Asked by Lord Touhig To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether
they are planning to introduce a national autism and education
strategy; and if so, what are those plans. Lord Touhig (Lab)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on
the Order Paper and draw the House’s attention to the fact that I
am a vice-president of the...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are planning
to introduce a national autism and education strategy; and
if so, what are those plans.
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(Lab)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my
name on the Order Paper and draw the House’s attention to
the fact that I am a vice-president of the National
Autistic Society.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education (Lord Agnew of Oulton) (Con)
My Lords, we welcomed the publication in November of the
report Autism and education in England 2017. We are carefully
considering the recommendations, including creating a
national autism strategy. Some recommendations reflect
existing policy, such as our funding of extensive autism
awareness training for school staff, improving local
accountability and providing additional funding. The report
is informing our thinking about the next steps in achieving
our vision for the SEND system that we will confirm later
this year.
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My Lords, that is a very welcome response because I think we
all agree that every child has a right to a good education
and to reach their full potential. The National Autistic
Society supported the report of the all-party group, which
was chaired by two Conservative Members of Parliament, who
did fantastic work. The report said that three things are
needed: teachers should have autism training, schools should
know how to make reasonable adjustments for youngsters who
are autistic, and councils should make provision for school
places now and for the future. Given that optimistic hope and
the Minister’s response, will he agree to meet with
colleagues across the House so we can press it further with
him?
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of Oulton
My Lords, I am very happy to meet the noble Lord, , and other members of
that committee so we can discuss the recommendations and try
to include them in our future strategy.
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(Con)
My Lords, I have an interest in this via Motability and also
because my little grandson is on the spectrum. I congratulate
the Government because there is interest in and support for
the subject on all sides of the House, including from
Ministers. The National Autistic Society has done a
marvellous job over the years. There has been a lot of
research, there are a lot of statistics and more work is
being done in different areas. We know the answers now—there
is a huge amount of knowledge. We need the money now. Can the
whole system be brought forward so we can get on and give
these youngsters the chance they deserve?
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of Oulton
My Lords, we have invested £373 million for local areas to
implement SEND since 2014 and have just renewed a grant to
the Autism Education Trust to help improve the training of
education staff. It has trained some 150,000 staff since
2011-12. Awareness is very much rising in the education
sector.
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(LD)
My Lords, the Minister talked about awareness. Awareness only
goes so far. Have the Government identified how many
specialist support teachers they need—people trained
specifically to meet the needs of this group—and at what
density? Without that, you can have all the awareness you
need but not know how to implement it properly.
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of Oulton
My Lords, the approach has very much been to include autistic
children in mainstream education, and 72% of autistic
children are. As I mentioned a moment ago, we are rolling out
the training to staff to ensure that awareness of the
condition is more widespread. That is certainly the
intention. We have also invested substantially in the
creation of special schools. Some 600 local authority
maintained schools have a specialism for autistic children.
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(Con)
I welcome the fact that all teachers are going to be given
autism awareness training when the new teacher training
starts in September. Can this also include classroom
assistants, who are often the first to see children who may
have problems? They too need to have training to know how to
deal with this.
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of Oulton
My Lords, as I mentioned in an earlier reply, the great work
that the Autism Education Trust is doing extends not just to
teachers but to all those involved in schools. I reassure my
noble friend that that is very much part of our strategy.
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(Lab)
My Lords, the noble Lord will no doubt be aware that girls on
the autism spectrum are often more adept than boys at
concealing their difficulties and often go undiagnosed and
untreated. What special arrangements are in place to improve
the diagnosis of girls with autism?
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of Oulton
I cannot reply specifically on the condition in girls, but I
am aware that the highest proportion of education, health and
care plans are for people on the autistic spectrum. There is
comprehensive acceptance that the new EHC plan system is
working. In 2015, we carried out a detailed survey and found
that 75% of parents and users thought that the young person
was getting the help they needed, but I accept that we need
to continue learning and improving in this process.
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(Lab)
My Lords, not in any way to underestimate the importance of
education, but it seems to me that this extends quite a bit
beyond that, and relates very much to the households of
autistic children, not least when the autistic child is a boy
and the other siblings are girls. I suggest that perhaps some
attention be paid to the benefit of dogs in many of these
households. I am sitting next to a dog now, who is wonderful
at dealing with the difficulties my noble friend has, and I
can see one sitting opposite me. I am aware of a number of
families in which dogs have made a world of difference to the
behaviour of these children in their homes. Although there
are one or two small charities doing work in this direction,
some expansion and co-ordination would be extremely helpful.
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of Oulton
My Lords, I completely agree with the noble Lord’s comments.
I know of a vivid example in the academy trust I founded. We
had a child on the autistic spectrum who was literally unable
to speak to either pupils or staff in the school, although he
was very bright. One of the teachers had the inspirational
idea to bring a dog to the school. Within a month, that child
was talking happily to the dog, and a few weeks beyond that
was interacting with the children and teachers in the school.
It might be useful to finish on the positive note that many
people on the autistic spectrum go on to have remarkable
lives, and I will give just a few examples: Hans Christian
Andersen, Susan Boyle, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Bill
Gates, Thomas Jefferson, Steve Jobs, Michelangelo, Mozart and
Isaac Newton. The whole spectrum of life can be enriched by
people with this condition.
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