Chair of the Assembly Cross Party Group on Autism, Mark Isherwood AM, has urged the First Minister to ensure that the education sector across Wales has “real autism awareness” and does not exclude autistic children for behaviors which are a result of their condition.
Questioning Carwyn Jones in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood referred to the increasing short-term exclusion rates in schools for children with additional learning needs and asked what the Welsh Government is doing to address the matter and to ensure that these pupils receive the support they need.
He said:
“We know that children, pupils, young people with additional learning needs have seen their short-term exclusion rates in school go up, against the overall trend. Only two weeks ago, I was contacted by another parent, in this case in Conwy, where their autistic son had been excluded for 43 days after an autistic meltdown in school - the 43 days coincidentally taking him to the end of his term at the end of primary school. He then got, the parents told me, no support for transition into secondary school - because their son was 'such a naughty boy'.
“How, therefore, will you as a Welsh Government be ensuring that the education sector across Wales understands the Court Ruling in August, where the National Autistic Society intervened on behalf of some parents, and the court ruled for the first time that all schools must make sure that they have made appropriate adjustments for autistic children or those with other disabilities before they can resort to exclusion.”
The First Minister replied: “Clearly, schools will have to take note of the court ruling. I can say that work has already started to support the new statutory system; it's not simply a question of waiting until September 2020 for everything to start. We are upskilling the workforce so that they're able to meet the needs of learners with ALN. That includes developing a professional learning offer for teachers, and funding to train educational psychologists and specialist teachers of the sensory impaired. So, yes, it's important that the law is in place and is ready to begin its course in September 2020, but we are investing to make sure that practitioners will be ready for when the changes come in September 2020.”
Mr Isherwood added: “We’ve heard this before, but until we move from paying lip service to Autism ‘awareness’ to real Autism Acceptance, with training and oversight provided by people with lived experience of autism, we will continue to get this wrong.”