Landmark autism law to
come into force
The Autism Bill has passed
its final stage in the House of Lords to become the Autism Act, England’s first
ever disability-specific law. The National Autistic Society (NAS) heralded the
new law as ‘groundbreaking’ and said health and social care services could now
face legal action if they failed to provide support for people with the condition,
which affects over half a million people in the UK.
Autism is a lifelong
developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and
relates to, other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world
around them. While all people with autism share certain difficulties, their
condition will affect them in different ways.
The Autism Act started out
as a Private Members’ Bill drafted by the NAS on behalf of a coalition of
autism charities. The Autism Act will guarantee the introduction of the
first-ever adult autism strategy, which will set out how local services should
be improved to meet the needs of adults with autism.
The strategy will cover a
range of issues including health, social care, employment and training and,
crucially, will be accompanied by guidance which places a legal obligation on
local authorities and NHS bodies to meet certain requirements. The strategy
will be published by April 2010 and the accompanying legal guidance no later
than December 2010.
The NAS is also calling
for the strategy to tackle the woeful number of people with autism in
employment. New research for the charity’s Don’t Write Me Off campaign,
launched in October of this year, found that a third of people with autism –
that’s over 100,000 – currently live without a job and most worryingly without
benefits.
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