Agenda item

The Business Change Commissioning Manager for Adult Social Care and Commissioning will deliver a presentation.

The Business Change Commissioning Manager, Adult Social Care and Commissioning delivered a presentation to provide the Commission Members with an update on the joint Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Autism Strategy development, and is attached for information.

The following points were highlighted:

·         It was a statutory requirement to produce a strategy or document that reflects the Autism Act 2009 and national guidance (2015). The LLR Autism Partnership Board had developed a strategy and underpinning Delivery Plan that would run from 1^st April 2019 to 31^st March 2022.

·         The strategy development timeline was highlighted in the presentation, with planned consultation due to commence in January 2019, with a view to the strategy being launched June 2019.

·         Health and social care organisations are also required to complete a National Autism Self-Assessment Framework (SAF) which looks at how the Autism Act has been implemented, which includes planning, training, care and support, housing and accommodation, employment and criminal justice systems.  The SAF will be completed as a joint Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) submission.

·         The Department of Health and Social Care will publish the results in an annual report in 2019.

·         The local authority Health and Wellbeing Boards for LLR will sign off the submission to the Department of Health. CCGs were responsible for collecting health related data to be provided to the local authority.

·         The SAF responses will be RAG rated (red, amber, green) against compliance.

·         The timeline for completion and sign off was given with a planned final submission on 10^th December 2018.

The Chair said she believed Leicester was making great strides in getting autism awareness out into the community. She added it was particularly challenging for girls as it was difficult to diagnose in females. She asked if conversations could be widened to talks with business providers, with tailored training for staff, for example, with Haymarket businesses. She requested information on the success of the ‘Autism Hour’ initiative be provided to her.

In response to a question from Members, the Strategic Director said there was a wide spectrum of autism and that it was wide ranging in impact, and the impact of stress was significant. Links to the web sites for information on autism would be provided to Members. In terms of awareness training there was lots of information and training packages that could be sourced online.

The Chair recommended that when dementia and autism reports were taken to the Commission meetings, or at training sessions, that Officers append summary information on background, relevant web links or books that Members could access for further information. She added that she wanted Leicester to become an autism friendly city.

The Assistant City Mayor said it was not enough for people to know about autism, but for people to keep an open mind and be less judgemental, and that the biggest concern for her was the number of people in society that shouldn’t be but were in prison, as their disability was not recognised as such; their behaviour labelled as anti-social and deviant.

The Chair also recommended that Officers put a sentence together that could be used for the people of Leicester, a tag line for people to recognise and memorise about different behaviours, and to bring it back to a future meeting of the Commission.

The Chair thanked officers and Members for their comments.

It was AGREED that:

1.    The presentation be noted.

2.    Information on the success of the last ‘Autism Hour’ initiative be provided to the Chair.

3.    The links to website information on autism be provided to Members.

4.    Officers to append summary information (background, relevant web links or books) that Members could access for further information.

5.    A tag line sentence for the people of Leicester to raise awareness of autism be developed and brought back to a future meeting of the Commission.