Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing a national autism and education strategy.

The ‘Autism and education in England 2017’ report, produced by the All Party Parliamentary Group last November, is informing the government’s thinking towards achieving our vision of the Special Educational Needs and Disability system. We are carefully considering the report’s recommendations, such as implementing a national autism strategy. Some of the report’s recommendations reflect existing policy. These include the government’s funding of extensive autism awareness training for school staff, 175,000 already trained, improving local accountability and providing additional funding. We will confirm our next steps later this year.