Agenda item

Details of the updated strategy were presented by Owen Cave, Chairman of the Autism Partnership Board, Bridget Nisbett, carer of a young man with Autism, Laura Westwood, Commissioning Manager and Co-Chair of the Autism Partnership Board and Elaine Carolan, Strategic Commissioner.

Elaine Carolan explained that a lot of work had gone into making the Strategy an all age strategy. The interests of lots of groups were represented on the Board but there was more to do such as increasing engagement with older people and young people in schools. The Board had carried out their own self-assessment annually even though they were only asked to complete the national self-assessment at irregular intervals. At present national guidance was awaited and when that was received a new strategy would be developed.

The Partnership Board was now attended by Children’s Commissioners, the CCGs, SEND and education. An engagement event had taken place in January regarding this refreshed version of the strategy, but a full consultation would be undertaken once the national guidance was received and the strategy was fully reviewed. For this refresh the priorities had been reduced from 8 to 5 and a priority had been added regarding employment. The Strategy had been written in line with the Health and Well-being Board Strategy and work was on-going to align it with the NHS long term plan.

The last Self-Assessment had raised various points such as how the Autism Partnership Board fit with the Criminal Justice System and that some specific queries were difficult to answer as the issues sat partly within Learning Disability Services; however it was noted that waiting times had improved.

A few years ago the Board had produced a training pack for GPs and it was hoped that could be refreshed and also adapted to be used by other groups. An employment event would take place at the end of March which aimed to show employers that they didn’t need to make many adaptations in order to allow people with autism to be valuable employees. Pathways to diagnosis were being reviewed and it was also hoped that work could be done to find out the numbers of people locally with autism as they were currently assessed from estimated national figures.

During the discussion the following points were clarified:

·       The self-assessment framework was a government process carried out every 2-3 years but often the questions were changed. The local assessment was carried out every year using the previous questions and that showed consistent improvement

·       Input from Healthwatch had been valued and the Partnership Board had asked them to return to follow up the work they had carried out. They also wanted them to look at the Children’s offer and what was offered to people at school leaving age as it sometimes appeared that the offer was not maintained

·       The Partnership Board were aware that a high proportion of people in the Criminal Justice System had undiagnosed autism or learning disabilities. However it was hoped that people could be helped or diagnosed at an earlier stage in the criminal justice system

·       NHS England were responsible for commissioning services for people in prisons and it was hoped that assurance could be provided that GPs provided the same level of services to people in prisons as they provided to the general population

·       It was sometimes unclear whether some people fitted within the remit of the Autism Partnership Board

·       One of the priorities was around accessible information so that people knew who to ask for help with diagnoses, especially older people. More people were now being signposted to helpful services while they were waiting for a diagnosis

·       Information about Autism was shared with District Councils via the Strategic Housing Partnership. Registered Social Landlords had well developed support measures available

·       There was an issue around mental health and autism and who was responsible for providing services. These issues were also linked to employment and homelessness

·       The Cabinet Member for Adult Services welcomed the refresh and felt that the strategy had had an effect by clarifying who was responsible for services. It was a step forward for the CCG to be in charge of commissioning autism services, but he felt there was more to do on integration

·       Healthwatch had agreed that they would carry out follow-up work following their initial report

·       The Safer Communities Board should receive a presentation about the Autism Strategy which would help with awareness raising and would give attendees the opportunity to see how they could contribute to the priorities

·       The Health and Well-being Board wished to receive a follow up report when the national guidance had been received

·       The issue of funding was raised as the Autism Partnership Board worked on behalf of the County Council, CCG, Health and other organisations.

RESOLVED that the Health and Well-being Board noted the refreshed and updated All Age Autism Strategy.