on the Government to improve the support provided to autistic children in school and to autistic adults in or seeking employment, to reduce waiting times for autism diagnosis, and to promote a public awareness campaign so people can make the changes necessary for the UK to become autism-friendly.

I welcome to the Front Bench the Minister for Care, who will be responding to the debate. I gather that she chaired an autism accountability meeting on Monday, so she brings knowledge of that to the debate, and I look forward to hearing what she has to say. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate during World Autism Awareness Week itself.

I want to put on record my great pride at chairing the all-party group on autism, which is a really good cross-party group that embraces people from both sides of the Chamber. It is important that we continue this debate on a cross-party basis because, as we must remind ourselves, in each Member’s constituency we probably have approximately 1,000 autistic people. The accepted statistic is about one in 100 people. This is therefore a subject that we share between us, and one on which we can make good progress when we all work together.

I am also aware that many Members have family members who are on the autism spectrum. I wish to put on record my thanks to colleagues who have shared their own experiences, because those experiences add to the body of knowledge and to the effective way in which we can improve situations for people with autism and their families.

The fact that this is such an important issue is reflected particularly in the National Autistic Society’s Too Much Information campaign, with which many of us will be familiar. Only 16% of autistic people and their family members think that the public really understand autism in any meaningful way. As a result, an alarming number of people—79% of autistic people and 70% of families—feel socially isolated. At a time when our Prime Minister has put in place a Minister for loneliness, we must not forget the isolation that can be caused for autistic people through behaviour or a lack of understanding in this area. Half of autistic people and their families sometimes do not even go out because they are worried about how people will react to autism, while 28% of autistic people have been asked to leave a public space because of behaviour associated with their autism.

[Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab)]

Does the right hon. Lady agree that the situation is also very frustrating for those who fail to get a diagnosis of autism, particularly when their local authority is not able to provide one, or says that it does not have the resources to do so? Even if a person pays privately for one, the local authority will not accept that as a diagnosis.

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[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

The hon. Gentleman makes a valid point, and I will come on to diagnosis a bit later in my speech.

May I put it on record that while many people associate autism with mental health, it is in fact a developmental condition—a lifelong developmental condition—and not necessarily a mental health condition? Autistic people are as likely to suffer from a mental health problem as anybody else—any neurotypical person. I really want to make sure that nobody in this House ever confuses that, and I hope that that puts the record straight.

I wish to touch on the Autism Act 2009. Almost 10 years ago, I was very privileged to draw No. 1 in the ballot for private Members’ Bills and then to take through the Bill that became that Act. We are coming up to the 10th anniversary of the Act, which is really important. A key element of the Act was to mandate the Government to produce an adult autism strategy, and the 10-year anniversary will coincide with a year in which that strategy is up for review. The all-party group is working towards holding to account every Government Department involved, and making sure that their feet are held to the fire, because this affects almost every area of public life and public policy. Ahead of the review, I want all areas of our Government to consider how they can better support people with autism and people on the autism spectrum.

It is also important to look at the good that that Act has done. Almost 10 years on, the National Autistic Society had a look at this, and it is worth reflecting on the fact that autism really is on the agenda now for an awful lot of people, and locally as well. Almost everyone is aware of autism. NAS polling showed that 99.5% of people were aware of autism, and almost every council—93% of them—has an autism lead.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

The right hon. Lady does the House a great service by bringing forward this debate on autism. Can she tell me—perhaps she does not have the figures—about employers’ attitude to employing people with autism? Are there any statistics on that?

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

The hon. Gentleman anticipates another bit of my speech. That is really important, because people with autism are disproportionately not being taken off the unemployment register. In fact only yesterday, with the all-party group for disability, I had a joint meeting with the Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills to look at the problems and consider how, working with employers’ organisations and the Government, we can try to improve the situation.

More councils now include autism in their joint strategic needs assessment, and almost every local area has a diagnostic pathway—those that do not will know who they are, but all but three are covered. That is really significant progress, but let us face it there is not a person in the House who does not know that we need to make more progress in this area, so I do not say that with any sense of complacency whatsoever.

I want to touch on a few areas, but I have only limited time. I have been very impressed by the number of Members on both sides of the House who have put in to speak, and it is really important that I hear from them.

I will start by talking briefly about education. My hon. Friends the Members for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman) and for Lewes (Maria Caulfield) recently chaired an inquiry into autism and education under the umbrella of the APPG. They did some fantastic work, looking at how the education system in England currently works for children. The inquiry involved evidence sessions and surveys, and took additional evidence from more than 3,000 parents, professionals and people on the autism spectrum. It found that children are being held back from achieving their full potential because they are autistic. In our surveys, nearly 70% of parents told us that they had waited for more than six months for support at school, and 50% had waited for more than a year.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on leading this debate. As a distinguished former Cabinet Minister, she could be drinking piña coladas in her garden in Amersham, yet she dedicates her life to helping with autism. Is she aware that autistic children are four times more likely to be permanently excluded than other children?

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

My right hon. Friend, who chairs the Education Committee with distinction, is absolutely right. That is why I am so pleased that this year, for the first time, the Government are putting a compulsory autism module into initial teacher training. That is significant, and I hope that my right hon. Friend’s Committee might look into that provision.

The inquiry of my hon. Friends the Members for Bexhill and Battle and for Lewes also found that four in 10 families were initially turned away when asking for the extra help that their child needs. To address these challenges, we have recommended that the Department for Education develops an autism strategy. That call has been enthusiastically taken up by the National Autistic Society and Ambitious about Autism, which launched the Held Back campaign to support the report’s recommendations.

More than 20,000 people, including 70 Members of this House and the House of Lords, have signed an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education calling for the report’s recommendations to be implemented. It is really important that Lord Agnew, the Under-Secretary of State for the school system, comes forward with the Department’s response, as it has confirmed that it will respond to the inquiry. It will be good to hear what it is doing to make improvements in this area.

I turn to the autism employment gap, which is a major problem.

[Teresa Pearce (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab)]

I thank the right hon. Lady for the work that she does on the APPG, which is much needed and welcomed. I agreed with what she said about children in school, and I think that everybody here knows of such cases. My constituent, Lucy, has a bright seven-year-old son who is in year 4 but is working at year 1 level because he has not had his diagnosis. That an absolute disgrace for the child, who is missing out on his education, but Lucy also wrote to me to say, “I am exhausted”. She is fighting with all her energy, but says,

“I still have fight in me, but the whole family is exhausted”

because they feel that there is a barrier at every step.

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[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

That is a common theme for parents who face this continuous battle. That is why we need to provide assistance. Every Member must know which routes they can take to provide as much assistance as possible.

[Mr George Howarth (Knowsley) (Lab)]

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

This will probably be the last intervention, I am afraid.

[Mr Howarth]

I am grateful. I hesitate to intervene on the right hon. Lady because she is making a powerful point, but before she moves on to employment, will she agree that any new system has to take account of the frustration that parents feel as they attempt to get appropriate support for their children? In some cases, that frustration is overpowering.

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

I agree entirely. The right hon. Gentleman shows that there is great understanding of the issue on both sides of the House.

Some 60% of employers worry about getting support for an autistic employee wrong, and 60% of do not know who to ask for advice or support about employing an autistic person. Given the huge success of the Government’s Access to Work programme, it is a real shame that there is not better awareness of it among employers. I want to hear about that from Front Benchers. The NAS recommends that we ensure that Jobcentre Plus staff, work coaches and disability employment advisers all receive training in how to deal with autistic people.

[Alex Burghart (Brentwood and Ongar) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

This really is the last time.

[Alex Burghart]

I apologise to the House that I am losing my voice. My right hon. Friend is being extremely generous with her time. She quite rightly points out that Access to Work is a valuable initiative that helps people, but in my experience it helps people once they already have a job. Does she agree that it would be wonderful if that sort of initiative and expertise were brought forward to help people with autism to prepare for work so that they were less intimidated by applying for jobs?

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

I am also afraid that I am slightly losing my voice; I am sounding a bit Fenella Fielding. It is important that the Government promote the positives of employing autistic people and ensure that advice about supporting autistic people at work is made available to employers.

In the recent Command Paper “Improving Lives: The Future of Work, Health and Disability”, the Government acknowledged that autistic people were one of the groups that struggled most with employment. I would welcome the Minister addressing this point when she winds up, as well as giving us an update on the potential progress towards putting autism into the labour force survey, which would be an important step.

I want to touch on three other points: criminal justice; diagnosis waiting times; and access to democracy. The subject of people with autism in the criminal justice system does not often get the profile that it deserves. Because of the nature of autism, autistic people can find themselves being caught up in the criminal justice system inadvertently. We need to work hard to ensure that we are doing all that we can to support people not to enter the system in the first place, and we also need to get it right by ensuring that we do the best we can by those people when they do enter the system.

I have always been very impressed by Feltham young offenders institution, which has achieved accreditation from the NAS as an autism-friendly institution. I understood that 20 other prisons were going through accreditation. Will the Minister update us on what is happening with the autism accreditation system? Furthermore, we would like to see training for professionals across the criminal justice system. Will she take that point on board and give us an update on what progress the Government are making? The APPG will be launching a call for evidence on criminal justice over the next few weeks and I urge every Member of this House to get in touch with the secretary of the group if they have case studies and examples of autism and the criminal justice system to share.

As the hon. Member for Alyn and Deeside (Mark Tami) mentioned in his intervention, waiting times for diagnosis are critical. Diagnosis is a critical milestone for people on the spectrum, but individuals are having to wait far too long for an autism diagnosis. Research by Goldsmiths and City, University of London, shows that the average wait for children for an autism diagnosis is over three and a half years, while adults receive a diagnosis after around two years. The Government have committed to record and publish waiting times. Recording will start in April and publication will begin next year. That is incredibly important, and I hope that the Minister will update us on that.

Finally, I want to talk about autism and access to democracy. I sit on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and our inquiry into the work of the Electoral Commission has just touched on this subject. Research suggests that voter turnout among those with a disability is much lower than that of the general population, and the Government, rightly, have a duty to close that gap and ensure that everyone is able to cast their vote. There are special access requirements around buildings, and the Government also commission guides on voting for people with different disabilities, such as those with a learning disability. However, I would welcome clarity from the Government on whether the adjustments that autistic people may need are considered in the Electoral Commission guidance, and on whether the Government are planning any autism-friendly guides for voters on the spectrum.

Autism affects so many areas of government that it is difficult to address them all in one speech. I am being held to about 15 minutes, but I could stand here for the next half hour and opine on where we need to go, what is happening, and where we need to have the drivers.

I want finally to return to World Autism Awareness Week and the reason why we are all here today. Autistic people tell the National Autistic Society that the thing that would make the biggest difference to their day-to-day lives would be if people understood autism. I have a personal aim that all those who play a role in public services, no matter where in this country, should be trained to appreciate the challenges faced by autistic people in the workplace, in schools, on public transport, and in other public places. If we all show just a little more awareness of how autism can affect others, we can make great strides in making autistic people feel at home and more welcome in all our communities.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

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[Mr Sheerman]

My hon. Friend is right. We need to spread the knowledge. We need to get the Government, right across the piece—there almost ought to be a Minister for autism—making sure that seamlessly, across all Departments, there is a high level of awareness.

On early diagnosis, the commission heard evidence on what happens in Sweden. Sweden seems to be one of the places that one looks to: I believe that the professor we interviewed was the man who actually minted the expression, “the autism spectrum”. The evidence we were given was that every child in Sweden is evaluated to see whether they are on the spectrum very early on—at seven years of age, I think—so why not every child in the United Kingdom? That is what we should be looking for—early diagnosis and early support of the family.

A lot of people on the autism spectrum fall foul of the criminal justice system. A person on the autism spectrum can get on a bus in a normal way in the morning, then if the bus is cancelled or something else happens that disturbs their routine, that has a very big impact on them. They may behave rather antisocially. The police may be called and they end up in a cell. I have heard this story so many times. The criminal justice system has to look very carefully at the needs of people on the autism spectrum.

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman has seen the National Autistic Society’s latest film, “Too Much Information”, which is about exactly that problem of somebody being overwhelmed when they are travelling on public transport.

[Mr Sheerman]

The right hon. Lady knows that I accept that wholeheartedly.

I want to finish by saying that it is wonderful that we are having a short debate on autism, but we have to keep coming back to this. It is a very important part of all our lives as Members of Parliament. We must know more, do more and help more, and if that is part of what we manage to achieve this week, I will be very proud of this House.

[Mrs Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (Con)]

Every time we have a debate on autism, we bring the issue forward, as the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman) pointed out.

As someone who has family experience of this—my wonderful 18-year-old son, who has been through the mill, has Asperger’s—constituents are starting to contact me and come and talk to me. They are stepping out into the light and saying, “How do I cope?” Having these debates is genuinely giving confidence to families, particularly mothers, to ask for help and ask how they might find support. As ever, I add my continued gratitude to my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan) for all the work she is doing.

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

My hon. Friend gives me a good opportunity to say to all those people who email me and contact me on social media that I cannot deal with all the questions and issues that come into my inbox, but I encourage those people to contact their MPs directly, because it is their own MPs who can help them—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. This is a very important debate. I put a seven-minute limit on speeches to try to give everybody a chance to speak. Given the interventions, I will have to drop the limit for Members lower down the list. I do not think it is fair. Interventions have to be short, and Members should think about whether they need to intervene—especially when they are summing up at the end.

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[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bristol West (Thangam Debbonaire) and all my other colleagues who have spoken on this matter. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan). I am very pleased to support World Autism Awareness Week.

I have a constituency interest and a personal interest in this issue. The constituency has a large number of centres that provide support to those with autism. We also have a spectacular charity, Music for Autism. I was interested to hear the comments on the link between music and those with autism, which has been enormously helpful. I hope to come on to my personal interest in due course.

Young people and adults with autism are some of the most loyal and hardworking people I have ever come across. All they need is a chance, and that chance comes through early diagnosis. The more I have looked at this issue, the more I have become attached to the idea of one-stop shops for parents or guardians. Provision varies depending on where one is in the UK. I refer Members to the Department for Education report that covers that, by our former colleague Lee Scott.

On school exclusions, what has shocked me the most is that young people with autism face more exclusions than any other group. That is a frightening thing to take on board. It is perhaps not surprising when we have heard that some schools are excluding people when they know that Ofsted is coming—a disgraceful use of the system.

My personal interest is as an ambassador for a scheme that goes by the names of the Glyn Hopkin Foundation, the Sycamore Trust, and Space—Supporting People with Autism into Continued Employment. The charity does a lot of the work that hon. Members have been talking about the Government providing. It not only provides people who are fully ready for work; it provides advice to employers on how they should go about changing their own operations to make them autism friendly. What I have taken away from its work is a reminder that minor, easy adjustments to recruitment and the workplace can make a huge difference. I am currently trying to take a young person with autism into my office here in the House of Commons to work alongside me, initially for a few weeks on my first attempt. It is a great privilege to be involved in this area.

I will finish a little earlier for similar reasons to those given by the hon. Member for Bristol West, but I will say that the Department for Education has done great work over many years. This is not a question of funding, but attitude. It is a question of getting the attitude right in the Department to face this opportunity to make the most out of those with autism, so that they can better contribute to our society.

Teaching has been mentioned. I am very appreciative of all that has been said about the provision of training for teachers, but actually I would not blame the teachers at all on this issue. I blame a number of local education authorities. It is currently very hit and miss as to whether a local education authority is autism friendly, and can cope and provide all the support services. There are many good examples, but I will not name them now.

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

Does my hon. Friend agree that not only is it important that schools do not exclude a pupil with autism when the Ofsted inspectors are coming into the school, but that those Ofsted inspectors should be fully trained to understand autism? They could then inspect a real class in a real situation and see how the school handled it.

[John Howell]

My right hon. Friend makes a very good point. I expect Ofsted inspectors to be trained to ask the question, “Who has been excluded who has an autistic condition?” That should be fundamental to what an Ofsted inspector asks before beginning an examination. My criticism of local education authorities includes the fact that many do not pass on all the funding given to them by central Government. There is a great need for ring-fencing such funds so that LEAs can carry out what we are asking them to do.

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[Dr Cameron]

That is an apt intervention, and I agree entirely. It is not just the postcode lottery, but the widespread variation right across the United Kingdom. Through the all-party group, we hear that people from different parts of the UK feel that they have to battle the system repeatedly at every stage. This is very important. In Health questions, I have asked the Secretary of State whether the Department might consider putting individuals who can diagnose autism into every child and adolescent mental health services team. I know that the Department is looking at data and waiting times. That is so important to getting some degree of stability in the services provided and to ensure that everyone has adequate access moving forward. Knowing where we are to start with can only be a good thing when we look at the progress being made.

As has been mentioned, autism spectrum disorder affects people across their lifespan, so it has to be at the core of policy across many Departments, including those responsible for education and community. This is also about our surgeries. I have taken on the excellent points made by the hon. Member for Bristol West (Thangam Debbonaire) and I will start my own such surgery in the near future. We have discussed it since our last debate on this subject and it is an excellent idea. I recommend that, as MPs, we all move forward in the same manner, walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

The management of our local shopping centres have been positive about having autism-friendly opening hours so that families can come at particular times. The setting will be made appropriate and people will feel included and relaxed when they go about their daily life. There is so much more to be done. On employment, the autism employment gap is so much higher than the disability employment gap. We must take that forward.

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

Has the hon. Lady heard about the autism exchange programme, which Ambitious about Autism developed in partnership with the civil service? It has found that employers are pleasantly surprised at the benefits they get from employing people with autism.

[Dr Cameron]

That sounds like an absolutely wonderful initiative, and I hope that it is rolled out to many more organisations. We should all be working with local business communities to champion the potential of people with autism in the workplace. They have great skills to offer and should certainly be given the opportunity to be part of our workforce.

Before I finish, I want to touch on mental health and criminal justice. The last such debate that I took part in in the Chamber was about people who have not only autism, but mental health issues. That is extremely important; it is another reason why they should not be excluded from services—they need quick access as a priority. The Royal College of Psychiatrists estimates that those on the autistic spectrum are seven and a half times more likely to commit suicide. That is an absolutely startling statistic. If we put up barriers before people get to services and support, that figure can only rise. I ask the Minister to address access to services and the understanding of comorbidity within primary care.

On criminal justice, I recently met the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice, to discuss this issue, because I feel that those on the autistic spectrum are often lost in the criminal justice system and are very vulnerable within it. They are subject to bullying and have difficulty adapting and coping in that situation. We must do all that we can, so I was pleased to meet him and discuss some issues and practices from Scotland, and to share best practice right across the United Kingdom on special witness measures, support for those going through a court process and pre-arrest. In my constituency, we have a wonderful police training college at Jackton. I spoke to Police Scotland, which assures me that all its officers have undertaken mental health training and autism awareness training. That is excellent and just what is needed. We must continue to build on that.

I am pleased to speak in this debate, but the more I speak about autism, the more I realise how much more work we have to do. I am pleased to be moving forward on a cross-party basis. I will always be a champion for autism in my constituency and I like to work with like-minded Members across the House, of whom there are many and of whom I am very proud.

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[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

Like all the speakers who have gone before me, I am delighted to speak in this important debate on autism, particularly as it takes place during World Autism Awareness Week. In common with colleagues across the House, I also want to put on the record my thanks to the right hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan), who has blazed a trail in this area.

Today’s debate is important because for far too many people living with autism there is not just the actual condition to cope with, but, as we have heard, the isolation and often bullying and judgmental attitudes from a society or community that too often does not comprehend the condition. That is why we all need to work hard to raise awareness of it. In the longer term, the challenges that the condition brings can leave those living with it emotionally scarred, which in turn can lead to difficulties accessing employment and living a fulfilling life.

We know that 700,000 people in the UK are autistic, but many others we do not know about will be awaiting a diagnosis. Even if we take the 700,000 figure, however, and then factor in the relatives, it means that living with autism is a fact of life every single day for 2.8 million people. It is right and proper, therefore, particularly during World Autism Awareness Week, that we debate this important matter and recognise the challenges of the condition and how much more we must do as a society to meet them. Attitudes towards and awareness of autism are changing, but we still have some way to go.

We also need to understand, as the right hon. Lady pointed out, that autism is not a mental health condition. That said, as many as 71% of children with autism also live with a mental health challenge, such as anxiety, depression or obsessive compulsive disorder. Such mental health challenges are not inevitable, however, but the result, it seems, of the social isolation that autism too often brings. The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services found that 26% of graduates on the autism spectrum were unemployed—by far the highest rate of any disability group and more than double the average unemployment rate for disabled adults—and, although figures are hard to establish, it is thought that only 15% of autistic adults in the UK are in full-time work.

A large scale study in the British Journal of Psychiatry in November 2015 found that people with autism were more than twice as likely as their peers in the wider population to die prematurely, and recent work by the National Autistic Society found that only 16% of those living with autism and their families felt that the general public had a meaningful understanding of autism. Moreover, young people with autism are 28 times more likely than their peers who do not live with autism to have suicidal thoughts. That is the scale of the challenge; we have a significant way to go, despite having made some progress.

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

I do not know if, in common with me, the hon. Lady received a briefing from the Royal College of Psychiatrists for this debate, but I was surprised to find that one in 10 psychiatry consultant posts were unfilled. We have a shortage of psychiatrists, which inhibits progress in this area, particularly in diagnosis and treatment.

[Patricia Gibson]

As the right hon. Lady’s intervention shows, meeting the challenge will not be easy. We still have huge mountains to climb to make life better for people living with this condition.

All these challenges show why we must continue to highlight the condition. It is important not just that people living with this condition can access the support they need but that they feel supported and that they live in a society that does not overlook, shun or ignore them, as has happened too often in the past. The challenges facing those living with autism are not inevitable. With work and education, and by raising awareness and understanding of autism in our communities, much can be done to counteract the negative outcomes they too often face. That is why I want to put on the record the sterling work done in my constituency by community campaigners Suzanne Fernando and her family, Jordan, Arron and Kester. The Fernando family live with autism every day and have worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the condition in their local community of Ardrossan and beyond, and have met with considerable success in doing so. Every year, they put in a huge amount of work to hold a coffee morning to disseminate information on the issue and offer support to those in the community living with the challenges of autism every day. As I have said, we know how isolating this condition can be.

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[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate on a condition that affects more than 700,000 people in the UK but that is often misunderstood.

I welcome World Autism Awareness Week and the opportunity to have this debate in the Chamber. I thank all the contributors, and I will acknowledge each in turn, but I particularly thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who rightly outlined that some of the welfare changes have had a detrimental impact on those with autism. The hon. Member for Bristol West (Thangam Debbonaire) highlighted that this Parliament could benefit from being autism friendly, which would be a benefit to all.

I thank my hon. Friends the Members for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Dr Cameron), for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) and for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) for their initiatives in their local communities and for their carer-friendly and autism-friendly surgeries. I hope to be able to follow in their footsteps.

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

The hon. Lady will be pleased to know that Parliament has been accredited as an autism-friendly destination, of which we are very proud. We want to try to maintain that across the board, so we are constantly keeping the administrative authorities up to their mettle so we retain that accreditation.

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[The Minister for Care (Caroline Dinenage)]

I will start by heaping praise on my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan) for securing this important debate and her incredible work over many years to raise the awareness of autism both within and outside this place. It is thanks to her ground-breaking private Member’s Bill on autism that we now have an adult autism strategy. Next year, it will be 10 years since her Bill became the Autism Act 2009, transforming services for autistic adults and having a huge impact on public awareness of autism. That is entirely down to her.

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

Will the Minister give way?

[Caroline Dinenage]

I am not going to give way too much because I have a lot to get through, but I will definitely give way to my right hon. Friend.

[Dame Cheryl Gillan]

I thank the Minister and other Members who have acknowledged that I have had a part to play in this. She is sitting next to my hon. and learned Friend the Member for South Swindon (Robert Buckland); he and Members of all parties have contributed to this work. I assure the Minister that no one MP can do this on her own. My tribute is to all those people who have done the hard work and the heavy lifting.

[Caroline Dinenage]

My right hon. Friend is as honourable and modest as ever. I also want to thank all the other Members who have worked long and hard on this over a number of years, and those who have contributed so beautifully today. This high-quality debate has included strong personal stories and great examples of fantastic constituency work.

I thank the Backbench Business Committee for enabling this debate to happen during World Autism Awareness Week. It has given us the opportunity to draw much-needed attention to the challenges that autistic people, and their families and carers, face on a daily basis. Members who have spoken are absolutely right to say that we need to understand more about autism across all sectors of society and in all parts of government. I share their determination to address this important issue.

Since the introduction of the autism strategy in 2010, it has done much to improve the lives of those living with autism, but we know that there is still much to be done. As hon. Members may be aware, we have recently put in place revised governance arrangements to continue taking forward the strategy. On Monday I had the pleasure of chairing the first annual accountability meeting, where I heard from key stakeholders, self-advocates and partners about the challenges facing autistic adults across England and how we can keep making progress in realising the ambitious autism strategy.