Services for People with Autism

Debate between Huw Merriman and Derek Twigg

Thursday 21st March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Huw Merriman]

I thank my hon. Friend for his words and for championing his constituents. As he rightly says, some autistic people tend to fall through the gaps. Of course, all local authorities have a responsibility to take note when it comes to autism. We see individuals who are on the autism spectrum but are not receiving help because they might be outside a defined period. The extension of plans up to the age of 25 will go some way towards addressing that, but we still see people falling through the gaps. I will touch on some of the other areas that might address his concerns, or I will at least make calls to those on the Front Bench.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham continues:

“This year, it falls on the Government once again to review its strategy and identify what more needs to be done.

Each of us has about 1,000 people on the autism spectrum in our constituencies and it affects one in 100 people. We each will have many autistic people and their family members contacting us to ask for our help on areas from education to adult support, diagnosis to employment...”

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab)]

The excellent speech mentioned the Government’s strategy. A perennial problem—it crops up all the time in my constituency—is the speed of diagnosis. The fact is that so many children with autism simply do not get an education. Surely the strategy must try to address that in a much better way than it has in the past.

[Huw Merriman]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Time and again we see that young people have to fail before they can be given the support they need. There are many examples of young people clearly failing when they go to a pre-school, but then they still have to move on to a mainstream school, where they will fail, before they can be given support. It should be blindingly obvious, and councils should look at those plans before children have to start primary school. Often councils say that they are not required to do that, but perhaps they do not know what their obligations really are.