Autism

John Howell Excerpts

Thursday 29th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I am hugely grateful for the opportunity to speak in this important debate, and I again congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan) on her work in this area. I particularly want to pay tribute to the work of organisations that support autistic people, such as PACT for Autism in my constituency of Harlow. It started off as a small charity, but has now become a national one, and it has done so much to educate me about autism and to support families with autistic children across my constituency and elsewhere.

Ensuring that all children are able to access supportive, high-quality education and post-16 opportunities is essential for their life chances and for enabling them to climb the education ladder of opportunity. Our Education Committee is currently holding an inquiry into alternative provision, and we are likely to do an inquiry in the future into the role of special needs in education.

Children in alternative provision are the most vulnerable children. Compared to their peers, they are seven times more likely to have a special educational need, 10 times more likely to have a recognised mental health problem and, as I said to my right hon. Friend earlier, four times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than any other child. We have a real problem with the number of exclusions in our country. We are excluding a classroom-plus—35 children—from school every day.

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

Is my right hon. Friend aware that schools deliberately exclude children with autism when they know that an Ofsted inspection is coming?

[Robert Halfon]

We have heard all sorts of stories about exclusions in schools, and I think there is a wild west of exclusions out there. This is why our Committee is looking into it and undertaking an inquiry, and we have heard what my hon. Friend has said.

--- Later in debate ---

[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.