A new five-year autism strategy across Coventry and Warwickshire has been backed by county councillors anxious to tackle the inequalities encountered by those affected.

The plan which has been drawn up by Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council, NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group and the Warwickshire Autism Partnership Board focuses on five priorities and will cover all ages.

At this week's cabinet meeting of Warwickshire County Council, Cllr Margaret Bell (Con, Hartshill and Mancestter), the portfolio holder for adult social care and health, explained that the idea was to build on good practise and address any gaps in provision.

She said: "Our local strategy is based on five key priority areas; support to people with autism or who suspect they may have autism, reduce inequalities of people with autism and work towards making Warwickshire an autism-friendly county, form relationships with a range of organisations that can provide the necessary support, and – very importantly – to redesign the autism diagnostic pathway which is key to unlocking some of the issues we have in this area.

"The fifth area is to continue our joint understanding of autism."

Cllr Bell added that a new national strategy was introduced earlier this year with six priorities broadly mirroring those of the local plan.

But she explained: "Our local strategy does go one step further – we will continue to provide support to people who present with difficulties even before a diagnosis is made and that is very important.

"I am sure that members will remember that we had a SEND inspection quite recently and one area of improvement was around autism, the long waiting times and the lack of support for people while they are waiting for assessments and following diagnosis.

"As you can see from this strategy which was already underway, we had already recognised that these were areas we needed to build on and have been covered in the strategy."

Cllr Jeff Morgan (Con, Bulkington and Whitestone), the portfolio holder for children, families and young people, said there were up to 1,000 children across Warwickshire suffering from autism.

He added: "This report is very important for those children particularly since data shows that young people with autism suffer inequalities in terms of mortality sometimes, self-harm, involvement with the criminal justice system, social isolation and poorer outcomes in education."

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse (Lib Dem, Eastlands) highlighted a potential staffing problem. He said: "The document points to workforce gaps. There is a massive question, not just around this area but across the whole social care mechanism, about where the workforce of the future is going to come from.

"We know that demands are increasing and as an authority we probably have to do some deep thinking about that."

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