3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:58 pm on 2 April 2019.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:58, 2 April 2019

Thank you very much. On the first issue of the dietetics work, it sounds very interesting and certainly extremely encouraging, so I'll discuss with my colleague the Minister for health in terms of the best way to better understand that and the potential that it has for people affected by diabetes and the prevention of diabetes across Wales. I know it's the intention of the health Minister to bring forward a statement on diabetes, again before the end of the summer term, so this is something that could be considered within that context.

And, on World Autism Day, I'm very happy to join you in outlining how important it is, when designing services for people with autism, to do so in a way that is co-produced. I know that you, like I, are a big fan of co-production as a way of developing services and support for people. We acknowledge that there is a long way to go. However, I do think that we have made some real progress, including through the £13 million investment in the integrated autism service, which is currently being rolled out across Wales. To mark World Autism Day, or certainly through the week, we will be publishing the full independent evaluation of the roll-out of the integrated autism service, and I think that will be useful in terms of identifying the most important next steps forward. We've also commissioned an additional review of the barriers to reducing diagnostic waiting times—that review will be also published shortly—and have also consulted on the contents of an autism code of practice under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. It's really important that the voices of people with autism come through in that consultation, so that the code can set out what support will become available because of what people have told us. But I completely agree with you that the authentic voice of people with autism should be at the heart of that work.