Autism Bill

As always, I am grateful for your advice, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I intend to address the purpose of the Bill. There are three main areas: information gathering, the delivery of services to people with autism, and the transition to adult services. The Government have already addressed many of those issues, but clearly there is still some way to go. We do not have a national register of people with autism, and even if one were set up, it would be extremely difficult to maintain. As hon. Members have said, some people, especially some people with Asperger's syndrome, are never diagnosed, and so are never included in any information. However, we ought to make the effort. Some effort has been made; a variety of organisations have attempted to get statistics through epidemiological studies or surveys. More efforts are now made by local authorities to try to collate information via schools. However, we need to do more, so I welcome the Minister's announcement—I am pleased to see that he is back in the Chamber—that he will address those issues, and I welcome the Department of Health's £300,000 investment in the prevalence study, which will give us some sound information. The information is wanted not just to satisfy the needs of statisticians, but to enable us to develop appropriate services to meet the needs of people with autism. The excellent House of Commons research paper on the subject gives an account of the range of existing statutory support for people with autism. There are few references in legislation to the needs of people with autism, but through guidance, the Government have made sure that legislation applies to people with autism, or people with autism spectrum disorders. I note that there is guidance on how direct payments and individualised budgets for people with an ASD can be used. That will be an interesting way forward, because if people on the autism spectrum—or their carers or family, in certain circumstances—are given control of budgets, they will have a say in the sort of services that they want. If a theme has run through the debate, it has been the paucity of services for adults. If, through individual budgets, new services can be developed, it will certainly help to plug the gaps that we have all identified. As has been mentioned, standard 8 of the national service framework for children also has an autism spectrum disorders exemplar, which illustrates how children with an ASD are to be covered by the NSF. The Department of Health has made special reference to children with autism in its document "Healthy lives, brighter futures: The strategy for children's and young people's health". The document was accompanied by a practice guidance note for local authorities. In spite of that, however, there are still gaps in service. The hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) said that she wanted a named person to offer advice to families, and she knows that I have campaigned long and hard for a key worker system for children with disabilities. The guidance note that I mentioned referred to the need to""Ensure each young person and their family/carers are supported by a single 'trusted adult' contact who will liaise with services, support, the young person and their family/carers."" I am not sure about who the trusted adult is supposed to be, but the guidance note makes specific reference to the issue that the hon. Lady has raised and I have campaigned for. Towards the end of my contribution, I shall speak about examples of good practice in my constituency, but I say now that not all areas have that key worker—that trusted person. Yet such provision is so important to families with autistic children.