Health centre u-turns on ‘dangerous’ autism criteria after parent launches legal challenge

A parent has won a legal challenge against a healthcare provider after it u-turned on a “dangerous and naive” criteria for autism diagnosis assessments.

Campaign group Assess for Autism launched a Crowd Justice campaign in March to fund legal action, after healthcare provider Sirona announced new criteria that would restrict access to autism assessment.

Under the restrictive criteria, children would have had to be in “crisis” before being placed on a two-year waiting list to be seen by Sirona.

However, within days the campaign raised enough for the family behind the legal challenge to begin work with solicitor Rook, Irwin Sweeney.

Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) announced they would be reversing the criteria after Assess for Autism sent a pre-action letter in early April.

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Read more: Parents slam new autism referrals rule as ‘discrimination’

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In what campaigners are calling a complete U-turn, Sirona said it would revert the assessment criteria to the status quo with immediate effect and that all young people on the waiting list would be triaged in accordance with the old criteria.

The private health care company also pledged that referrals made since March 1 would now be reconsidered with the old criteria in mind.

In a joint statement, BNSSG ICB and Sirona Care & Health said: “We are grateful to all the parents, carers and local councillors who have shared their views regarding the recent changes to the local autism assessment referral criteria.

“We have always been committed to learning from young people and their families, and revising our approach if necessary, and we are sorry for any additional anxiety caused by the changes.

“Since the changes were introduced, we have also seen several further developments of direct relevance to our approach including publication of the National Framework for Autism Assessment Services and local agreement of £1m in funding to continue a waiting list initiative for autism assessments.

“Considering these developments and the feedback received, we have agreed with our partners that we will revert to the previous assessment criteria, while continuing to triage all referrals based on clinical need and vulnerability as we have always done.

“We will now work closely with local parents, carers and partners to develop a sustainable approach to meeting the needs of children with neurodiversity.

“We will be contacting the parents and carers of children who have been referred since 1 March to notify them of the revised approach.”

Labour Councillor for Hartcliffe and Withywood Ward, Kerry Ward, praised campaigners for launching a legal campaign against Sirona.

https://twitter.com/ward_kerry/status/1652003264441794565

“Assess for Autism have just heard some exciting news from the parent who made the legal challenge against Sirona CIC –the ICB have reversed Sirona’s decision to change the assessment criteria for autism in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire,” she tweeted.

A spokesperson for Assess for Autism said: “We are relieved that the legal challenge helped the ICB see sense, and that the family who mounted the legal challenge with our support won’t have to endure full judicial review.

“We have been blown away by the incredible support from the parent carer community that made the legal challenge, and the excellent result, possible.”

Tim Nicholls, head of influencing and research at the National Autistic Society, said there was still work to be done to support the families involved.

“While this is progress for the families involved, we know that many of them are still facing long delays for an assessment,” he said.

“Changing the criteria for referral does not make the problem of long waiting lists disappear – it only increases the uncertainty and stress for autistic people and their families.

“We remain deeply concerned about any proposals that make it harder to get an autism assessment, wherever they are in the country.

“The Government needs to urgently fund nationwide capacity to carry out high quality assessments.

“We would urge any other local decision makers considering similar proposals to change the referral criteria for autism assessments in their areas to think again.”

Main photo: Google Maps

Read more:

• The robot helping young people with autism
• SEND failings see year seven pupil stuck in primary school
• Cases of parents taking council to court over SEND delays tripled in 2022

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