Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) measures and (b) guidelines NHS England has in place to ensure quality care for children with autism in the hospital system; and when those measures and guidelines were last updated.

The Care Quality Commission’s inspection of hospitals will include assessment of whether or not children’s needs are being assessed and care and treatment delivered in line with legislation, standards and evidence-based guidance. The inspection framework for National Health Service acute hospitals for services for children and young people was last updated in October 2014. Hospital trusts are able to measure effectiveness through, for example, the Friends and Family test, the NHS National Children's Inpatient and Day Case Survey and other means of engaging with children and their families.

The guidance which the NHS should follow in ensuring the quality of care provided for children with autism in hospital is issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, chiefly the quality standard [QS51] on Autism, published in January 2014 and guidelines, autism: the management and support of children and young people on the autism spectrum (August 2013), which is available at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg170