3. Will the First Minister outline the Welsh Government's plans to support people with autism in South Wales West? OAQ55009

Thank you, Llywydd. Can I begin just by wishing the Member well in her continued recovery from her recent ill health? The integrated autism service is now available in all regions in Wales, supported by the Welsh Government's continued annual investment of £3 million. We will consult on the draft statutory autism code of practice in April of this year.

Thank you for your kind words, Minister, and thank you for your answer to my question. At a meeting last Friday, despite the measures you outlined, my constituents are still struggling to get the support they need. It's bad enough for families seeking help for the children with autism, but they've highlighted that it can be equally traumatic for adults previously undiagnosed. So, First Minister, what additional measures can you take to improve support for adults on the autism spectrum and also to speed up the diagnosis for adults who are without a firm diagnosis? Thank you.

I thank the Member for that, and I recognise the points that she raises about people who, when they were in childhood, maybe autism wasn't recognised in the way that it is today. And for some people, it's quite late in adult life before the things that matter to them are now being recognised as part of a wider condition. So, our integrated autism service is now available throughout Wales, and as I said in my original answer, Llywydd, the health Minister recently confirmed that the £3 million investment that we had originally made to assist in the establishment of that service is now to be a permanent part of its funding. So that, I think, will help. Some of the work that we have done in helping with the training of front-line primary care clinicians to recognise the autism spectrum and people who may be needing help on it, I think that will go on helping people in that position. And the autism statutory code of practice, which we will publish in April and which we will complete before the end of this Assembly term, focuses on assessment, awareness, access, planning and monitoring, and all of those things are designed to reinforce the service so that adults and young people can be confident that their needs are recognised and responded to in Wales.  

First Minister, not every child in my region with an autistic spectrum condition will need full special educational needs or additional learning needs support, but many do and, in some cases, quite significant support. It's also true that some of those children will experience poor mental health, whether that's unrelated to their autism or as a consequence of the daily challenges they face because of their autism. The education Minister has pledged £7 million towards meeting demand for education support in the current system, and there's an additional £5 million going in from both health and education for the whole-school approach, all of which is extremely welcome. But can you tell me how the £3 million to which you referred in your answer to Caroline Jones will be used to meet the needs of autistic children with poor mental health at all levels in the NHS, not just in primary care? And can you give me a guarantee that no child with an autistic spectrum condition will be turned away from primary mental healthcare due to lack of expertise or training from mental health professionals? 

Thank you for those additional questions and for the recognition of the investment that is going into different parts of the service. That's over and above the £20 million that's being invested in the implementation of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018. I entirely agree with what Suzy Davies says that not all children on the disorder spectrum will need the same sort of response.

We have developed, over the last three or four years, the particular service for young people with neurodevelopmental difficulties. We're carrying out a capacity-and-demand review of that service because, in a way that I think you could anticipate, when you create a new service then a set of latent demands rises to the surface. So, the service was funded from the beginning to deal with the young people we knew were coming into the system already; we provide a new service, and then a whole number of other young people who hadn't previously been identified come to the surface and need help, and that's why the demand-and-capacity review is being carried out.

Between that, between the things that we are doing in relation to mental health services for young people in schools, allied with what we are doing in relation to the additional learning needs Act, we are creating a web of services that I think are there to create a strong safety net for young people along that spectrum, so that nobody falls between the cracks and everybody's able to find a service that meets their particular needs.