Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what measures are in place to train healthcare professionals in understanding and supporting the specific medical needs of individuals with autism.

There are several measures being put in place to train healthcare professionals in understanding and supporting the needs of autistic people.

From 1 July 2022, the Health and Care Act 2022 requires providers registered with the Care Quality Commission to ensure their staff receive specific training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role. We are rolling out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism to support this. This training will help to ensure that staff have the right skills and knowledge to provide safe and compassionate care, including how to provide reasonable adjustments, for autistic people. Over 1.4 million people have completed the first part of Oliver’s Training, an e-learning package.

NHS England has commissioned the Royal College of Psychiatrists to deliver the National Autism Training Programme for Psychiatrists in response to the need and demand for better autism training from within the profession. The training is co-produced and co-delivered with autistic people and offers a short foundation training course for psychiatrists working across a variety of settings, and a longer, more enhanced development course, aimed at psychiatrists and higher trainees who are seeking to increase their specialist knowledge and skills in autism. The provision of this training will help reduce diagnostic overshadowing, play a significant role in preventing unnecessary admissions to mental health hospitals for autistic people and improve autism appropriate care. The ambition is that this may contribute to reducing the number of inappropriate admissions, interventions such as seclusion and segregation along with the length of stay for those who need hospital care.