Health Inequality: Autism and Learning Disabilities

Lord Astor of Hever Excerpts

Thursday 10th May 2018 Grand Committee

[Lord Astor of Hever (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as the father of an autistic daughter. I agree 100% with the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, that those on the autistic spectrum are among the most vulnerable in our society. The Government’s mandate to NHS England requires them to tackle health inequality for autistic people, and ensuring access to good quality mental health support is one important way in which this can be achieved. I have to stress that, as the noble Lord, Lord Touhig, said, autism is not a mental health condition, but more than 70% of autistic people will develop mental health problems at some stage in their lives. This is why it is one of the key drivers of the stark health inequalities faced by people on the spectrum.

The noble Lord pointed out that, in 2016, NHS England published its mental health five-year forward view, which outlines how it plans to improve mental health services in England. It includes a number of proposals, as the noble Lord said, for care pathways to help people to access the right support and, importantly, it proposes a care pathway for autism. The Government have indicated that work on designing that pathway is due to start this year, but it is now May and we do not yet have any detail on what the pathway will include. Like other noble Lords, I would welcome some clarity today from the Minister on how the pathway is progressing and, in particular, the plans they have for developing the pathway in conjunction with autistic people and their families.

The new care pathway is a welcome building block that will, in time, help to reduce the stark health inequalities that autistic people face, but it is vital that the new pathway covers timely access to autism diagnosis; autism training for all mental health staff; and making reasonable adjustments to mental health treatments so that they work for autistic people. Finally, it should also contain the capacity to research what works and then use that research to share best practice with other agencies.