Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what funds his Department is providing from the public purse to deliver its autism strategy in (a) England and (b) Gloucestershire; whether that funding is ring-fenced; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

Think Autism, the updated Cross Government strategy for adults with autism in England was published in 2014. A focus of the strategy is for public services and organisations to think about and engage with people who have autism more effectively and make reasonable adjustments or adaptations to improve outcomes and make better use of existing public resources. The Department made available revenue and capital funding of £4.5 million to support innovation and awareness in 2014/15 but no funds are individually ring-fenced. Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire local authorities both received £18,500 seed corn capital funding to make environments more autism friendly, and South Gloucestershire was awarded £8,300 for an Autism Innovation Fund project.