Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what support autistic adults receive to protect them from abuse and neglect; and whether they have any plans to increase that support.

The Care Act 2014 sets out the local authority's responsibility for adult safeguarding for the first time in primary legislation. This is vital to ensure clear accountability, roles and responsibilities for helping and protecting adults with care and support needs, including autistic adults, who are experiencing, or at risk of, abuse or neglect.

The Act requires local authorities to carry out a safeguarding enquiry where they have reasonable cause to expect a person is at risk of abuse or neglect. Authorities must consider what if any actions are needed, and who should carry these out, to stop abuse and neglect taking place. The draft guidance clarifies that where a local authority has started a safeguarding enquiry it should continue the needs assessment for care and support in parallel, and determine whether the person has eligible needs which it must meet.

The Act places the establishment of Safeguarding Adults Boards on a statutory footing, so as to ensure local authorities, National Health Service and police (as well as any other agency deemed appropriate) work together to develop and implement adult safeguarding strategies and conduct safeguarding adult reviews in serious cases to ensure lessons are learnt and applied. This will better equip local agencies with relevant care and support functions both to prevent abuse and to respond when it occurs.

Transforming care, the Government's programme to address issues identified by the abuse of people at Winterbourne View hospital aims to ensure that people with learning disabilities and autism are safe and get good quality care when they are in hospital, and where appropriate following an assessment of their care and needs, they are able to live with support in the community.