 House of Commons |
Session 2008 - 09 Publications on the internet General Committee Debates Autism Bill |
Autism Bill |
The Committee consisted of the following Members:Chris
Stanton, Committee Clerk †
attended the Committee Public Bill CommitteeWednesday 13 May 2009[Mr. Roger Gale in the Chair]Autism Bill2.30
pm
The
Chairman: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We come
first to the order of consideration motion in the name of the hon.
Member for Chesham and
Amersham. Ordered,
That, the
Bill be considered in the following order, namely, new Clauses,
Clauses, new Schedules, remaining proceedings on the
Bill.—(Mrs.
Gillan.)
New Clause 1Autism
strategy ‘(1) The Secretary
of State must prepare and publish a document setting out a strategy for
meeting the needs of adults in England with autistic spectrum
conditions by improving the provision of relevant services to such
adults by local authorities, NHS bodies and NHS foundation
trusts. (2) That document is
referred to in this Act as “the autism
strategy”. (3) The
autism strategy must be published no later than 1 April
2010. (4) The Secretary of
State— (a) must keep the
autism strategy under review,
and (b) may revise
it. (5) If the Secretary of
State revises the autism strategy the Secretary of State must publish
it as revised. (6) The
Secretary of State must consult and seek the participation of such
persons as the Secretary of State considers
appropriate— (a) in
preparing the autism strategy,
or (b) in revising it in a way
which would, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, result in a
substantial change to the
strategy. (7) A document
prepared and published by the Secretary of State before this section
comes into force is as effective for the purposes of this section as a
document prepared and published after that
time. (8) Consultation and
steps to seek participation undertaken by the Secretary of State before
this section comes into force are as effective for the purposes of this
section as consultation and steps to seek participation undertaken
after that time.’. —(Phil
Hope.) This New
Clause would impose a duty on the Secretary of State to publish, by 1
April 2010, a strategy for meeting the needs of adults with autistic
spectrum conditions. It would also require the Secretary of State to
consult on that strategy and keep it under
review. Brought
up, and read the First
time.
The
Minister of State, Department of Health (Phil Hope): I beg
to move, That the clause be read a Second
time.
The
Chairman: With this it will be convenient to discuss the
following: Government new clause 2—Guidance by the Secretary
of State
‘(1) For the purpose of
securing the implementation of the autism strategy, the Secretary of
State must issue guidance—
(a) to local authorities about the exercise of
their social services functions within the meaning of the Local
Authority Social Services Act 1970 (c. 42) (see section 1A of that
Act), and (b) to NHS bodies and
NHS foundation trusts about the exercise of their functions concerned
with the provision of relevant
services. (2) Guidance must be
issued under this section no later than 31 December
2010. (3) The Secretary of
State— (a) must keep the
guidance under review, and (b)
may revise it. (4) In keeping
the guidance under review the Secretary of State must in particular
consider the extent to which the guidance has been effective in
securing the implementation of the autism
strategy. (5) Guidance issued
under this section must in particular include guidance
about— (a) the provision
of relevant services for the purpose of diagnosing autistic spectrum
conditions in adults; (b) the
identification of adults with such
conditions; (c) the assessment
of the needs of adults with such conditions for relevant
services; (d) planning in
relation to the provision of relevant services to persons with autistic
spectrum conditions as they move from being children to
adults; (e) other planning in
relation to the provision of relevant services to adults with autistic
spectrum conditions; (f) the
training of staff who provide relevant services to adults with such
conditions; (g) local
arrangements for leadership in relation to the provision of relevant
services to adults with such
conditions. (6) The Secretary
of State must consult and seek the participation of local authorities,
NHS bodies and NHS foundation trusts
before— (a) issuing
guidance under this section,
or (b) revising it in a way
which would, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, result in a
substantial change to the
guidance. (7) Consultation and
steps to seek participation undertaken by the Secretary of State before
this section comes into force are as effective for the purposes of this
section as consultation and steps to seek participation undertaken
after that time.’. This New
Clause would require the Secretary of State to issue guidance to local
authorities, NHS bodies and NHS foundation trusts in order to secure
the implementation of the autism strategy. It would also require the
Secretary of State to consult on the guidance and keep it under
review. Government
new clause 3—Local authorities and NHS bodies: duty to act
under guidance ‘(1) This
section applies to guidance or revised guidance issued under section
[Guidance by the Secretary of State] to a local authority or an NHS
body. (2) Guidance or revised
guidance is to be treated as if it were general guidance of the
Secretary of State under section 7 of the Local Authority Social
Services Act 1970 (c. 42) (local authorities to exercise social
services functions under guidance of Secretary of
State). (3) For the purposes of
guidance or revised
guidance— (a) an NHS
body is to be treated as if it were a local authority within the
meaning of the 1970 Act (see section 1 of that Act),
and (b) the functions of an NHS
body mentioned in section [Guidance by the Secretary of State](1)(b)
are to be treated as if they were its social services functions within
the meaning of that Act (see section 1A of that
Act).’. This
new clause would impose a duty on local authorities and NHS bodies to
act under guidance given by the Secretary of State under
New Clause 2. The duty is the same as that imposed on local authorities
by section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act
1970. Government
new clause
4—Interpretation ‘(1)
In this
Act— “adult”
means a person who is aged 18 or over (and, accordingly,
“child” means a person who is under the age of
18); “local
authority”
means— (a) a county
council in England; (b) a
metropolitan district
council; (c) a non-metropolitan
district council for an area for which there is no county
council; (d) a London borough
council; (e) the Common Council
of the City of London; (f) the
Council of the Isles of
Scilly; “NHS
body” means— (g)
a Strategic Health
Authority; (h) a Primary Care
Trust; (i) a National Health
Service trust all or most of whose hospitals, establishments and
facilities are in England; (j)
a Special Health Authority performing functions only or mainly in
respect of
England; “relevant
services”— (k)
in relation to an NHS body, means health services provided for the
purposes of the health service continued under section 1(1) of the
National Health Service Act 2006 (c.
41); (l) in relation to a local
authority, means services provided in the exercise of the
authority’s social services functions within the meaning of the
Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 (c. 42) (see section 1A
of that Act). (2) In this Act
references to the provision of services include references to arranging
for the provision of services (and references to services provided are
to be construed
accordingly).’. This New Clause
is consequential on New Clauses 1, 2 and 3 and would provide
definitions of terms used in those New
Clauses. Government
new clause 5—Extent, commencement and short
title ‘(1) This Act extends to
England and Wales only. (2)
This Act comes into force at the end of the period of 2
months beginning with the day on which it is
passed. (3) This Act may be
cited as the Autism Act
2009.’. This New Clause would
make provision for the Bill to extend to England and Wales (although it
would only have application in relation to England), to come into force
2 months after Royal Assent and for the resulting Act to be cited as
the Autism Act
2009. Clauses
4 to 9 stand
part. Government
amendment 42, in title, line 1, leave out from
‘make’ to ‘and’ in line 3 and
insert ‘provision about
meeting the needs of adults with autistic spectrum
conditions;’. This
amendment would amend the long title in consequence of New Clauses 1, 2
and 3 and amendments 3, 10, 13, 15, 22 and 23 (taken
together).
Phil
Hope: I am delighted to be back here in Committee this
afternoon and, indeed, proud to be speaking to Government new clauses 1
to 5.
Turning first
to Government new clause 1, as the Committee knows, the Government are
committed to taking action to improve services for people with autism.
We are determined to see true transformational change. Our means for
achieving that is through the development and publication of an adult
autism strategy. The full public consultation on the content of that
strategy began last month, which in itself is an indication of our
commitment to it. I therefore have great pleasure in introducing a
measure to place that commitment on a statutory
footing. Briefly,
subsection (1) places a duty on the Secretary of State to prepare and
publish a document setting out a strategy for meeting the needs of
adults in England with autistic spectrum conditions by improving the
provision of relevant services by local authorities and the national
health service. With the strategy’s external reference group
chaired by the chief executive of the National Autistic Society, we
have identified the priority headings for an adult autism strategy.
They are health; social inclusion, including employment; choice and
control; and
training. Under
the heading of health, we shall identify the barriers to accessing
specialist health interventions and mainstream health care services and
shall propose action and a strategy to address that. That will be
informed by the report of the study currently being taken forward by
the National Audit Office, which we expect to see shortly. Secondly,
under the heading of social inclusion, the strategy will address issues
of employment for people with
autism. 2.32
pm Sitting
suspended for a Division in the
House. 2.47
pm On
resuming—
Phil
Hope: The strategy will address issues of employment for
people with autism. That includes building on work to address the
commitments in public service agreement 16 to support more of the most
socially excluded groups of people into employment and the forthcoming
learning disability employment
strategy. On
choice and control, we are commissioning work from the Social Care
Institute for Excellence to publish evidence-based good practice
guidance in spring 2010. That will be informed by an analysis of
existing research by early summer, and an in-depth knowledge review
which will include field work exploring best practice. On training, we
will work with professional bodies to take action to address training
issues. Skills for Care has recently launched a national consultation
to create new knowledge sets to support people who have an autistic
spectrum condition, with the aim of publishing in June the basic
knowledge needed to support people with
autism. Subsection
(2) confirms that the document is to be known as “the autism
strategy” throughout the Bill. Subsection (3) is significant,
because it ties the Secretary of State into publishing the strategy no
later than 1 April 2010. Not only are we committed to producing
the strategy, we are setting ourselves a statutory
deadline for doing so. That is a significant
departure from normal legislative practice, but I believe it is
entirely right to lock in the Government’s commitment in this
way. In fact, we have already made clear our intention to publish the
final strategy by the end of 2009, and that remains
the case. The Committee will appreciate that, if we are going to take
the unusual step of specifying a publication deadline in the Bill, we
need to give ourselves a sensible margin of
flexibility. Subsection
(4) imposes a duty on the Secretary of State, once the autism strategy
has been published, to keep it under review, and gives him a permissive
power to revise it if that is considered appropriate as a result of
that review process. Subsection (5) is a logical follow-on from that
permissive power, requiring that if the strategy is revised, it must be
republished.
Subsection
(6) is also significant in my view, because it guarantees proper
consultation with stakeholders on the content of the strategy, both at
the outset, and in the event that substantial revision is considered.
However, the provision goes further, allowing some of those
stakeholders to be actively involved in the development of the
strategy, rather than just consulted. That reflects the close working
relationship that we have with the National Autistic Society, which we
want to ensure can continue. In addition, I recently met the Autism
Trust, and attended an Autism Speaks reception only last week. I am
looking forward to hearing their views and the views of many other
organisations as the consultation process continues. Certainly, the
strategy document has benefited from input from an external reference
group comprising people with autism, families, carers, and health and
social care professionals involved in the front-line delivery of
services. I am extremely grateful to all members of that group,
especially the chairs of the thematic groups, for all the work they
have done to identify barriers to inclusion and options for
interventions to transform lives. We will, of course, continue to work
very closely with the group over the next few months to build on what
it has already done, as we develop firm proposals for the final
strategy. Dr.
Stephen Ladyman (South Thanet) (Lab): My hon. Friend has
just talked about the provision that requires the Secretary of State to
keep the strategy under review. There is no sunset clause in the Bill,
so does that mean that the Bill effectively lasts forever, until it is
repealed, and that the Secretary of State is required continually to
keep the strategy under review? How frequently would we expect the
Secretary of State and the Department to look at the strategy to ensure
that it was
current?
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