Published on 12, July, 2020
Happy days quote "The Autism Act is a good piece of legislation, but I wonder how much teeth it has? I know that the Act is supposed to make the public sector aware of the needs of people with autism/aspergers, but I don't know how I could benefit from it?"
The act is a framework like any bill, it has to be tested in court to establish the teeth as you put it, that involves court test cases to set presidences of law, HAPPY DAYS V NAS, so the problem is ? who is going to enforce the act via the courts, the NAS should be the advocate, but are looking the other way, whistling nothing to do with us.
So you have a catch 22, looks good on paper, but the councils etc, will do the minimum especially under the current economical climate. Autistic people are emotional screwed so they can't challenge a court, so unless the parents or guardians challenge the situation this act will be worthless. The NAS should be grouping test cases together and being the advocate for the condition. Politically this will not happen because they are just a vehicle of the state, which has hijack the autistic community with a state treasure chest to hush some people off.
The fact this act came from a MP's private members bill, this may be a reason why, so the state can be challenged via the courts because obvious there is a vulnerable gap which is not getting filled by the NAS and other state instititions. So my question is ? Can you sue the NAS and other state institutions for neglect under the Autism Act ?
To quote Adrian plass. “The law is very difficult. There’s such a lot of it. Perhaps you haven’t understood. Perhaps you are a twit.”
so spicificly suing for not providing care / diagnosis?
no offence intended. So there are a number of basses upon which you could sue people. So there is the equality act. It allows you to sue for discrimination. But discrimination can be quite narrow.
Section 15 is hard to apply because it requires an unfavourable act and an act of omission only really counts if it’s something they would normally do and your disability caused them not to do.
so if an NAS or local authority service kicked out an autistic child for being disruptive because of autism you might have a case under section 15. But not for just providing poor service generally.
reasonable adjustments might apply in some limited cases. It can require the provision of auxiliary aids. You might argue that sending someone who seems to have a neurodiverse condition away for formal diagnosis is a form of auxiliary aid. But the court will probably want to be satisfied that the institution in question should have picked up on the need for a diagnosis.
the autism act itself doesn’t give you the right to sue anyone. But it does say what government bodies and people they hire are expected to do so you can challenge their decisions using a judicial review lawsuit. It’s not the same as getting compensation but it can force the government to do things or not do things.
You say the Autism Act 2009 doesn't give the right to sue someone, but you're wrong.
It creates causes of action for autistic individuals, such as a local authority failing to conduct a needs assessment for an autistic person.
Please don't give misleading information if you don't understand the law.