North Wales MS and Chair of the Senedd’s Cross-Party Autism Group has today expressed deep concern that the Welsh Government’s Autism Code of Practice is often not being implemented or monitored, causing Autistic people and their families great distress.
Responding to this afternoon’s ‘Statement by the Deputy Minister for Social Services: Evaluation of the Autism Code of Practice and Neurodivergence Update’, Mr Isherwood referred to a number of cases in North Wales where people with Autism and other lifelong neurodevelopmental conditions have been badly treated and called on the Minister to respond to the issues these highlight.
The Code of Practice was introduced after proposals for an Autism (Wales) Bill by Mr Isherwood and subsequently Paul Davies MS were defeated.
Mr Isherwood said:
“The Welsh Government committed to develop a Statutory Code of Practice, reinforcing existing duties of the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 and the NHS (Wales) Act 2006 as an alternative to a separate Autism Bill.
“In the Code of Practice which followed, the Welsh Government stated they had ‘made sure that there are monitoring requirements and robust powers enabling Welsh Ministers to intervene if services do not meet satisfactory standards’.
“Has this ever happened since and, if so, what changes resulted, and how did Ministers ensure that Autistic people and their carers were involved and listened to in a way that met their communication, processing and sensory needs?”
He added:
“When I pursue constituent casework on behalf of people with Autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions , the providers and commissioners running the show, either fail to acknowledge the Code of Practice until reminded, or claim compliance with it.
“Minister, why, therefore, do the large numbers of Autistic people and their families or carers who contact me, almost always tell me that they have been ignored, harmed and blamed?
“Earlier this year, I attended a Care and Support Assessment at a constituent’s request, at which the conduct of Council officers drove the Mother into Autistic meltdown, which is not the same as a temper tantrum, and not bad or naughty behaviour, but occurs when I person is completely overwhelmed.
“How do you respond to the letter then sent by the Council’s Social Services Chief Officer, accusing the mother of verbal abuse and dictating how future contact would be managed?
“How do you respond to the allegations I received that young Autistic people in Wales are still being sent to Mental Institutions outside Wales, one of whom, for example, died in institutional care last November?
“How do you respond to the parents of Autistic children, whose children had been Sectioned as a result of placement breakdown and failure of Local Authority provision, who told Hefin David (MS) and I last month, that our ability to understand the extent of this problem and monitor it is restricted by the lack of available up-to-date data?
“Last month I had a Short Debate here on ‘Parental Blame and the Pathological Demand Avoidance Profile of Autism’, which described the personal experience of parents subjected to misaligned scrutiny and blame by their respective local authorities in respect of their children’s autistic presentations.
“How do you respond to the cases I detailed in this, including the Flintshire Mum who stated ‘Flintshire’s culture seems to be that of bullying, victimisation and coverups of serious safeguarding concerns and threats to remove children in order to gag the parents who complain’?
“And how do you respond to the Statement by the National Autistic Society’s Education and Transition Advice Co-ordinator for Wales in January’s Cross-Party Autism Group Meeting that the service receives the highest call volume from Flintshire - or to the Wrexham Mum who stated ‘the very ALN unit staff supposed to be advocating for our Year 11 son are doing the complete opposite’, and whose Education Tribunal was this month?”
Speaking afterwards, Mr Isherwood said:
“Given the seriousness of the issues I raised, It is disgraceful that the Minister dodged these by stating that she cannot become involved in individual cases, when the individual cases I referred to were used as examples only of wider endemic problems which demand Welsh Government intervention”.