New Clause 1
Autism Bill
3:45 pm
Stephen Ladyman (South Thanet, Labour)
The hon. Lady is right. That is a key area. I am sure that all of us who have campaigned on autism have spoken to people over the years who have fallen through that gap. I have never quite understood how local authorities get away with thinking that their responsibility can end at the age of 16, which many do, never mind at the age of 18 or 21. Despite her general point, which I am delighted to see reflected in the Bill, if a young person is placed miles away from a local authority’s area of responsibility it is much easier to forget about them and much easier not to transfer any resources to support them once they reach adulthood. I hope that there is a clear section in the guidance dealing with that issue.
The next point I want to make also needs to be in the guidance. I shall refer briefly to my amendment 41 and so will not need to move it later. Some work needs to be done to define what will fall within the scope of the Bill. It is all very well to say that it is autistic spectrum disorders, which is the definition that we have. However, all members of the Committee know, because we all have a certain amount of expertise in the matter, that autistic spectrum disorders range from very low levels of function, and what is called traditional Kanner’s autism, often with severe problems, through to the other end of the spectrum—the so-called high-functioning end—with Asperger’s syndrome. We call all those conditions autism, and I assume that there would be consensus in the Committee that they should all fall within the scope of the Bill.