Services for People with Autism

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Huw Merriman]

I certainly do. The challenge is to ensure that care plans are flexible enough to be built on, while also including an element of prescription so that there is a proper guide. What must not happen is plans being effectively reneged on when care and support are still needed. The hon. Gentleman made his point very forcefully. He also said that I was doing a good job reading the speech; I will carry on doing my best.

I was talking about the impact on services, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham puts it,

“from education to adult support, from diagnosis to employment, transition to transport. We know the many ways that an autistic person may turn to the state—and to us—for support, and how vital it is to make sure it is there to meet their needs.

The last national strategy ‘Think Autism’ in 2014 included wide-ranging actions. This was underpinned with revised statutory guidance, setting out clear duties on councils and the NHS to deliver on these actions—but we know that many local areas are not meeting all of their obligations. There are also questions about whether the Act goes far enough. As we reach the 10th anniversary of the Act, now is an appropriate time to ask these questions.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Autism, which I am proud to chair, is spending this year doing just that. We are holding an inquiry into what has worked, what happens now and, most importantly, what needs to change. We are looking very broadly, to reflect the needs of autistic people,”

including in health and mental health; children, education and transition; employment; access to justice; adult support; and public understanding.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

I welcome the APPG’s inquiry, and, in particular, the fact that it will look into the way in which adults with autism interact with the criminal justice system. I think that is an area in which the work of the Act could be extended. I pay tribute to the families who set up an organisation called Autism Injustice, and recommend its website, autisminjustice.org, to other Members and to people watching our debate who are interested in that interaction between autism and the criminal justice system.

[Huw Merriman]

The hon. Gentleman has referred to adults, but I remember going on a trip with the APPG to a young offenders institution that had tried to establish a wing that was autistic-friendly, and hoped to roll it out across the estate. He is right: a big cohort of the prison population are on the spectrum, and face particular challenges that need to be looked at.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

May I, too, congratulate the right hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Dame Cheryl Gillan), who, sadly, cannot be here because of that family situation, on her speech? I also congratulate the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman). I think he would agree that he proved that, as the old song says, there’s nothin’ like a Dame, but he did an admirable job in delivering her speech and in answering interventions from colleagues from across the House.

I take an interest in this subject, as do many Members, through constituency casework, and I have particularly focused on adults with autism. Understandably, there is often a lot of debate about children with autism, but those children grow up to be adults, and often many of the difficulties can arise when that cliff edge comes and children with autism become adults. Sadly, this often ends up with adults with autism coming into contact with the criminal justice system, as happened in the case of one of my constituents, whom I will not name for obvious reasons. The trait of stimming is shared by many people with autism, but it is not generally understood by the general population. It is the repetitive behaviour of some with autism in order to calm a situation, but it can be misinterpreted sometimes as a criminal action. In the case of my constituent, that led to his being arrested on two different occasions by the British Transport police when he became nervous travelling on public transport. This ended up with his being inappropriately cautioned and that remaining on the record, despite the fact that that caution was later withdrawn, in recognition of the fact that he had not been given the appropriate support that adults with autism are supposed to get when they come into conjunction with the criminal justice system.

[Tonia Antoniazzi]

What has been highlighted is that travel is also traumatic for people with autism. Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating Cardiff airport on training its staff to support children and adults with autism when they are travelling through the airport?

[Kevin Brennan]

I absolutely join my hon. Friend in congratulating Cardiff airport on that. Going through an airport, with its security and everything that comes along with it, is a stressful enough situation for anyone, so the fact that the airport is doing that is very much to be welcomed.

Lord Bradley, a former Member of this House, produced a report in 2009 on how not only people with autism but other individuals with mental health issues come into contact with the criminal justice system. At the end of last year, he and I, along with some families of adults with autism, arranged to meet the new head of the new Independent Office for Police Conduct to talk about the way the police often deal with adults with autism when they come into contact with them, and with the complaints that then come when those adults with autism have been treated inappropriately and not according to the guidelines originally envisaged by Lord Bradley back in 2009.

Michael Lockwood, the IOPC’s new head, is to be given some credit for engaging seriously with this issue. We can see a sea change in attitude on this issue from the new IOPC when compared with the former Independent Police Complaints Commission. For example, he has agreed to meet and engage with the families of those who have had cause to raise complaints with the IPCC and the IOPC, and to involve them in designing the ways in which the IOPC will respond. There is a recognition that often these sorts of inquiries can be confrontational, whereas what is really needed is to get to the heart of the matter and the truth, and to make sure that lessons are learned and spread throughout the criminal justice system, particularly in the police force.

One thing that is being done by the IOPC, which I welcome very much and think should be done in other organisations, is that it is recognising that employees in these organisations will often have children with autism or relatives with autism, and that they can bring some expertise to the organisation when they are interacting with those with autism. For example, the IOPC recognises that many members of its staff are from families that have experience of autism and that they can bring an expertise within the organisation when looking at these cases where complaints are raised. I welcome that, because that sort of learning is what needs to take place across the police, the courts, the prison system, adult and children’s services across the country, and the NHS.

My hon. Friend the Member for Bristol West (Thangam Debbonaire), who is no longer in her place, was talking earlier about what was going on in Bristol. In the case of my constituent and a couple of other families, I welcome the fact that, as I understand it, adult services in Bristol have agreed to review some of the cases they have dealt with in recent years, with a view to publishing a report, appropriately anonymised, that can provide lessons learned to people right across the country. That is very much to be welcomed.

My constituent has got together with other families to help set up an organisation called autisminjustice.org. I recommend that Members look at the stories on the site about the way in which these families have come into contact with the criminal justice system. The organisation’s long-term aims are to ensure:

“That criminal justice and care professionals are aware of and follow existing guidelines and policy relating to autistic people in a way that properly safeguards them.

That these professionals, as well as the general public, understand autism so that autistic people’s appearance and/or behaviour is not misunderstood and misrepresented in a way that puts them at risk of serious harm.”

Those are very laudable long-term aims.

I appeal to the Minister to engage with those families, with that organisation and with other Departments across Government to make sure that government is working in a joined-up way on this. Those of us who have been Ministers understand that it is not always easy to get out of the ministerial silos that Whitehall imposes upon us, but government works best when Ministers from different Departments get together with a common purpose. Surely on this issue of all issues, where there is cross-party support in this House and general agreement on what should happen, we should in no way be inhibited by Ministers not being able to work together. I urge the Minister to do as much as she can to work across Whitehall on this issue.