Ms Julie Tonge:

I think I failed to respond on the Chair's comment on the CAO application. I wrote it down but did not address it. Students can tick a box to let us know they have a disability on entry and we contact those students. It is in addition to the DARE scheme, which provides much helpful information and acts as a transition tool in itself. Those who are not eligible for DARE, who are not school leavers, can also tick a box to let us know they have a disability but we do not have any information other than that. That prompts us to contact those people and encourage them to link in with our service. It is difficult to do that in the timeframes we have because there is a huge bottleneck in September trying to get through all these students. By doing more work beforehand, it allows the students to know what to expect. We can prioritise in particular those students with a diagnosis of autism because we know of the challenges they have with that transition.