Autism and Moving to UK

Hi - My wife and I are considering a move to the UK from Australia.  We have an early teens autistic child.  In Australia the Govt established the NDIS which provides support funding (respite care, psychology, OT, speech therapy, etc).  I am trying to find out how such services are accessed and paid for in the UK?  Is it via the NHS, Private Health or just user pays direct to the consultant?  Any advise or pointers much appreciated.

Parents
  • 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.  

  • What kind of support are you currently getting there ?

  • 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.  

  • 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.

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