Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities can provide sufficient training and staffing levels to ensure local services can meet the needs of autistic adult residents.

We committed to developing and trialling the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in Learning Disability and Autism for all health and social care staff. The Training is intended to ensure that staff are sufficiently equipped with the skills and knowledge to provide safe, compassionate and informed care to meet the needs of autistic people. The Training was trialled in England during 2021 and is currently being evaluated.

To support local government services, the Government has created a one-off, non-ring-fenced grant of £822 million. Local authorities can use this funding for local priorities such as training and staffing to meet the needs of autistic adult residents.