5. Statement by the Minister for Children, Older People and Social Care: The Learning Disability: Improving Lives Programme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:50 pm on 3 July 2018.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 4:50, 3 July 2018

It's great that you managed to speak to 2,000 people, but, as you remark in your statement, whilst there are pockets of good practice, too many people have to fight for the support and adjustments to services they need to enable them to live an ordinary life. Inclusion is very much at the beginning of its journey. It was great to see yesterday, at the Jo Cox awards, that the person who won the tackling loneliness award was a mother of an autistic boy who wanted to take part in organised football. She knew that he would never thrive in a mainstream scenario, and now this has become a mainstream football academy used by huge numbers of families with autistic children, with support from Swansea City, who provide a disability coach. This is, obviously, something to celebrate, and well done to Andrea Smith.

Last week I visited Autistic Spectrum Connections Cymru, which is based on High Street in Cardiff city centre and provides a service to people on the autistic spectrum from across south-east Wales. I really would just like to celebrate the work that they're doing. Whilst I was there, I met people taking part in the creative writing group, some of whose work was definitely of Booker award quality. One of the people there told me that he only went out on one day a week because he had other health complications, but this was his one social event of the week. I also met people who were setting up a social enterprise catering business because they say there's no reason why people with disabilities can't be paid the rate for the job, rather than being expected to work as volunteers—you know, fantastic.

I also met an Oxbridge graduate who is advising employers and employees about the reasonable expectations that both sides have to make to ensure that they make a success of the employment contract, and keeping people with disabilities in jobs, just ironing out misunderstandings that could otherwise lead to them being dismissed. Because we have to remember that some of the most brilliant people are on the autistic spectrum. Saga Norén, the detective in The Bridge, demonstrates that. It means that they are, in some respects, better able to do the job than people who don't have autism.

So, there's a lot to celebrate. I'm sure that the programme's going to be in good hands with Gwenda Thomas, because I know that she appreciates the social model of disability rather than the medical model, which I think is extremely important. My question to you is: how are you going to ensure that people with disabilities are not under-represented in screening programmes like cervical, breast and bowel screening? Because if they've got a learning difficulty, they may neither understand the letter that comes through nor understand the importance of screening to ensure that they avoid having serious diseases.