Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of people with autism that are confined to inpatient care in mental health hospitals.

In July 2022, we published the Building the Right Support (BtRS) Action Plan, which sets out cross-government actions to strengthen community support and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care for autistic people and people with a learning disability.

The BtRS Delivery Board is overseeing implementation of the Action Plan. The Board includes representatives from across government and public services who are working together to drive faster progress, identifying new actions and mitigations as appropriate.

This year, we are investing an additional £121 million to improve community support as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for Children and Young People’s keyworkers.