Autism: Special Educational Needs

(asked on 16th January 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will adopt the recommendation of the National Autistic Society in their <i>School Report 2016</i> on how the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) system is meeting the needs of children and young people on the autism spectrum in England to make the new system work more effectively by ensuring families receive help to challenge the system when needed.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Nash
This question was answered on 30th January 2017

The SEND reforms in the Children and Families Act 2014 have brought benefits for children and young people with autism and their families, including the move to more person-centred, multi-agency and participative Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments and plans, with the timescale for carrying out an assessment and issuing a plan reduced from 26 to 20 weeks. Separately, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) standard specifies that an assessment for a possible autism diagnosis should begin within three months of referral, and the Government plans to improve the tracking of referral-to-assessment times for an autism diagnosis. Schools should not wait for a diagnosis of autism before putting in place support, but should employ a graduated approach to identifying needs and providing support, reviewing support regularly to ensure it continues to meet the identified needs.

All local authorities in England must have an Information, Advice and Support Service (IASS) to provide parents and young people with impartial advice about the law on SEND, local SEND arrangements and support for a child’s needs. The service can also help parents and young people prepare for meetings with schools, the local authority or other agencies, including where they are bringing a complaint or making an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). In addition, families that are going through the process of EHC needs assessment and plan development can call on support from an Independent Supporter, who can provide help and advice if parents or young people wish to challenge a decision of the local authority, whether through mediation or a Tribunal appeal.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to identify needs in their local area and to commission, together with partner agencies, services to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families. This includes services for children and young people with autism. These services must be included in each authority’s Local Offer of available services, which must be reviewed regularly in consultation with local families, taking their views into consideration. In addition, under the Department’s Free Schools programme, there are now twenty-three special free schools open across the country, including thirteen specifically for children with Autism, such as the Rise free school in Hounslow, the Lighthouse free school in Leeds and the National Autistic Society’s Church Lawton free school in Cheshire. A further twenty-two special free schools are due to open in the future, twelve of which will specialise in provision for children with autism, including the Cumbria Academy for Autism and a second National Autistic Society free school, the Vanguard free school in Lambeth. The other schools will offer some places for children with autism. At the last spending review we announced that we will make available at least £200 million to support the expansion of existing provision as well as the development of new schools.

The Department has provided more than £2m to the Autism Education Trust (2011-17) to deliver autism training to early years, school and post-16 education professionals in England. The Trust has now trained more than 120,000 education staff. The training also incorporates the learning from previous work by Ambitious about Autism on strategies for supporting transition from school to college and the contract covers a service provided by the National Autistic Society which provides information and advice to parents and professionals on exclusions. We have issued an invitation to tender (ITT) for a new autism contract from April 2017, which will continue the training for education professionals and the exclusions service.

For teachers in training, a new framework for ITT content developed by the expert group chaired by Stephen Munday CBE was published in July 2016. The framework includes specific content on special educational needs and autism and is available for training providers to use. This twin approach of ongoing work in schools to increase awareness of autism through training, while also ensuring that new teachers are equipped to support pupils with autism from the outset, is designed to ensure that children and young people are better supported to achieve well in their education.

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