Autism and ADHD Assessments

Laura Farris Excerpts

Monday 6th February 2023 Westminster Hall

[Laura Farris (Newbury) (Con)]

I thank the Petitions Committee for agreeing to the debate. This is a bittersweet moment for me: I brought a debate on this issue to this Chamber exactly one year ago. You were in the Chair, Ms Fovargue, and the same Minister was in her place. The kernel of my argument was that children in West Berkshire were waiting far too long for diagnoses of autism and ADHD, with sometimes devastating implications for their educational and social development.

I have been campaigning since then for no child ever to have wait more than one year for an initial diagnosis. That may sound as if it lacks ambition, but the reality for many children in West Berkshire is that the wait is more like three years. I would like to be able to say that there has been some progress. I had West Berkshire CAMHS in the dock last year, but I pay tribute to the service. I have spoken to the service a number of times this year and have relayed the impact of waiting times. The service has assured me that by March 2023, which is next month, it will have capped waiting times at two years, and by March 2024—in 13 months—it will have capped waiting times at 12 months, so my campaign will have eventually got there. But I regret to say that, of the many parents who wrote to me in advance of the debate, far too many still say that they have been waiting for much longer than that.

I will give a couple of examples; I could not possibly fit everybody in, which says something in itself. One lady, Kathleen, who looks after her two grandsons, told me about the 12-year-old boy, who is now approaching three years on the CAMHS waiting list:

“He is no longer in education. If I don’t get help soon I feel he is in danger of being criminalised due to his anger and behaviour being out of control”.

Another lady, Vanessa, told me about her eight-year-old son. She was initially told to expect a three-year wait, but says her GP pushed to get that reduced. She described filling in endless forms, and ended by saying:

“We are crying out for help he is 8 years old and seeing him so angry, upset and hating life is breaking our hearts.”

I know that the Government understand the impact of this issue, because they wrote about it, sensitively and with real understanding, in their SEND review, which was published last year. I look forward to hearing what they have to say about that, because I know there is more coming soon.

One of the petitions calls for an emergency fund. I can talk only about my local service. West Berkshire CAMHS received an extra £1.6 million in April 2021 to reduce waiting times. At the time, the service told me that it hoped that that would enable the recruitment of an extra 27 members of staff to help with diagnoses, and it has now recruited those people. None the less, it does not disagree that families continue to face long waits. The service has had an awful lot of extra money. I wonder whether there are other issues; I will touch on them today and invite the Minister to respond.

First, I wonder whether the system for diagnosis is too complicated. I know that the system falls between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education, and that there has been a surge in demand for diagnostic services of this kind. However, I find it surprising that the experience of every single parent seems to be the same, irrespective of whether the child is still in mainstream school. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm whether there could be a flagging system at the initial point of triage, so that a child who is failing to access the curriculum or at risk of exclusion could be prioritised for diagnosis.

Another route I wanted to ask about stems from something that West Berkshire CAMHS said to me. I do not know whether this is true, but I will repeat what the service told me verbatim, which is that schools erroneously say that they cannot help until there is a diagnosis, although in fact they can on the presentation of need. If a school is confronted with a child who is presenting with typical ADHD-type symptoms, could there be an online tool, perhaps run by CAMHS, that would allow for a preliminary “We think it’s ADHD”? The child could then progress down that pathway while they wait. I do not know whether that is possible.

I also invite the Minister to comment on whether there could be better joined-up work between health and education services. In preparing for this debate, I refreshed my memory as to what she said when she responded to my debate last year. In that debate, the Minister talked about a £600,000 autism early diagnosis pilot taking place in Bradford that was creating testing facilities in

“at least 100 schools over the next three years to assess whether new approaches to…faster diagnosis can be rolled out across the country.”—[Official Report, 9 February 2022; Vol. 708, c. 382WH.]

That is a commendable pilot. By now, it must be at least a year in. After the debate, I went to see Ministers at the Departments of Health and for Education to see whether West Berkshire schools could join the pilot. Unfortunately, I did not get anywhere with that, and I have not had much of an update on the pilot either. I would be interested to know whether on-site testing in schools is now ready for roll-out, or at least how the pilot is going.

My final point about CAMHS is something that other Members have touched on. When I visited the Downs School—a secondary school in Compton—last Friday, a pupil told me that one of the limitations of CAMHS is that mental health issues such as anxiety and depression are bundled together with neurodiversity diagnoses. While there is sometimes an overlap between the two, they are, in fact, distinct areas. Could the Minister comment on whether she thinks the neurodiversity aspect of CAMHS would work better if it was completely separated from the mental health element?

I know there is no magic bullet for any of these issues, but the solutions and ideas I have presented, some of which come from CAMHS professionals and teachers, suggest a simplified, more streamlined and accountable approach to ADHD and autism diagnoses. I would like to hope that this time next year, we will not need to have this debate again.

Scotland Act 1998: Section 35 Power

Laura Farris Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jack]

The hon. Lady will not be surprised to hear that I do not recognise much of what she says as being correct. I would point her to the statement of reasons, which will be laid alongside this order today. Our legal advice is clear: the Equality Act 2010 is reserved and there are adverse effects, some of which I listed in my statement only moments ago, including on associations, women’s safe spaces and single-sex schools. It was very clear what I said, and the hon. Lady will see what legal counsel have determined when she sees the statement of reasons.

[Laura Farris (Newbury) (Con)]

A Conservative Government are standing up for women’s sex-based rights in Scotland. I congratulate the Government on this decision, which we know will protect women’s sex-based specialist services in areas such as rape crisis. Does the Secretary of State agree, given the verdict of the UN special rapporteur and the verdict of Dr Hilary Cass, which is not yet complete, that it is essential for every corner of the United Kingdom to reach an agreed position on the age limit for a gender recognition certificate?

[Mr Jack]

Absolutely.

Oral Answers to Questions

Laura Farris Excerpts

Wednesday 16th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr Speaker, I will tell you what this Government and this Prime Minister have done: 1,000 Russian individuals sanctioned with a combined wealth of $45 billion; the impact of the sanctions and the diplomatic effort that this Foreign Secretary and this Prime Minister have led; the rouble plummeting; the Russian stock market record lows; and interest rates doubled. We have also shown the big-hearted spirit of this Government, and indeed this nation, with 5,500 visas granted to Ukrainians to come here, and the humanitarian route, which has now got 100,000 sponsors applying to take Ukrainian families into their homes. While the right hon. Lady is in her social media echo chamber, that is what this Government are doing.

[Laura Farris (Newbury) (Con)]

Q2. It was very good to see my right hon. Friend visiting the International Criminal Court earlier this week, but it has enduring difficulties with funding. Last year, it had a $40 million shortfall in its budget because some participating states failed to meet their annual contribution. The International Criminal Court is only as good as the sum of its parts, so what steps can the Government take to secure contingency funding to ensure that one day Russian military commanders in Ukraine can expect to stand trial for war crimes that they have committed?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is bang on. The Assembly of States Parties is looking at the arrears. I was in The Hague on Monday speaking to the Prosecutor and the President of the Court. We will be coming forward with a voluntary package of financial and technical support because now, as it looks at the situation in Ukraine, we want—and I think the whole House would want—Putin and his commanders to know that if they continue with war crimes in Ukraine, they will end up not just in the dock of a court, but behind bars.

Oral Answers to Questions

Laura Farris Excerpts

Wednesday 28th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman is completely wrong in what he says about tests, but he is right about one thing, which is that Wales has made an amazing contribution to our national fightback—our UK fightback—against covid. It was incredible again to go to the Wockhardt factory in Wrexham. It is Wockhardt, working together with Oxford Biomedica, that has enabled us to roll out the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that has made such a difference. I want to say a massive thank you, again, to those Welsh scientists and all those people working in that factory, because they have helped to save countless lives across the UK.

[Laura Farris (Newbury) (Con)]

The integrated review confirms the vital role that the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire will play in our future nuclear capability. I want to pay tribute to the establishment, particularly the senior female employees who have won a slew of national awards for their work in defence science, engineering and nuclear security. Given the Government’s significant investment in all those sectors, will my right hon. Friend say how he plans to improve women’s participation in these fields, where historically they have been underrepresented, and may I invite him to the AWE to illustrate our success?