Online Survey to share your views about the Autism Strategy

There is no autism strategy in Merton, I have been asking dozens of times for the contact details of the 'named' person responsible for the commissioning of services for adults with autism but always get fobbed off to mental heath then to learning disability then back to switchboard and round again, people say someone will call me back but they never do apart from once when they don't have the name because the person does not exist which means Merton Local Authority is breaking the law. I have already confirmed this with the CEO of NAS during the live chat session.

QUESTION

If the Autism Act 2009 says by law the local authority must make provisions to meet the needs of adults with autism spectrum conditions, and also every local authority should ensure that there is a named joint commissioner/senior manager with responsibility for commissioning of services for adults with autism and there should be a team specifically for those with ASD's, then does this mean if a local authority is not doing these things then they are breaking the law ? - a simple YES OR NO answer, there is no grey area, they either are or they are not breaking the law, there cannot be any inbetween.

Mark NAS:

Hi Paull
The Autism Act statutory guidance puts a number of key duties on local authorities and health bodies in England. Local authorities and local NHS bodies have to follow the guidance so long as there is no good reason not to do so. Lack of resources is not a good reason not to implement the statutory guidance.

On appointing an autism lead, the statutory guidance is very clear on this, saying “each local authority should ensure there is a joint commissioner/senior manager who has in his/her portfolio a clear commissioning responsibility for adults with autism. This is the key leadership role locally and local authorities are expected to appoint someone."

Secondly, however, you mention establishing an autism team. Although this is mentioned as an example of good practice in the strategy and in recent NICE guidelines and although local areas are encouraged to develop such teams, there is no direct duty on local authorities to establish an autism team.

Broadly speaking though, you are right. If a local authority is not seeking to achieve the broad aims of the strategy they could theoretically be challenged by way of an application for judicial review. Challenging the local authority through the courts in this way is quite complicated and there are other ways to ensure local implementation of the Act. We are launching a new campaign in May designed to support people at a local level to hold their local authority to account. Watch this space for how to get involved!

Hope this helps - Mark

The autism act covers England, but not Scotland, Scotland has an autism strategy, which means they have too have a local autism strategy plan, autism co-ordinator and provide specialist adult autism services,, MY LOCAL COUNCIL HAS NONE OF THIS ? The whole thing is ******** ! There is an act in place (england, wales) why are you campaigning for something that is legal statutory, like paying your taxes ? Why not just go to the LAW COURTS IN EUROPE !

How does the NAS campaign line work in Scotland ?

Quote "adults with autism have waited long enough for the support they need."... so why take the campaign root, data collecting instrument,, ANOTHER LONG SLOW ROAD,, SUITS THE GOVERNMENT AND THE NAS.

Thank you so much you beat me to it -I will contact the South East Team now,

Many thanks,

No problem. I actually just replied to a post on Facebook from someone in Merton and advertised the consultation you're doing.

The South East team contact details can be found here: www.autism.org.uk/.../South-east-area-development-team.aspx

Thanks Tomm,

That is very helpful I will post on the Merton page and try and contact the South East Development Team -what is the best way to do this will I find their details on the website?

Thanks again for your help

Hi Longman,

Thanks for signing up to support, that's great.

We've only 'soft launched' so far, which is why sign-up is low so far - the main promotional email is going out today so we'll see a big spike in support by this evening.

The campaign is calling for action on two fronts:

Firstly, to call upon all councils and NHS bodies to comply with their duties under the strategy and statutory guidance that came from the Autism Act.It has been 3 years since the strategy was published and adults with autism have waited long enough for the support they need.

Secondly, to call upon the Government to do more to remove some of the barriers to local progress that we've identified in our research, including funding, guidance and monitoring.

You can see a summary of the campaign in our infographic here: e-activist.com/.../action or can read more detail in our full report, which you can find at www.autism.org.uk/pfaresources

Signing up is just the start, and it's going to take a lot of action to get progress on both of these fronts - we'll be coordinating action across the country throughout the year which we believe will lead to real change. And the more people who get behind us, the more chance we have - so please do encourage others you know to sign up!

Thanks

Tom

Just logged on to support, but its slow. I don't know if it was the figures before me, or including me, but there were just 7 for my authority, out of 341 nationally. That seems slow.

Also it is great to see what authorities claim. Mine certainly hasn't done any of the things they said yes to (autism isn't a term on the A-Z of their website).

But just posting comments, which are national, won't help single out the "no attempt made" councils.

The Government needs to be persuaded to enforce "Leading Rewarding and Fufilling Lives" but at the review stage in April last year they were letting off councils that had blatently ignored the requirements, and even saying next to nothing was progress.

With that background are we likely to be much further forward this year?

Many councils do not have an autism participation board, and the general interpretation seems to be to include autism on an existing learning disability partnership board ONLY for people with autism who are also learning disabled.

Hi Merton1.

Fantastic that you're consulting people with autism and their families in the area. Have you spoken to our South East Development Team? They should be able to point you to other local networks to promote this in.

You might have seen our Push For Action campaign that we launched this week? Forum participants from Merton might also like to see the progress you've told us you've made on the Autism Strategy and sign up to support the campaign: www.autism.org.uk/.../Merton.aspx

Soon our web technology will (hopefully) enable us to promote your survey on the Merton page of the site so our supporters from Merton will see it. We'll let you know when that functionality is ready.

Best of luck with the consultation - hope you get a great response.

Tom Madders

Head of Campaigns, NAS

Hi Alex

Very sorry I wasn't sure the best one to post it in, I will take a couple of them down!

Thanks

Hi!

Welcome to the community! Could I ask you not to start the same thread in multiple forums, please?

Many thanks,

Alex R - NAS moderator