Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that community care assessments of people with autism are being carried out by professionals with appropriate training.

The Care Act will be implemented from April 2015. The Care and Support (Assessment) Regulations 2014, which are made under the Act, will require all local authorities to ensure that anyone carrying out an assessment is appropriately trained and has the skills, knowledge and competency to do so. The Regulations also require that where the assessor is not an expert in the condition they are assessing and the needs of the person require it, the local authority must ensure the assessor consults someone who is an expert in this condition. These requirements apply where a local authority is carrying out an assessment of an adult with autism. In line with Think Autism, the 2014 update to the 2010 Adult Autism Strategy, local authorities should develop specialist training for those in roles that have a direct impact on access to services for adults with autism.

Under the Care Act local authorities must assess an adult where there is an appearance of a need for care and support. This is not a new requirement and it has been highlighted again in the draft revised statutory guidance for local authorities and the NHS to implement Think Autism, which is being consulted on until 19 December.