Autism and Moving to UK

Someone may already have said it here but it really is dependent on what your local area provides. I have also lived in Australia and my general impression is that you get more services in Australia than you do here. It’s also much easier to add in private options there.

I agree with puff ,there has been a scandal here with autistic people taken off PIP and then starving to death , and teens being locked in solitary for years with no help ,fed through a hole in the door . Theses things are happening but nobody seems to care.

You may want to contact SENCO ( Educational authority ) who deal with educational interventions & assistance in schools here. I only have experience in Primary school settings so can't comment on your age group.

I'm sure you'd get most of what you get there but whether it's as generous, the same quality or as well coordinated as there I would have my doubts. In my area we can wait up to 26 weeks just for a decision on whether the child needs a classroom assistant. Pretty traumatic and we haven't been reassured the teacher or assessor know what they're doing in the meantime. We had to push them to apply for assistance. 

There has been nasty austerity to the public sector here since 2010 as Puff says, where they only seem to want to boost privatisation.  

Reading about the support available to you there, it sounds a lot better than what is available here. I was only diagnosed last year as autistic but I've had to use mental health services numerous times and as much as there are great people working in these organisations they're not funded as they should be which obviously affects the assistance they're able to give. To give you an idea of how our government treats people with disabilities; they hire ATOS, a French IT company to perform assessments on those claiming disability assistance, and this company, in many cases, deemed people 'fit to work' when they clearly were not. As a result, a great many died from having assistance and living aids taken away. They're a nasty, selfish and cruel government and I can not recommend enough that you stay where you are, it sounds like your son will be able to live a much better life there than he could here. 

It is different for everyone based on a needs assessment. From our budget we choose fortnightly sessions with a Speech Therapist and a Psychologist.  We get after-school learning assistance twice a week and we have a consultant doing in-school visits regularly.  The consultant discusses school and life with our son while he is on the school grounds.  The feedback from these sessions is then used to advise his teachers and us on his Individualized Learning Plan.

In addition to the consultants we get budget for respite care ,n-home learning aids (e.g. iPad) and living assistance (we get someone in regularly to help maintain our garden -  a different take on respite care).  

The advantage of the NDIS is that it provides funding aligned to different categories of help, but leaves a degree of control with the primary care giver on how be to apportion that funding e.g. % spent on Speech Therapy vs % spent on Occupational Therapy and the primary care giver  gets to choose the professionals they want to use.  It's not perfect but it works for us.  

What kind of support are you currently getting there ?

Hi Mael - No we don't have to move.  I have been offered a new job in the UK but it sounds like my family would be worse off for it.  The NDIS in Aus has it quirks but it has been a godsend for my family and so many others here.  After living with such good support it will be hard to give it up.  

Terrible here, minimum support at best ,most areas worst ,thats my experience. 2 year waiting list for diagnosis is common . No proactive help just reactive when things break down .. Why are you coming to the uk do you have to ?

Thanks all for your response.  Sounds like you are doing it tough over there.

Personally I would recommend looking at other countries if you're set on leaving Australia, things aren't good here right now and the longer the government we have is in office the more likely it is there will be less support for people with conditions like autism, in future. 

Don't its not good at the moment and there is alot of uncertainty

that (NDIS) sounds quite good compared to the UK (NHS).  Support in the UK is patchy so you would need to know where in the UK you are considering moving to. Other parents with teenagers will reply so wait for more responses.