Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to The national strategy for autistic children, young people and adults: 2021 to 2026, published in July 2021, how many additional children have received diagnoses of autism and related support as a result of the expansion of the school-based identification programme.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Through the Opportunity Area scheme, in 2021/22 the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education invested £600,000 into a pilot in Bradford through the Born in Bradford programme, which looked to improve early identification of autism and other neurodiverse conditions. This was subsequently adopted by four other Opportunity Areas as Early Identification of Autism Projects.
Information on how many additional children have received diagnoses of autism, and related support as a result of the programme, is not centrally held. The University of Manchester was commissioned to evaluate the Early Identification of Autism Projects, and their report will be published in due course.
Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to support the recruitment and retention of mental health specialists in Wellingborough constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
To deliver the NHS Long Term Plan’s mental health commitments and help reduce waiting times in the Wellingborough constituency and nationwide, our aim has been to grow the mental health workforce nationally by an additional 27,000 professionals by March 2024.
We are making positive progress, delivering three quarters of this, or approximately 20,800 new professionals, by December 2023, with further growth expected to have been achieved once the full year figures for 2023/24 are available. This growth is in addition to the commitment to grow the National Health Service’s mental health workforce by 19,000 between 2016/17 and 2020/21, as set out in Stepping Forward to 2020/21: the mental health workforce plan for England, which was achieved in September 2021.
At a national level, we are committed to attracting, training, and recruiting the mental health workforce of the future, as well as retaining and developing our current workforce. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s modelling projections set out a need to grow the overall mental health and learning disability workforce the fastest of all care settings, at 4.4% per year up to 2036/37, to help improve access to services and quality of care.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to enable adults with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism living in in-patient units to live independently.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are taking action to support timely discharges of people with a learning disability and autistic people from mental health inpatient services, and to support them in leading ordinary lives in their communities. In January 2024, we published guidance which sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities should work together to support people to be discharged from mental health inpatient services.
To improve community support, in 2023/24 we invested an additional £121 million as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for children and young people’s keyworkers. The Building the Right Support Action Plan, published in July 2022, sets out cross-Government actions to strengthen community support and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
As set out in NHS England statutory guidance published on 9 May 2023, we expect integrated care boards to assign an executive lead role for learning disability and autism to a suitable board member. The named lead will support the board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of autistic people and people with a learning disability.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to provide housing for adults with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism who are currently living in in-patient units so that they can live independently.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
On 26 January 2024, we published statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings. This guidance sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities across adult and children’s services should work together to support people in being discharged from mental health inpatient services, including mental health inpatient services for people with a learning disability and for autistic people. This guidance states that strong links should be made with relevant community services prior to, and during, the person’s stay in hospital, and that this should include links in relation to meeting the person’s housing needs.
We continue to support the delivery of new supported housing by providing capital subsidies to providers, through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund and the Affordable Homes Programme in England.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is represented on the Building the Right Support Delivery Board. This cross-Government, cross-system board is responsible for driving progress on reducing the number of people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health inpatient services.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support (a) early years learning and (b) primary education for children with Down's Syndrome.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to improving the life outcomes and opportunities for children with Down syndrome, including through follow-up to the Down Syndrome Act 2022. From 2025, the department will begin collecting data on the numbers of children and young people with Down syndrome in schools and colleges. This will help inform the planning locally of long term services.
The special educational needs and disability (SEND) system in education settings provides support for all children with SEND. The system focuses on removing barriers to education and putting the right support in place to meet need, regardless of the specific condition a child may have. The department set out its mission for more children and young people with SEND to have their needs met effectively in mainstream settings in the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan in March 2023. The SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-alternative-provision-improvement-plan.
In the Improvement Plan, the department confirmed that frontline professionals, such as teachers and early years practitioners, would be equipped with the skills and expertise to make best use of provision and to identify needs early, accurately and consistently. The department is developing a suite of practitioner standards to help early years staff, teachers and teaching assistants to identify and support the needs of children and young people they work with, prioritising areas such as speech and language development. The department is funding up to 7,000 early years staff to gain an accredited Level 3 early years special educational needs co-ordinator qualification.
Additionally, the department is investing £2.6 billion in new specialist places to increase the number of places for those children who need specialist support in mainstream and special schools, and alternative provision. These developments will help children with Down syndrome in early years settings and primary schools reach their full potential.
Specifically on early years learning, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards and requirements that all early years providers must follow, including learning and development requirements. The EYFS includes specific requirements for supporting children with SEND, including those with Down syndrome. All early years providers must have arrangements in place to support children with SEND and all providers who are funded by the local authority to deliver early education places must have regard to the SEND Code of Practice.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase the financial inclusion of people with a learning disability.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government aims to ensure that all people have access to useful and affordable financial products and services. To promote financial inclusion, the Government works closely with the regulators and stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors.
The FCA’s vulnerability guidance requires firms to identify vulnerable customers, which can include those with a learning disability, and to consider the needs of these customers appropriately.
The Consumer Duty builds on this work by raising the standard expected from firms for all customers with a focus on delivering good outcomes and preventing harm.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve early diagnosis and intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise timely identification of autism can play an important role in enabling children and young people to get appropriate support, which is crucial in preventing escalation of needs. We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) to have due regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on autism when commissioning services. It is the responsibility of ICBs to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population in line with these NICE guidelines, including in relation to autism assessment. While we want every area to meet NICE guidance, we recognise that this is not happening everywhere.
On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services in an online-only format. This guidance will help the National Health Service improve autism assessment services and improve the experience for people referred to an autism assessment service. This includes guidance to local areas on how to manage referrals and the support that should be available whilst people are waiting for an assessment and after.
In 2023/2024, £4.2 million of funding is available across England to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services. We are also working in partnership with the Department for Education and NHS England on ‘Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in School’ (PINS), with £13 million of funding to test ideas that will improve access to specialist support for neurodiverse children in mainstream primary schools.
Each ICB in England is expected to have an Executive Lead for learning disability and autism, supporting the Board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of people with a learning disability and autistic people, including in relation to appropriate autism assessment pathways. NHS England has published guidance on these roles.
Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures are in place to train healthcare professionals in understanding and supporting the specific medical needs of individuals with autism.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are several measures being put in place to train healthcare professionals in understanding and supporting the needs of autistic people.
From 1 July 2022, the Health and Care Act 2022 requires providers registered with the Care Quality Commission to ensure their staff receive specific training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role. We are rolling out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism to support this. This training will help to ensure that staff have the right skills and knowledge to provide safe and compassionate care, including how to provide reasonable adjustments, for autistic people. Over 1.4 million people have completed the first part of Oliver’s Training, an e-learning package.
NHS England has commissioned the Royal College of Psychiatrists to deliver the National Autism Training Programme for Psychiatrists in response to the need and demand for better autism training from within the profession. The training is co-produced and co-delivered with autistic people and offers a short foundation training course for psychiatrists working across a variety of settings, and a longer, more enhanced development course, aimed at psychiatrists and higher trainees who are seeking to increase their specialist knowledge and skills in autism. The provision of this training will help reduce diagnostic overshadowing, play a significant role in preventing unnecessary admissions to mental health hospitals for autistic people and improve autism appropriate care. The ambition is that this may contribute to reducing the number of inappropriate admissions, interventions such as seclusion and segregation along with the length of stay for those who need hospital care.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce waiting times for autism spectrum disorder assessments for children.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) to have due regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on autism, when commissioning services. It is the responsibility of ICBs to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, in line with these NICE guidelines.
In 2023 NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for all age autism diagnostic assessment services. This guidance will help the National Health Service improve all age autism assessment services and improve the experience for people referred to an autism assessment service.
We have invested in improving autism assessment services over recent years, including £2.5 million in 2022/23 to support local areas with improvements in autism assessment pathways. For 2023/2024, £4.2 million of funding is available across England to improve services for autistic children and young people, including autism assessment services.
NHS England publishes quarterly data on how many people are waiting for an autism assessment and for how long. While these are experimental statistics, the data does provide useful information nationally and locally, to support local areas in improving their performance and reducing assessment waiting times.
Each ICB in England is expected to have an Executive Lead for learning disability and autism, supporting the board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of people with a learning disability and autism, including in relation to appropriate autism assessment pathways. NHS England has published guidance on these roles.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2024 to Question 15040 on Autism and Learning Disability: Community Care, whether the funding flows task and finish group have developed plans to (a) fund support effectively across the health and social care system and (b) improve oversight of expenditure on the Building the Right Support Action Plan.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The aim of the Funding Flows task and finish group was to look at how to improve national oversight of the National Health Service and local authority spend on services and support for people with a learning disability and autistic people who are, or are at risk of being, admitted to mental health inpatient services.
The Funding Flows task and finish group has been looking at relevant data currently collected for the NHS and local government, to explore whether it could be brought together to help meet this objective. The final report from the Funding Flows task and finish group will be shared with the Building the Right Support Delivery Board in due course.