AUTISM
LEGISLATION
AUTISM
LEGISLATION
The portrait
on the left is of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel MP, Bt.Conservative, 1788 - 1850. During his career, he, at various times held the posts of Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and on two occasions, became Prime Minister. He is probably most remembered for creating the Metropolitan Police Force in 1829, during his term as Home Secretary. The men of the 1,000 strong force were known as "Bobbies" or "Peelers". In 1841 he campaigned in the General Election that brought him his second term as Prime Minister, loudly voicing his opposition to the introduction of income tax. In 1842 , income tax was introduced "as a temporary measure" and remains with us today ! ! Further proof, ( if it were needed ) that the promises and blandishments of politicians are not always reliable.
____________________________________________ The Thérèse Lord School The plan to set up a free school in Lincoln for children with special  educational needs has been rejected by the Department for Education. Free schools are free from local authority control -they are all funded directly from central government, but applications do need the support of the local authority, in this case Lincolnshire County Council. Councillor Patricia Bradwell has said "We've got three special schools here at the moment andwe've got capacity for children with additional needs at the Priory Academy so there is no need for another school". Thérèse Lord, the chair of Lincolnshire Parent Carer Council has said that the parents of over 100 children have already requested a place at the school. Thérèse and Lincs Parent Carer Council can reapply next year and if successful, will be able to open the school in 2013. Of the twenty - four free schools that opened in September, quite a large Thérèse Lord number were faith schools, such as the Krishna Avanti Primary School in Leicester (Hindu) which is the nearest free school to Grantham. Here is a link to the Thérèse Lord website:- Link to Thérèse Lord School _________________________________________________________________ Support from Adult Services Lincolnshire County Council Adult Services is having its funding cut by 28% over the next four years and is facing tough decisions as a result. Basically, the L.C.C. is planning to raise the level of need required for support from Adult Services, some 3100 vulnerable adults who previously were assessed as having "moderate" needs will be affected. Click on the icon for more details :-  Update The
council's consultation exercise produced 630 respondents, 88% did not support
the
____________________________________________council's intention to remove support for people with moderate needs and in fact 46% wanted the threshold lowered . You will not be surprised to read that the council is going ahead with its plan anyway, it expects to save £1.5 million in a full year. A program to reassess all those previously described as moderate will begin on Monday 17 October. Of 3096 people, 1509 were supported to live at home and the remainder had been supplied with equipment. However the politicians and administrators want
to dress this up, it is a reduction in
service, and it must result in further pressure on relatives, or a
reduced quality of life for the people concerned. As a contrast,
thebudget for the Home Office at approx £12.5 billion annually. For those who have the persistance and the stomach to read it, here is the report on the council meeting of October 4th, when the decision was taken :- Publication of Statutory Guidance - December 17th 2010 The Statutory Guidance was published on Friday, December 17th, as a Department of Health PDF document. Click on the icon to view it :- This is the 'Easy Read' version, also from the Dept of Health website :- In the present economic climate, it will be difficult to persuade cash-strapped Local Authorities to implement the guidance and the National Autistic Society says ( on its website ) that it intends to carry on campaigning at local level. Hopefully this will reduce the possibility of a postcode lottery. History of the Autism Bill The Autism Act 2009, a private members bill carried forward by Cheryl Gillan, ( the Parliamentary Secretary for Wales in the present Government ) received Royal Assent on 12th November 2009. The act puts a duty on the Secretary of State for Health to introduce a strategy for improving outcomes for adults with autism. The Act also puts a duty on the Secretary of State for Health ( currently Andrew Lansley MP, Conservative Member for South Cambridgeshire ) to provide the statutory guidance by the end of 2010. Phil Hope, the then Care Services Minister, announced the publication of the Autism Strategy would take place in the first week in March 2010. It was in fact published on March 3rd, and we now await the guidance, which will instruct the P.C.T.'s and Local Authorities on how to apply the strategy. The Government document, entitled "Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives" describes the strategy. It is a massive seventy - seven pages long and specifies five key areas where action is required. 1 ) Increasing awareness and understanding of autism. 2 ) Improving access to diagnosis and ensuring that a needs assessment will follow a diagnosis. 3 ) Improving access for adults with autism to the services they need to live independantly within the community. 4 ) Helping adults with autism into work ( at present only 15% of ASD adults have a job, 49% live with a parent or carer ). 5 ) Enabling local authorities and NHS areas to develop appropriate services for adults with autism, to meet their needs and priorities. There will be training for health and social care professionals, to increase awareness of autistic spectrum conditions and training for Jobcentre Plus Disability Employment Advisers. The sum of £500,000 has been set aside for this training. It is calculated that there are some 400,000 adults with autism in England, one in three have learning difficulties. Children are not mentioned in the strategy - the Government has claimed ( during the negotiations for the Autism Bill, ) that they will be covered by provisions in the act "Apprenticeships, Schools, Children and Learning Act 2009". However, this act, which also gained the Royal Assent on 12th November '09 is 265 pages long and does not contain one use of the words autism, autistic, aspergers, or A.S.D. The N.A.S. has led calls for local autism teams to provide specialist diagnosis, care and training for local support staff, but although the strategy says specialist teams could help build capacity in local autism services, it does not make them a requirement. Crucially, the Autism Strategy is not legally binding, and aggrieved persons would have to use local complaint procedures. Those who wish to read "Fullfilling and Rewarding Lives" can do so by clicking on the image link below, - you will need Adobe Reader software, its a free download, if you go to the "Resources" page and find the article "Reading On-Line Documents", there is a button on the resources page that takes you to the Adobe Reader download page. Click on the image to open Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives > It may take a little time to respond- it is 77 pages long! Wednesday December 1st 2010 The National Autistic Society has emailed us, saying "We were very concerned that the draft guidance did not go far enough in setting out what support councils and local health bodies have to provide for adults with autism." They are urging supporters to email their MPs asking them to contact the ministers responsible for the guidance ( Andrew Lansley, Health Minister and Paul Burstow, Care Minister ) and also sign an Early Day Motion asking for strong guidance. Sadly, it begins to look as though my worst fears are coming true. Return to Top |