“Act Now!” – The National Autistic Society Cymru campaign for an Autism Act for Wales
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others.
Around 700,000 people in the UK are on the autism spectrum. Together with their families they make up around 2.8 million people whose lives are touched by autism every single day. In Wales this means over 33,000 people are on the spectrum.
The National Autistic Society Cymru has been campaigning since the beginning of 2015 to persuade the National Assembly to create an Autism Act. Wales has had an autism strategy since 2008 but NAS Cymru claims
“…people with autism in Wales deserve more…children and adults with autism still struggle to get a diagnosis and patchy support means life for many families remains a daily struggle.”
The purpose of the proposed Act is that:
- People get a timely diagnosis which has a huge impact on the life outcomes of autistic people
- Guarantee that relevant professionals understand autism as there is a high level of misidentification (people being told they have a mental health issues for example) especially among autistic women and girls
- That there is an obligation on local authorities and health boards to provide appropriate services (currently they are encouraged to do this under the Autism Strategy but are not obliged to ring-fence monies they are given by the Welsh Government to address autism)
This campaign has involved gathering thousands of signatures, talking to political parties to get this into their manifestoes (4 out 5 major parties did this) and lobbying of Assembly Members’ via the NAS Cymru’s 14 members led branches in Wales.
Elections were held in Wales earlier this year for the National Assembly where no one party managed to get a majority. Consequently discussions between Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru resulted in areas of common ground and legislation that they would jointly support.
NAS Cymru “campaigned hard in the lead up to the election alongside our branches and campaigners, and as a result, persuaded five of the six parties in Wales to include a commitment to an Autism Act in their manifesto.”
As a consequence of this campaign one of the pledges of Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour is to ‘introduce an Additional Learning Needs Bill, which includes an Autism Act’. NAS Cymru are hopeful that this will mean an Autism Act will become a reality in the near future.
NAS Cymru continue to fight for the voice of the autistic community to be heard including a recent away day at the Senedd where all the branches from across Wales discussed their concerns with their Assembly Members.
More information on this and other work by NAS Cymru can be found at www.autism.org.uk/wales. Anyone interested in this campaign can find out more by calling NAS Cymru’s National Officer Mat Matthias on 02920629316
words JEFF BAXTER
Pic: members of NAS Cymru branches at the Senedd lobbying their AMs