Advocacy and autism
The Statutory Guidance attached to the Autism Strategy entitles anyone with a diagnosis of autism to a Community Care Assessment. This means that anyone with autism will now be involved with services. Does this include advocacy?
Things are happening out there. Many areas have created Autism Partnership Boards charged with implementing the new strategy. There is no new money, but there is an expectation that people with Autism will get a better deal.
There have been many debates over the years about who provides advocacy in this area - whose 'box' does it fit into?. We know about the huge gaps in advocacy services – is autism one of those gaps? Many advocates will support people across the autistic spectrum in their work, however there have been times when autism was seen as too specialist for some groups to tackle. Can advocates share their skills and consider if we need to change services to be more inclusive of people with autism.
Advocacy projects could do something to ensure that they know what is going on in their area. Is advocacy represented on the Autism Partnership Board? Are advocacy networks discussing their approach to advocacy and Autism? ARX would like to help by setting up a web based forum so that advocates can share information with each other about issues that may be common to those on the autistic spectrum or just to ask each other for ideas in general. If you are would like to be a part of this then please email janet.badger@advocacyresource.org.uk and if there is enough interest we will set one up .