Baroness Uddin asked Her Majesty's Government:
How they will ensure the provision of specialist speech therapy for children with autism.
Lord Warner: Primary care trusts have the responsibility of improving the health of
the community, securing the provision of high quality services, and integrating health and social care locally. They have
the resources to commission services, and to identify the number of professional staff that they need to deliver those services.
This process provides the means for addressing local needs within the health community including the provision of specialist
speech and language therapy.
Baroness Uddin asked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to introduce a register of children with autism.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): The
Children Act 1989 requires every local authority to open and maintain a register of disabled children within their area. This
information would include children with autism and is used for the purposes of planning and providing appropriate social services.
The registration of disabled children by parents is entirely voluntary, and is not required as a condition of receiving services
from local authorities.
There is also a statutory duty upon health services and primary
care trusts, under the Education Act 1993, in the exercise of any of their functions in relation to a child under the age
of five years, where a question of special educational needs arises, to inform the child's parents of this, to discuss the
situation with them, to suggest recourse to any voluntary organisation which is likely to be able to advise and assist further,
and to bring the matter to the attention of the child's local education authority.
At present all children are registered on a child health information
system which is funded by their local primary care trust. The systems and information collected vary slightly from area to
area. However there is a model health record on which these systems are based and further consideration is being given to
adapting the model to maximise its usefulness as part of the development of the National Service Framework (NSF) for Children.
Officials are considering an information management and technology strategy. This will include identifying information requirements
for the delivery of the NSF.
