Inclusive Society

Lord Touhig Excerpts

Wednesday 14th April 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Touhig (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Lister on the powerful and comprehensive way in which she introduced this debate. I declare an interest as a vice-president of the National Autistic Society. I begin by paying tribute to a good friend, Dame Cheryl Gillan, who died last week. Cheryl was chair of the All-Party Group on Autism, the pioneer of legislation on autism and the person who persuaded the Council of Europe to investigate the impact of autism on families across our continent. We owe her a great debt.

What is an inclusive society? In an excellent Library paper, we are reminded that at the World Summit for Social Development it was defined as “society for all”, a point made by my noble friend Lady Ritchie, but if you are autistic the world does not seem that inclusive. Awareness of autism and understanding autism are not the same thing. Poor public understanding has profound consequences for autistic people. Polling carried out by the National Autistic Society shows that while 99% of people know about autism, just 16% of autistic people feel that the public understand what it means to be autistic. Some 80 out of every 100 autistic people have felt socially isolated because of a lack of public understanding. However, not all is despair. The Government will publish their autism strategy in May and so much hope is being invested in this. I hope that the strategy commits to creating and properly funding a long-term national autism understanding campaign, aimed at shifting the attitudes and behaviour of millions of people.

I will concentrate my remarks today on two aspects of living with autism: employment and social care. Not all autistic people will be able to work, but three-quarters of unemployed autistic people want to do so. Despite this, the Office for National Statistics report shows that 22% of autistic adults are not in employment of any kind. Sixty Members of our House signed up to take part in this debate. If we were all autistic, just 13 of us would ever have had a job in our life. The National Autistic Society’s research has uncovered some of the barriers to getting into employment. Only four in every 100 autistic adults said Jobcentre Plus staff have a good understanding of autism. It is vital that staff have the knowledge and understanding required adequately to support autistic jobseekers. Some 40% of autistic adults need employment support, but just 12% receive it. What is more, most employers have a poor understanding of autism and the support that autistic people will need. This lack of understanding was identified as one of the key barriers to closing the employment gap. Many employers lack the confidence to employ autistic people, believing that an autistic person would require too much support.

It is vital that we see clear actions in the forthcoming autism strategy and the national disability strategy on what the Government plan to do close the autism employment gap, especially following the Covid pandemic. For many autistic people, social care is the difference between being able to leave the house or not, being able to wash, dress and eat or not and being able work or not. Prior to the Covid outbreak, the provision of basic care for autistic people was already dangerously low, but the virus has reduced care provision further, leaving many parents and carers feeling abandoned. Seven out of 10 autistic adults are living without the support they need. One in five family members have reduced their work due to caring responsibilities for their youngsters. The Covid outbreak has uncovered fundamental problems with the social care system and highlighted the significance of its underfunding. Years of underfunding have left councils and providers struggling without the resources they need. The Care and Support Alliance is calling for immediate and sufficient funding to stabilise the social care system to ensure that it does not collapse in the worst affected areas. Looking to the future, we need the Government to put forward a long-term plan for social care that creates a fair, effective and sustainable care system for autistic people and their carers. That would be a real step towards creating an inclusive society for all.