Up-Date May 2008:  All Part Paliamentary Group for Autism (APPGA)...

As a supporter of the APPGA, you may be interested to know that the first ever Bill about Adults with Autism will be introduced to Parliament on Tuesday 20th May.

Angela Browning, MP for Tiverton and Honiton, has been working closely with the NAS to put together the Bill, which is based on some of the main demands from  the I Exist campaign .

This is an excellent opportunity to bring our campaign to the attention of Parliament and we have been contacting MPs to make sure as many as possible will be in the House of Commons chamber to support the Bill.

On 8 May, the Government made a landmark commitment to adults with autism with the announcement of the following measures that will lead to national strategy:

    a full-time, senior autism advisor post within the Department of Health
    funding a study into the numbers of adults with autism
    funding research into the needs of young people with autism as they approach adulthood
    improving understanding of autism among professionals.

The Adults with Autism Bill was drafted prior to this announcement and is an attempt to build on this action from the Government.

With 98% of local authorities and 100% of primary care trusts saying that the Government could provide them with more assistance with adults with autism, the bill calls on the Secretary of State to provide adequate support to ensure that best practice is followed and developed at a local level.

This includes clarifying who is responsible for autism, taking the needs of people with the disability into account in the commissioning of adult services and establishing support such as social skills training, daily living skills and social support, which could prevent people’s needs from escalating.

Ten Minute Rule Bills are often an opportunity for MPs to highlight important issues rather than making changes to the law but by promoting the Bill now, we hope an MP will choose to introduce it as a Private Members Bill in the new session of Parliament that begins in November. 

You can watch the Bill live on the Parliament website ( http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Live.aspx ) from 3.30pm .