<p>Children with Autism</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 8 February 2017.

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Photo of Alun Davies Alun Davies Labour 1:37, 8 February 2017

I fully appreciate, understand and accept the point made by the Member. I think many of us are aware that diagnosing girls with autism, particularly younger girls, is far more difficult than that with boys. The Member will be aware that the autism action plan—the refresh of that—which was published by my colleague Minister at the end of last year, does include a timetable for diagnosis and does include demands on the health service to ensure that diagnosis is pursued with an urgency, which, I agree, has sometimes been lacking. But, I will say that, in terms of education, we do also have the Learning with Autism programme, which is directly funded by the Welsh Government, which is part of our autistic spectrum disorder strategic action plan, and that is a comprehensive package of resources for mainly primary schools, which takes a whole-school awareness approach. I would hope that delivering that whole-school approach will ensure that children with autism have the education they need, but that that is contextualised within an environment that is supportive as well.