Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage health and wellbeing boards to follow the current statutory guidance implementing the adult autism strategy; and what plans there are to encourage them to do so when new statutory guidance is published.

The Department and NHS England have discussed the draft statutory guidance implementing the adult autism strategy. NHS England is a partner in the Autism Strategy and a member of the Autism Programme Board and has been involved in producing the guidance.

Information about the requirements of the strategy has been disseminated through National Health Service bulletins to clinical commissioning groups and area teams to support Health and Wellbeing Boards to follow guidance. The Autism Self-Assessment Framework enables Health and Wellbeing Boards to benchmark their services against other areas.