North Wales Assembly Member and Chair of the Cross Party Autism Group, Mark Isherwood, has challenged the Welsh Government this week over the Health Minister’s Statement regarding the progress being made in Autism Services.
Speaking in yesterday’s Business Statement, Mr Isherwood called for a Statement or Debate on the Health Minister’s Written Statement on ‘Improvements in autism services’, published last week, in which he discredits the benefits of the Autism Act in England and states “'There is no equivalent to the progress we are making in Wales in the Integrated Autism Service”.
Speaking in the Chamber, Mr Isherwood said:
“I call for a Statement on improvements in autism services. On 23 September, a week ago yesterday, the Health Minister issued a Written Statement with that title, which merits an Oral Statement or even a Debate in Welsh Government time.
“It states, for example: 'Some see the answer is to introduce autism legislation, but we know that in England where the Autism Act was passed in 2009, this has not achieved the benefits that were promised'.
And, it says: 'There is no equivalent to the progress we are making in Wales in the Integrated Autism Service'.
“However, the National Autistic Society in England tell me that there has been significant progress in having a diagnostic pathway under the Autism Act there, with many more people presenting for diagnosis. Every area has an autism lead, and the last report said that the number of autistic people who have been found eligible for social care is up, and more diagnosis pathways are specialist autism ones. The wider Autism Community has asked me to challenge the perception that progress is being made in the integrated Autism Service where, for example, we don't have any information from it that measures outcomes for autistic people who have accessed the service, and much more besides, but I haven't got time to go into this now. It does merit time to ask appropriate questions accordingly.”
In her response the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd, Rebecca Evans AM, said: “ In terms of autism services, I know that the Minister had received reports on two independent reviews on autism—one that related to children and young people's neurodevelopmental services, and then a second that looked at the integrated autism service. He accepted those recommendations and set out how he would move forward on those. But he has said that he's commissioning a review to ensure that services are meeting people's needs and that money is being invested where it is needed.”
Speaking outside the Chamber, Mr Isherwood added:
“When members of the Autism Community asked me to challenge the perception that progress is being made in the Integrated Autism Service, where we don’t have any information from it that measures outcomes for autistic people who have accessed the service, they also told me that in relation to the neurodevelopmental waiting list, there are significant delays for diagnostic assessment, that the Health Minister recently provided information to the Children, Young People and Education Committee which suggests that only 44% of children and young people in Wales are receiving a diagnostic assessment within the stated waiting time target of 26-weeks, and that although his Written Statement says that AMs ‘wanted to see our reforms being delivered at pace’, the Autism Code and the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) Code are both now subject to delay”.
