Guidance for the UK autism bill released today

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For your information....

On Friday 17 December, the Government will release the statutory guidance to the Autism Act. This is the final stage in the campaign for better services for hundreds of thousands of people with autism across England. It means that local authorities will know exactly what services they should be providing and will also allow people who are not receiving the services they need to challenge their authorities in the courts. This is a huge step forward. Please, take the time to visit www.autism.org.uk/autismstrategy to find out more and to email your council to make sure they know about the guidance.

Cool.

People should have had better services long before now, considering that Autism started gaining ground in the 1970's.

Shambolic.

these services still need to be funded and for that reason i'm not getting too excited.

You Brits need to seriously do what we Americans did 250 years ago and tell Parliment and the monarchy that they can go to hell.

Looking good Yeah a little pessimistic with the whole budget cuts stuff going on but oh well, wait and see eh?

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I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

Implementing Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives: Statutory guidance for local authorities and NHS organisations to support implementation of the autism strategy

In line with the requirements of the Autism Act 2009, DH has issued Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives, statutory guidance for health and social care bodies.

The purpose of the guidance is to secure the implementation of 'Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives: The strategy for adults with autism in England' by giving guidance to local authorities, NHS bodies and NHS Foundation Trusts around training of staff, the diagnosis of autism and the leadership and planning of services.

This guidance will help these bodies to develop services that support and meet the locally identified needs of people with autism and their families and carer

I would suggest if you live in the UK it is worth your while to read this document, however you may find the easy read and the two page "what this means" summary of more use to get a general idea of what is being proposed. This will have significant implications on the way autism services will be created throughout the UK. Don't say you weren't told

The full Statutory Guidance Link (PDF file)

The Easy Read Version intended for people with Learning disability very accessable and jargon free

What this means for adults with autism summary link

I would like to see how this works out in practice, given the slash and burn approach to cutting funds both in local councils and the NHS. Even if they claim otherwise, the cost savings being imposed will make funding of any new services very difficult.

If there is anything less than top-down compulsion enforced by the disappearing monitoring bodies, I suspect it will be left up to individuals to mount legal challenges to their local council for non-compliance. I hope I am wrong... but suspect not.

ASD only became an offical "disability" for the purpose of state based disability services in Australia in about 2006. Before that people could access state based disability services if they had an intellectual disability and others were only entitled to mental health services.

We do not have a right to services here and waiting lists are horrid, but it has meant that staff in disability services have had extensive training in what autism is, the different forms of it and specifically aspergers and high functioning autism. It has meant that the support people get is better than they had in the past. May not solve the problems, but they are no longer been told to take a pill and to get over it from the mental health system. They can at least have their names placed on waiting lists, and those that do get disability services are increasingly being allocated individual budgets, which they can choose to give to a non profit organistion of their own choice to manage, but they have the total choice of what services they do get, and are no longer being told what they will get by a psychiatrist. They can complain, can lodge appeals, etc, etc, all things that were not possible before.

But given that so many people in Australia think that the UK is all about people every single thing they want from social and heatlh care services, when in fact it depends entirely on where you live, with some places being great and others being absolutey horrible, it is nice to hear you say what things are really like in the UK, instead of telling how brillant it is and trying to make it better than any other country. The fact is disability everywhere is poorly funded, and it is pure luck if you get the help you need, in the way you want it provided to you.

As for politicans, tell me a politican in any country of the world, that actually cares about the real day to day lives of people and not just being in power!! They are as bad as each other in every single country of the world.