Autism is covered by the Equality Act 2010, requiring understanding of and adjustments for autistic service users, each of whom is a unique person with individual needs, just like everyone else. However, although autism spectrum conditions are not mental health conditions, I continue to hear daily from people with lifelong neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism, or their families, that public bodies have failed to understand individual needs and make adjustments accordingly, causing heightened anxiety and meltdown. For example, in Flintshire, children taken into care with the parents blamed had a specialist report observing that the children's behaviours were consistent with autism, but the council refuses to refer them for diagnosis. In Denbighshire, a mum wrote that her son had been waiting for an autism diagnostic test for 18 months, but as he has not been assessed, the school is unable to access support such as educational psychology and autism outreach. And a final example in Flintshire: a family whose son, who has an autism diagnosis, had a very serious meltdown, after which a council legal executive wrote, 'It would be inappropriate for the local authority to assume your son's mental health state without health diagnosis.' Until services are truly designed, delivered and monitored with neurodiverse people, their families and carers, lives will sadly continue to be damaged in this way.