Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they carried out assessments of services provided by local authorities to people diagnosed with autism in each year since 2019; and whether the data associated with those assessments are centrally held.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care, is assessing how well local authorities in England are delivering adult social care. This means that the CQC is looking at how local authorities are performing against their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including their duties relating to the provision of care and support for autistic people. Ratings and reports are published on the CQC’s website. To date, the CQC has published over twenty assessments, with ratings of Outstanding, Good, and Requires Improvement.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) and the CQC also commenced a strengthened local inspection framework in January 2023 to maintain a focus on high standards in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system across all partners. In 2023/24, approximately one in three pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan had autism as their primary need. However, it should be noted that these figures do not include children and young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) who are not in state funded schools or non-maintained special schools. This may be because they are in independent schools, hospital schools, are missing education, are educated somewhere other than in school, or are above compulsory school age. Data on the number of children and young people with an EHCP who are not in state funded schools or non-maintained special schools is not available. Ofsted reports are published on their website, and further information is also available on the GOV.UK website, in an online format.

Where a council does not meet its SEND-related duties, the Department for Education can take action that prioritises children’s needs and supports local areas to bring about rapid improvement. Ofsted and the CQC are reviewing local area SEND inspections in response to the Ofsted Big Listen consultation, which asked for views from school staff, education organisations, and parents on the inspection process.