Dr. Amanda Burke:

We recognise that there have been deficits across the board in services relating to autism. It should not be up to parents and families to determine what is the appropriate service. That is our job. We recommend that autism-specific supports be provided within either primary care or the CDNTs. If someone with a moderate to severe mental health difficulty was accessing those, then they had to move over to CAMHS. There was, so to speak, a ferrying over and back going on. I will outline what we are going to do about this. We have an autism protocol that has been piloted in two areas and that is now being rolled out to four. We hope it will become mainstream early next year. The protocol says that young people would access their autism supports either in primary care or the CDNTs but that their CAMHS supports would be provided in conjunction with these. People do not attend one service or the other, they can attend both. This takes away the possibility of being transferred from one service to another. Ideally, CAMHS support would be within reach into the CDNTs. The person stays with the team they are comfortable with and CAMHS consults with them.

Pieces of work could happen within CAMHS, but there is absolutely no exclusion for people with autism from CAMHS. The CAMHS operational guidance is very clear that if a person has a moderate to severe mental illness or autistic spectrum disorder, they come under the responsibility of CAMHS, so they can attend both services. The pilot programme has provided good insights, and hopefully these problems will decrease.