Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what is their strategy to ensure
the needs of autistic pupils are fully met in mainstream
secondary schools.
(Lab)
My Lords, in begging leave to ask the Question standing in my
name on the Order Paper, I declare an interest as a
vice-president of the National Autistic Society, an honour I
share with my noble friend , who unfortunately cannot be
with us today.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, we want to give all children and young people,
including those with autism, the opportunity to thrive. The SEND
and alternative provision Green Paper published last March set
out
“proposals for an inclusive system, starting with improved
mainstream provision”
with
“early and accurate identification of needs, high-quality
teaching … and prompt access to targeted support”.
We are committed to publishing a full response to the Green Paper
in our improvement plan early this year.
(Lab)
I thank the Minister for her Answer. Some 130,000 autistic
youngsters are educated in mainstream schools. According to
figures from the Minister’s department, they are twice as likely
as non-special needs children to be excluded from school. What is
worse, a report by Ambitious about Autism revealed that more than
half the exclusions are unofficial or unlawful. The Autism Centre
for Education and Research at the University of Birmingham has
produced an excellent report on these matters. The authors were
due to meet officials from the Minister’s department, but
unfortunately the meeting has not yet taken place. Will she
personally intervene to ensure that this meeting takes place? It
will make a difference.
(Con)
I commend the noble Lord; I know he has worked tirelessly on this
extremely important and complex issue of children and adults with
autism. I would of course be delighted to go back to the
department and talk to my ministerial colleagues to make sure the
meeting takes place. I absolutely hear his concerns in relation
to exclusions. He will be aware that the department updated our
behaviour guidance last summer and stressed the importance of
anticipating triggers of behaviour for children with special
educational needs, including autism, and making sure provision is
available for them.
(Con)
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that a significant number of
education, health and care plans for autistic children are being
delayed by the failure of councils to recruit enough educational
psychologists. Indeed, some EHC plans have been issued without
the child in question seeing an ed psych either remotely or in
person. What does the Minister plan to do about this problem?
(Con)
I would be grateful if my noble friend could share details of
these cases, so that we make sure we understand them properly.
The House will be aware that a diagnosis of autism needs to be a
medical diagnosis. We will publish our improvement plan for
provision for children with special educational needs. That will
clearly cover how we want EHCPs to work better in future; it will
be before the House shortly.
(LD)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for the Answer she gave earlier
and remind the House of my interests in the general field of
special educational needs. Does she agree that if you are
determined to get a medical diagnosis, you are slowing down the
process of recognition and help? If we get teachers better
trained to give a suspicion—it might be just a suspicion—or some
knowledge about the autistic field, we will have a chance of
getting better help. If noble Lords think that does not have an
effect, look at the numbers of autistic people identified in the
prison system.
(Con)
The noble Lord raises two connected issues. Formal diagnosis of
autism in this country needs to be done by a medical
professional—a doctor. The noble Lord is absolutely right; that
does not need to slow down interventions to support a child where
there is apparently autism, even before it is confirmed. The
Government announced a contract with a number of leading
charities in this area to provide universal training across the
teaching workforce in both schools and FE, and 60,000 people have
been trained so far since April 2022.
of Hudnall (Lab)
My Lords, on this question of diagnosis, which the Minister has
referred to, I am sure she is aware that it can take quite a long
time before it is even seen to be necessary to seek a diagnosis,
that this is particularly true with girls—children and young
people up to teenage years—and that, once the need for a
diagnosis has been identified, it can take a very long time to
get it. Even if you are prepared—some people are, but not
everybody can—to go for a private route to secure that diagnosis,
it can sometimes be a year or two, three or four years before
that diagnosis can be made. Can she see any way forward to
changing that situation?
(Con)
The whole strategic focus of the improvement plan that we will be
publishing in response to the SEND and AP Green Paper
consultation is to address the problem we see today of late
diagnosis, late intervention and needs escalating; that is
absolutely our aspiration. On the diagnosis of girls, we are
running two pilots at the moment, one testing new screening tools
and the other seeing whether we can adapt existing ones, because
we are all aware that four times as many boys are diagnosed as
girls.
(Con)
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, , on his
introduction. A more diverse House is a stronger house. I also
commend the noble Lord, , on his long-standing work on
autism. Will the Minister ensure that guidance for schools on
transgender issues takes into account the Cass interim report
finding that approximately one-third of children and young people
referred to gender identity development services have autism or
other types of neurodiversity?
(Con)
I thank my noble friend for his question. The data he cites
underlines the importance of having a truly skilful and expert
diagnosis of the full range of issues a young person is facing
before finalising any diagnosis of gender dysphoria. I cannot yet
comment on how that will be addressed in the guidance because
obviously, we are going to publish the draft and then consult on
it.
(DUP)
My Lords, I think it will be widely accepted that the key to
providing the appropriate level of support throughout a school
career for a pupil with autism—indeed, it needs to be tailored
for the individual—is early diagnosis and early educational
intervention, leading to sustained support for the pupil. What
specific actions will the Government be taking to improve early
educational intervention and what additional resources are they
prepared to commit to improve it?
(Con)
I have referred to some of the interventions. I talked about the
three-year universal training contract in schools and colleges,
which began in April last year. We have funded work on
transition—£18 million for supported internships for those with
the most complex needs. In addition to that early intervention,
we also want to bring clarity to parents, teachers, local
authorities and commissioners about what the nationally expected
standards of provision are so that it feels like a clear,
transparent and fair playing field.
(Lab)
My Lords, while I understand and indeed respect the Minister’s
previous responses on this Question, nevertheless the Government
continue to delay the publication of their SEND review
consultation response. Children, many of whom will be autistic,
will be unable to reach their full potential and thrive in
appropriate educational settings. These children are being let
down. Minister, how much longer will they have to wait?
(Con)
I think I have already said that the implementation plan will be
published early this year.
(LD)
Does the Minister agree that some children diagnosed with autism
are also experiencing mental health difficulties, and that that
is a complex interaction? What training is being given to mental
health professionals working in mental health support teams in
schools to understand and support autistic children who also have
mental health problems?
(Con)
I may need to write to the noble Baroness on the specifics of the
training, but she is correct that we are supporting those
professionals to respond and help identify mental health issues
early among children in schools.
