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<p>The SEND reforms in the Children and Families Act 2014 have brought benefits for
children and young people with autism and their families, including the move to more
person-centred, multi-agency and participative Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs
assessments and plans, with the timescale for carrying out an assessment and issuing
a plan reduced from 26 to 20 weeks. Separately, the National Institute for Health
and Care Excellence (NICE) standard specifies that an assessment for a possible autism
diagnosis should begin within three months of referral, and the Government plans to
improve the tracking of referral-to-assessment times for an autism diagnosis. Schools
should not wait for a diagnosis of autism before putting in place support, but should
employ a graduated approach to identifying needs and providing support, reviewing
support regularly to ensure it continues to meet the identified needs.</p><p> </p><p>All
local authorities in England must have an Information, Advice and Support Service
(IASS) to provide parents and young people with impartial advice about the law on
SEND, local SEND arrangements and support for a child’s needs. The service can also
help parents and young people prepare for meetings with schools, the local authority
or other agencies, including where they are bringing a complaint or making an appeal
to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). In addition,
families that are going through the process of EHC needs assessment and plan development
can call on support from an Independent Supporter, who can provide help and advice
if parents or young people wish to challenge a decision of the local authority, whether
through mediation or a Tribunal appeal.</p><p> </p><p>Local authorities have a statutory
duty to identify needs in their local area and to commission, together with partner
agencies, services to support children and young people with special educational needs
and disabilities (SEND) and their families. This includes services for children and
young people with autism. These services must be included in each authority’s Local
Offer of available services, which must be reviewed regularly in consultation with
local families, taking their views into consideration. In addition, under the Department’s
Free Schools programme, there are now twenty-three special free schools open across
the country, including thirteen specifically for children with Autism, such as the
Rise free school in Hounslow, the Lighthouse free school in Leeds and the National
Autistic Society’s Church Lawton free school in Cheshire. A further twenty-two special
free schools are due to open in the future, twelve of which will specialise in provision
for children with autism, including the Cumbria Academy for Autism and a second National
Autistic Society free school, the Vanguard free school in Lambeth. The other schools
will offer some places for children with autism. At the last spending review we announced
that we will make available at least £200 million to support the expansion of existing
provision as well as the development of new schools.</p><p> </p><p>The Department
has provided more than £2m to the Autism Education Trust (2011-17) to deliver autism
training to early years, school and post-16 education professionals in England. The
Trust has now trained more than 120,000 education staff. The training also incorporates
the learning from previous work by Ambitious about Autism on strategies for supporting
transition from school to college and the contract covers a service provided by the
National Autistic Society which provides information and advice to parents and professionals
on exclusions. We have issued an invitation to tender (ITT) for a new autism contract
from April 2017, which will continue the training for education professionals and
the exclusions service.</p><p> </p><p>For teachers in training, a new framework for
ITT content developed by the expert group chaired by Stephen Munday CBE was published
in July 2016. The framework includes specific content on special educational needs
and autism and is available for training providers to use. This twin approach of ongoing
work in schools to increase awareness of autism through training, while also ensuring
that new teachers are equipped to support pupils with autism from the outset, is designed
to ensure that children and young people are better supported to achieve well in their
education.</p>
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