Has your organisation been asking the right questions, but been greeted only with silence in response?
Have decision makers in the borough ignored your pleas for help or information?
If the answer to either of these questions is “yes”, why not Challenge Matt to get those answers on your behalf? HVA has used the public forum of “The Voluntary Sector with HVA” on Halton Community Radio to get the lines of communication open.
That's what HAFS did.
Ciaran Shanahan popped the question: Why are NHS Halton & St Helens and Halton Borough Council ignoring the needs of Autistic children in Halton whilst pretending not to do so?
Here's David Parr's (the HBC Chief Executive) reply:
Matthew
It is difficult to know where to start in responding to the question posed by Mr Ciaran Shanahan (of Halton Autistic Family Support Group) as there is so much going on in Halton in this area
His question was :-
“Why are NHS Halton & St Helens and Halton Borough Council ignoring the needs of Autistic children in Halton, whilst pretending not to do so?”
So here goes
There is a comprehensive range of services for autistic children and adults in Halton, for example
- Woodview Child Development Team provide multi agency assessments for pre school children including children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), including Moonbeams education assessment service and therapy services.
- Early Bird Parent training/advice courses for parents/carers of children with ASD,
- Little Stars advice/training and support group for parent/carers of disabled children including those with ASD
- CanBe service - consultation, guidance and support service for children who have disabilities and behaviour that challenges their carers which includes significant percentage of children with ASD.
- Inglefield short break residential unit providing short breaks for carers of disabled children - half of the children who have used this resource in last 12 months have ASD.
- Children's Disability Team provide social work, family support, outreach services, group based activities to disabled children including those with ASD
- Transition support provided by a Transition coordinator to provide smooth transition for those young disabled people who are transfered from childrens to adult social care services.
- Other transition projects include Change It - multi agency project looking at developing the local offer for young people to access further education, employment and leisure etc in Halton and Person Centred Planning that supports young disabled people to have their voice heard in planning for their futures. Again this is available and accessed by young people with ASD.
- Carers Officer - provides carers assessments and advice and support to carers of disabled children.
- Aiming High for Disabled Children Services include the following contracted services -
- Carers Centre - Provide support and information and advice to carers. They have established a carers reference group, been involved with AHDC and Parents officer to establish new parent participation group called Parents4Parents n Carers to be involved in decision making processes with HBC and PCT and other bodies to influence the provision of services in the Borough. They provide short breaks activities and trips and family fun days for families of disabled children, support to young carers, support carers groups in the Borough, provide outreach, information events, therapy services, parent carer training including Caring with Confidence course.
- Halton Play Council - contract to provide inclusive playschemes throughout all school holidays. Also contracted to provide specialist out of school group sessions for disabled children based in Runcorn.
- Barnardos - Contract to provide brokerage services, support planning and reviews for children and families requesting short breaks. They also provide befriending service, teenage groups, activity breaks and consultation sessions for young disabled people.
- Crossroads - Have contract to provide individual support either in the home or out in the community for disabled children and their families. They also have a contract to deliver specialist out of school group sessions for disabled children based in Widnes.
- Connexions - Youth services provided both inclusive and specialist settings. Circle of Influence consultation with young people.
- HAFS - have a contract to deliver family short break activities exclusively for children and young people with ASD and their families in Halton which includes activites such as trampoline sessions, discos, parties, day trips, social events for carers, family weekend to Blackpool et
- Direct Payments and Individual Budget Pilot - over half of the children using these have ASD.
· 2 Children Centres worked with Crossroads and Barnardos in last summer holidays to provide mini playscheme for young children - over half had ASD. They are now delivering a fortnightly Saturday club for this group in the children centres.
· Christmas short breaks - programme of extra sessions to deliver range of activities for disabled children and young people, in the 6 weeks up to Christmas to enable carers to have more time to do shopping etc. in preparation for Christmas.
· Bespoke packages of support - 4 young people have intensive support packages provided via agencies - all these young people have ASD.
Strategic Planning for ASC
Developments for people with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) are considered at the ASC Strategic Group, which is attended by Local Authority and PCT colleagues, as well as Mike Fry who is the chair of HAFS. Having commissioned support from the National Autistic Society, the Group is currently working on an Autism Strategy, which will address a number of areas, including the range of services available, and staff training. It is hoped that HAFS will participate in this. We are of course awaiting statutory guidance from the Government arising from the 2009 Autism Act.
One development already planned is to set up a specialist Community Positive Behaviour Service. This is a true collaborative effort between adult and children partners across the PCT and the Local Authorities (Halton and St Helens), and it will be jointly funded. Representatives from all the contributing partners have met regularly over the last year to work on the proposal.
Although the service is not specifically targeted at people with Autism Spectrum Conditions, they are heavily represented (between 50 and 60%) in the group likely to benefit. These will be people with more complex needs. As the service becomes fully functional over the next year, it will provide direct specialist support to frontline services, and also to families.
An example of Education Provision for pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Annual expenditure 2009-2010
Pupils in Independent /Non Maintained Schools £370,000
Additional Support in Mainstream Schools
(includes statements and school action enhanced) £417,000
SLA with Speech and Language Therapy Services £129,000
(includes training)
SLA for Early Years Speech and Language Therapy Services
(includes training) £270,000
Accredited Autism Training £20,000
(through Canterbury & Christchurch University and ADOS)
Total £ 1,206,000
In addition to this expenditure, The Borough currently maintains x 2 Special Schools that have specialist provision for ASD and Aspergers one of which is fully NAS( National Autism Society) Accredited and the other in the process of full accreditation. This covers age range 2–19yrs.
The Borough is in the final stages of review of Special Unit Provision and the proposals approved by the Council are out for Statutory Notice These proposals are that the mainstream resourced provision for Autism should be increased to incorporate an additional 42 specialist places for pupils ranging from 5-16. This provision, if approved, will be positioned to meet the locality needs of both Runcorn and Widnes.
Halton will be in the enviable position of being able to provide a range of Specialist provision across the Borough to support the continuum of need experienced by pupils with Autism.
I hope this demonstrates Halton is very actively engaged in supporting the needs of Autistic children in the Borough and that Mr Shanahan’s criticisms are not supported by what is actually going on on the ground
David Parr
Chief Executive
And here's Ciaran Shanahan's response to the above:
Matt,
Thank you for the opportunity to set the record straight on Halton Community Radio slot " Challenge Matt". I would be grateful if you could read out my comments below on the debate so far.
Following the original programme a couple of weeks ago, we have now arranged a meeting with the PCT to discuss funding and commissioning and are confident of moving forward with them to assist them to meet the health needs of children and young people with Autism and work towards a healthier Halton.
However, as far as Halton Borough Council is concerned the situation is far less positive.
I read Mr Parr's reply and comments on my question on Challenge Matt and it was a very comprehensive reply that was produced for him by his Officers. What a shame it was so very inaccurate and misleading.
The litany of services that were described were universal services for general disabilities that some autistic people access and the real facts are that apart from Early Birds service and what we at HAFS, deliver none of the other services are Autism specific and certainly not designed around the needs of individuals as the Government says they should be.
Also, only those who meet the stringent eligibility criteria, set at a very high level, can actually get to access these services and many people are excluded from support because of this criteria.
There are a number of families in crisis due to their needs being ignored and Mr Parr needs to understand this rather than just being briefed incorrectly by his Officers. This is particularly bad in terms of Special Needs Education where bullying, assault and intimidation is rife and families are having to resort to Tribunals and other legal action against HBC to fight this discrimination. More and more children are being removed from education altogether to protect them from harm and inappropraite placements that dont meet their needs.
Parents are having to send their children out of Borough for an appropriate education and these specialist placements and transport costs are high. Why should these children have to travel so far and we are local council tax payers have to pay so much to ensure these children have their educational needs met? The answer is simple because this authority will not listen to the sound logistical and financial sense of having an ASD specific school in the borough and with 150 children and young people in Halton it is well justified. Tinkering arouond the edges with mixed disabilities special schools and pretend ASD units does not meet these needs.
As far as the Strategy for Autism is concerned, that is just lip service and just a talking shop to be seen to be doing something and our Chairman Mr Mike Fry has frustratingly observed it as such. How can you have a strategy for Autism without HAFS involvement that represents the majority of families in Halton affected by Autism?
These are the real unsanitised facts that Mr Parr and his colleagues would like to brush under the carpet.
Therefore, I repeat my original question why are people with Autism having their needs ignored by HBC and I repeat my offer to debate these situations live on radio with him.
Regards,
Ciaran.
Many thanks to both Ciaran Shanahan and David Parr for contributing to this debate.
Matthew Roberts
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