The Loddon School has responded to the latest government strategy focused on supporting children, young people and adults with autism.
The government published its new national strategy back in July, which will inform its approach between 2021 and 2026.
The strategy highlighted six priority areas through which the government hopes to improve the lives of autistic people and their families.
Those priorities focus around finding improvements with the following the areas: the understanding and acceptance of autism within society, the access of people with autism to education and support in the transition to adulthood, support with finding employment, ending health and inequalities, support with the community, and support within the criminal and youth justice systems.
Following its publication, the National Autistic Society welcomed the fact that the new strategy would take action to raise awareness and understanding of autism within the public, but called on the government to "fix the social care crisis".
“We and our supporters have long campaigned for a fully-funded public understanding campaign, significant investment in reducing diagnosis waiting times and better post-diagnostic support," said Caroline Stevens, chief executive of the National Autistic Society.
"No-one should feel judged for being autistic, or to have to wait many months for a potentially life changing diagnosis and vital help and support.
“But the true success of the strategy will depend on the Government investing in autistic people each year, as well as the Prime Minister honouring his promise to fix the social care crisis. If this happens, this strategy could be a significant step forward in creating a society that really works for autistic children, adults and their families.”
The Loddon School is a leading education provider for children with complex needs including autism and spoke to The Leaders Council following the release of the new strategy.
Principal Gill Barrett praised the strategy for finally including children in its focus, with past editions since it was established in 2009 failing to do so.
“It is excellent to see a national strategy for autism which embraces children and adults building on the work of the Autism Bill and previous adult strategies," she said.
"The national strategy covers a wide expanse of important work, a lot to be achieved in five years."
For Barrett though, the overall success of this strategy will be determined by the way it is implemented.
From her perspective, there is still an overly simplistic understanding of what autism means in reality, with not enough people aware of the "diversity" within the community.
Too often this results one size fits all approaches that are doomed to failure.
"The key to the success of this strategy is dependent on a better understanding of autism within society, and most importantly a better understanding and acceptance of the diversity of the autistic community," Barrett added.
"The term autism is far to generalised and in many ways has hindered the public understanding of the autistic spectrum condition. It is hoped that the strategy does not focus only on particular groups of people on the spectrum but provides the support, education, care and employment for the full spectrum.
"For children and adults who have severe autism, with highly complex and profound learning difficulties and additional medical needs this strategy may not go far enough to include them if those leading the training and strategy development still lack a full knowledge and experience of the wideness of the spectrum. Within education and social care strategies which meet the needs of some autistic children or adults are seen as a blanket approach for all due to a lack of understanding of the true nature of individuals across the spectrum, one size does not fit all."
Finally, Barrett explained that the need for a collaborative approach going forward was essential if the strategy was to prove impactful.
"The call for more research, better data collection and the strengthening of governance, leadership and accountability is vital to the success of the strategy, alongside the continuous call for multidisciplinary collaborative working," she concluded.
"Where this happens currently, the impact of support which is tailored to the needs of the individual is cohesive, innovative and frequently more economic and definitely less stressful for the autistic person and their families. For many authorities structural change will need to follow if true collaborative approaches are to be implemented across Education, social care and health services – a hidden message I believe in this strategy.”
