“Yesterday, the new Government announced their plans for the year in the King’s Speech. We are pleased to hear they plan to finally go ahead with reforms to the Mental Health Act. This inclusion is an opportunity to change the law so autism is no longer defined as a ‘mental disorder’ and autistic people will not be detained in mental health hospitals just for being autistic. Last year, over 18,000 of you signed an open letter to Rishi Sunak saying its #TimeToAct on the Mental Health Bill but despite this huge demand for action, it was shelved. We’ve been campaigning on this for years and we want to take the time to celebrate this success with everyone who has campaigned to end the human rights scandal of autistic people being stuck in mental health hospitals. We will work with this parliament to strengthen the Mental Health Bill before it is passed into law to make sure we have better mental health and social services in the community to prevent autistic people from reaching crisis point in the first place.
The Government also announced plans for a new Education Bill which will include a focus on teacher recruitment. Only 26% of autistic pupils say they feel happy at school, so it is vital that this comes with proper training on autism for both school and council staff so they can fully meet the needs of autistic children being let down by insufficient support.” |
