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Liz Blackman (Erewash) (Lab): Will my hon. Friend give way?

Helen Jones: My hon. Friend has great expertise in these matters, so I am happy to give way.

Liz Blackman: It is no coincidence that Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism are labelled hidden disabilities. There is good practice, but it is patchy. The Government face an enormous challenge in making sure that the culture of every organisation that could make a contribution to support both families and    children develops and changes so that those organisations become far more effective and responsive to all families who face that particular disability.

Helen Jones: My hon. Friend is right. It is sad that good practice is not spread as widely as it should be. Before Christmas, I held a meeting with parents' representatives and representatives of the primary care trust and of the local council to discuss the problems. It emerged from that meeting that educational practice is
 
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different in different schools. It is often a question of training, yet the local authority representative pointed out that while she could offer training courses, it was for head teachers to decide whether their special educational needs co-ordinators should attend them.

In its current inquiry into special needs, the Select Committee has found that a great deal more training is required, both in initial teacher training and in continuous professional development. I hope my hon. Friend the Minister will take that message back to the Department for Education and Skills.

Although some parents were full of praise for the help that they had received from their child's school, others had had to struggle to get every bit of support that was given. Again, that raises questions not only about the monstrous waste of potential that is occurring, but about the implementation of Government policy on the ground. When we dealt with admissions in the report, I remember the Select Committee stating that fairness in public policy ought to be not a matter of luck, but a matter of course. The same applies to special needs.

Parents also highlighted the problems they have in accessing the health service. I know that the Government have done a great deal to try and improve services for children suffering from autistic spectrum disorders, but what they wish to achieve is not always carried out in practice. Even when parents in my constituency can get assessments for their children, they often have to wait up to 12 months for some intervention, such as speech and language therapy or occupational therapy. It is even more difficult for them to access the child and adolescent mental health services. In my area those are provided by the Five Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust, but the PCT is commissioning only the tier 3 services, partly for historical reasons, at 25 per cent. of what is recommended in the national service framework. That means that CAMHS tend to intervene only when a child reaches crisis point—for example, when the child is self-harming. If we had earlier intervention and proper care pathways, it is my firm belief that not as many children would reach that crisis, and the strain on families would be much reduced.

What the parents are seeking, and I agree with them, is to ensure that when a child is diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, they are allocated a key worker or a lead nurse who can help the family access the services that they need, whether in health or in education. We should ensure as well that when that diagnosis takes place, there is a proper assessment of the child's needs and what therapies they will require. Each child is different and requires different interventions. That may be speech and language therapy or occupational therapy. They may need some input from CAMHS, not because the child is suffering a mental illness, but because they need cognitive behavioural therapy, for example, or some other psychological support.

That support needs to be sustained over time. Short-term interventions are often of very little help to children with Asperger's syndrome. They need sustained intervention, yet not only can people in my area find it difficult to access the higher level of services, but it is difficult for them to get even tier 2 services. The primary care trust tells me that there is a multi-agency group looking at services for children with personal, emotional and behavioural problems. We have a lot of groups
 
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looking into things, but what we do not have is a service. Part of the reason is that the PCT does not treat the matter seriously enough.

I referred earlier to the meeting that I held. At that time the chief executive of the PCT was unable to attend because she was ill, but getting somebody else there was like drawing teeth. Although I wrote to the PCT following that meeting and it told me what it is doing with tier 2 services, nearly three months later the PCT still has not answered my question about key workers. It still has not answered the question about linking up our education and health services more closely. If we could get such services in place, we would make it much easier for children to achieve, we would reduce the stress on their family and siblings, and in the end we might even save money. We could do it in education as well.

Why is it often the case that when a child is given a diagnosis their parents still have to go through the whole statementing process to get them the support that they need in school? They do not want to do that. They have had a diagnosis, and that should trigger the educational interventions automatically. We are wasting money on the vast bureaucracy of statementing that should be spent on assisting these children.

Mrs. Betty Williams (Conwy) (Lab): I apologise for not forewarning my hon. Friend that I hoped to intervene and thank her for allowing me to do so. She says that services are patchy across the country. Does she agree that the key to any success that will help parents and their children is to have joint partnerships between education, social services and health? Has she met parents who have been called into a case conference to discuss the future of their child or, in some cases, children? They find that a very traumatic experience; I speak as someone who has been in that position. Somebody somewhere needs to take that on board.

Does my hon. Friend agree that local education authorities sometimes deliberately hold back on statementing a child because they know full well that once that happens the parents are able to demand the proper services for them?

Helen Jones: I agree that we need much more co-ordination of services. The real problem for parents is that they are having to deal with so many different people. That is why a key worker and a proper care pathway are crucial in getting the services that children need.

I know that my hon. Friend the Minister is sympathetic to what I am saying and takes these issues seriously because she has had to deal with them in her own constituency. I believe that there is a real need to support these families and to ensure that their children get what for our children is a basic entitlement—the right to develop their full potential. We should ask ourselves, "Would this service be good enough for my son or daughter." I have to say that in my area, it is not. I hope that my hon. Friend will at least be able to signal that we will soon see some improvement and these children will get what others regard as a basic right.
 
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8.7 pm

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Caroline Flint): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington, North (Helen Jones) on securing this Adjournment debate on services for children with Asperger's syndrome in Warrington. I welcome the contributions made by my hon. Friends the Members for Erewash (Liz Blackman) and for Conwy (Mrs. Williams). I also welcome the work of the all-party group on autism.

It is important that, when the Government are developing policies that encourage good practice we hear about what happens on the ground. Part of our job is to identify good practice and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Erewash says, to find a way to share it to ensure that families who are coping with the special needs of their children can be supported.

Families are at the heart of all aspects of that support. Parents are incredibly important in terms of whether the policies that we provide on health or education, in local government or national Government, will work. The partnership between agencies and parents, with children involved too, can make or break a particular service. As we all want to ensure that resources are used well, it is worthwhile looking at how that partnership can secure good value for money. I acknowledge the contribution made by parents, as an unpaid resource, to supporting children with a whole range of special needs. My hon. Friend poignantly identified some of the problems faced by parents of children with Asperger's syndrome.

I am also aware that my hon. Friend is a member of the Select Committee on Education and Skills, which is conducting an inquiry into special educational needs, and that she is one of more than 300 Members of Parliament who have signed the manifesto of the all-party group on autism.

In the past decade, we have all experienced a change in how we think about the delivery of services. Indeed, children and young people with autistic spectrum disorders—ASD—including Asperger's syndrome, provide a test case for whether services are working together. Clearly, my hon. Friend feels that they are not working as well as they could in her part of the country. Those children's difficulties require input from health, social services and the education service. As my hon. Friend the Member for Conwy said, it is important that the different organisations work together. We are encouraging that discussion across Government, but, as hon. Members have asked, what are the practical results of those discussions?

The large increase in the number of children identified with ASD, including Asperger's syndrome, presents considerable challenges for local providers. For many generations, the difficulties and problems that those children and their families face were not even acknowledged. We recognise the challenge and, in 2002, the Department and the Department for Education and Skills published good practice guidance on ASD.

For such specialist provision, the ASD good practice guidance recommends a regional approach. The north-west special educational needs regional partnership, which includes Warrington, is one of the England-wide partnerships that have focused on provision for children   with ASD. A partnership is helpful in such circumstances because it means that one can not only
 
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examine the cash and specialist resources and ascertain what one can deliver, but discuss and share good practice. The latter is one of the main aims of such partnerships. I welcome that.

A key to good provision, which the guidance highlighted, is co-operative working between services. We have shown how that can happen through the autism exemplar, which we published in the national service framework for children, young people and maternity services. It sets national outcome standards for health and social services and, importantly, their links to education. The exemplar shows the pathway for one young boy, starting at the age of three, as he moves through to post-16 provision. It begins with initial concern and identification through multi-agency assessment and diagnosis and moves to the various forms of support, whether social services support or specialist education provision.

All local services should aim for such provision for children with ASD. I shall ensure that all comments about education are passed on to the appropriate Minister in the Department for Education and Skills. The exemplar focuses on a child with autism, but children and young people with ASD, including Asperger's, should benefit from the improvements that the Government are bringing about through their general policies for children and young people.

Through the "Every Child Matters" change programme, we are bringing together education and social services locally under one director of children's services. Again, I stress that such joined-up thinking can occur and I hope that, when we provide training and support for special educational needs co-ordinators, head teachers understand that that can help their school's management, their relationships with parents and the children's achievement, which, as my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington, North said, can reach university level. If families feel that the children are getting a chance to fulfil their potential, that brings hope.

"Every Child Matters" promotes common commissioning and funding through children's trust arrangements and integrates services for children and families in children's centres and full-service extended schools. In our White Paper, "Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services", we set out that, for disabled children, children with complex health needs and those in need of palliative care, we want primary care trusts to ensure that the right models of service are developed by undertaking a review of their capacity and the delivery of integrated care pathways to meet the children's national service framework standards.

Primary care trusts must also agree service models, funding and commissioning arrangements with their strategic health authorities. Of course, the needs of every different child with Asperger's syndrome may be different. However, I take on board my hon. Friend's point about examples of where the position has reached crisis point. That prompts the question of whether better understanding of the child's needs and an appropriate care pathway would have been not only more effective but, in the long run, more cost effective for the support for that child and his or her family.
 
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We intend to follow this matter up in the autumn, in the refreshment of the NHS priorities and planning guide, which sets out the "must do" requirements for inclusion in local delivery plans. The Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr. Byrne) is meeting PCTs, health service providers and national bodies on 15 March to look at how we can ensure that the complex pathway of care for disabled children and those with complex health needs is translated into the reality of purchasing better services. I can assure my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington, North that I shall ensure that my colleague has full sight of the report of this debate.

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