Ms Anne O'Connor:

Two issues arise in respect of autism. The Deputy is correct that we are often challenged to get service providers who can provide the right level of care to people with very complex needs. We received funding last year, however, to look at a specific autism initiative to improve services in one way but also to look at our approach to people with autism. In reality, people with autism need to be able to access our whole range of services. We have an extensive new initiative on autism, which is about to be launched in the relatively near future, and it will be similar to the Understand Together dementia campaign. Much work has been done on autism and we are very happy with that in ensuring that our services and the public are aware of what autism is and what it means for people who have autism. At the other end of the spectrum we need to ensure that we have the right providers to provide for a very complex need. Sometimes people with autism have a range of other needs as well. We are very focused on that at the moment.