Freedom of Information Act / Environmental Information Regulations Request
Reference: ECC-064619-16
Response:23 September 2018
Please can you provide any related information in any recorded form, minutes of meetings, agendas, reports, notes, anything that records how this blanket? (illegal) policy was agreed upon within Essex County Council.
Why has Essex County Councilnever acknowledged AUTISM, and why is there no budget for autism at all?
Please provide any evidence / information / documentation reflecting the basis for this deliberate neglect.
I can confirm that Essex County Council do not hold this information.
Essex County Council does not have an Autism Policy. Please accept this as a refusal notice.
Under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act (2000) Essex County Council can provide some advice and guidance to information that may assist with explaining what Essex County Council does have in place. Autism is not neglected by the Council, as is evidenced by our Autism Strategy, and the wider work we do to support people with Autism and Asperger’s, and those with dual or multiple diagnosis. Please click on the link below to see the strategy.
Autism is supported from the budget allotted to adult social care. Budgets are, and will remain, under extreme pressure and we therefore make decisions on provision in line with Care and Support Guidance, and this includes consideration of best value as set out at para 10.27 of the Care and Support Guidance. Please click on the link below to see the Guidance.
ECC do not have a specific budget for any condition or impairment. This is because funding is determined on the basis of individual need. In making provision for people with autism and others we follow the guidance in the Care and Support Guidance 2014.
Adult Operations:
Funding:
The sum of £20,000 is provided to both West and Mid Clinical Commissioning Group’s to aid support to their respective autism diagnostic services. In addition, Essex County Council (ECC) provides on-going maintenance for an online portal for Living Well website (£4,000) for the Autism Hub which will go live at the end of January 2016. For 2015/16, there is also a one year grant for £18,000 from Autism Innovation (Capital Grant) which was used to setup the online portal.
For information, the Living Well website can be found at the following link: Autism is included within the Learning Disability section which can be found under Health & Well-being. This section describes different types of learning disability, and provides information on support in the local area.
There will also be individuals who are supported by the Council receiving packages of care that will include an element of need for autism, but we do not break this down for budget setting purposes.Further details in terms of numbers of adults assessed as being eligible for adult social care services and in receipt of a personal budget are available at the link below under Care and Support.
Education:
Schools have an amount of funding to support pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) (no matter what their category of need/diagnosis).
Including access to delegated (Special Educational Needs) SEN funding of £6000 per pupil
If a pupil requires support in excess of these two amounts (approximately £10,000), then an Education, Health and Care assessment will determine what additional resourcing is required – the criteria for this assessment for pupils with any category of SEND are shown here:
Family Operations:
The table below shows a breakdown of the costs involved in the placements of children in an independent school where children have a specific need.
A / B / C / D / E / FNo. Placements / Cost to Education Budget in 2015/16* / Cost to Social Care Budget in 2015/16** / Cost to ECC Budget in 2015/16 / Cost to Health in 2015/16 / Cost of Placements in 2015/16
All Placements / 107 / £6,324,172 / £961,788 / £7,285,960 / £95,577 / £7,381,537
To put this into context Columns B + C = D for children/young people that have social care involvement and are in a residential placement in an Independent school. Therefore the cost to Essex County Council for each child placement in an Independent School will total £7,285,960. If there is an additional Health need then that cost would come from the Health Budget.
*This figure includes placements in Education for both Children Looked After and those living with their parents.
**This figure only includes Children Looked After who has residential support due to the need to live away at the Independent School.
Adult Operations:
- We meet qualifying needs irrespective of the disabling condition, therefore we do not have a care and support budget as such specifically for Autism or Asperger’s.
- We commission services, including assessment services, in line with our duties and priorities under the Care and Support Guidance, Think Autism and our own autism strategy (see links below), including commissioning diagnostic services in partnership with health colleagues based on our analysis of need
- We have a prevention strategy that addresses the needs of the whole population including those with Autism and Asperger’s which is targeted at supporting people before they are eligible for formal support
- We are rolling out Good Lives to support this whole approach.
Further supporting documents: The Care and Support Statutory Guidance – issued under the Care Act by the Department for Health (see link below).
Family Operations:
An Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan is for children and young people (aged 0-to-25 years old) who have SEN or a disability and who need a much higher level of support than education settings can deliver on their own. An EHC plan is led by the needs and aspirations of the child or young person and his or her parents working in partnership with practitioners and other supporters. The criteria for the assessment for an EHC for pupils with any category of SEND are shown here:
The statutory SEND Code of Practice refers to 4 broad areas of SEND (see page 97 of the Code) and autism is not one of them but that
“A detailed assessment of need should ensure that the full range of an individual’s needs is identified, not simply the primary need. The support provided to an individual should always be based on a full understanding of their particular strengths and needs and seek to address them all using well-evidenced interventions targeted at their areas of difficulty” (Para 6.27)
Autism is one of the ‘needs’ identified above but is not treated as one of the main four areas.
The following explains what Essex County Council is doing in relation to Autism.
- Children and Young People Autism Working group recently conducted an online survey for parents and carers to complete – they have also held workshops with parents in the west and the north of the county through CCGs; we have also held a practitioners workshop in October. The next meeting is on 20 January where Health Watch will be seeking input into their ASD guide currently being developed which will be made available countywide including unitary authorities; ECC will also be presenting the draft CYP Element of the Autism All Age.
- Adult Autism Partnership board currently have two main work streams in progress – one in relation to general housing and the other in relation to employment. General Housing work stream is being taken forward through the General Housing Officer Group and the other is being taken forward Job Centre Plus. The annual assessment return results for Essex have just been published and we are now working on those areas highlighted with the attached link to embed in the Forward Planner for 2016/2017
- The Health and Wellbeing report from July 2015.
Follow this link to the agenda for the meeting held on 23rd July 2015. Item 11 is the Adult Autism Update which outlines the progress made and the actions that were later resolved at the next meeting in September. One of the updates involves the Essex Autism Information Hub which will be available from the end of January 2016.
- The Adult Autism Partnership Board has endorsed the implementation of the Essex Autism Information Hub in alleviating social isolation for individuals with autism, particularly those who are undiagnosed. The hub will be designed to improve individual confidence and self-esteem by increasing engagement at a central point of contact, enabling people with autism to engage in activities and services within their locality that may not have been known to them.
Most of the information provided in this response is publicly available and links have been provided to aid any searches required to source more detailed information.
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