Autism Bill

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, and that is why I am so pleased to see the level of detail in the Bill. The changes that need to take place will not come about without the detail that I mentioned earlier. On the issue of data collection, the National Autistic Society survey found that 67 per cent. of local authorities and 77 per cent. of primary care trusts do not collect any data on adults with autism. It is clearly a crucial starting point to determine the scale of the problem. I concur with the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham that we need to be sure that we go the whole way—that we do not just work with the people we know about, but reach out and identify those who have not been identified before. I read with interest the references in the Committee Hansard to section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, and the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton drew our attention to the fact that it was ineffective and not actually implemented. I congratulate the Minister, who clearly took that on board and adjusted the way in which the guidance should be applied to NHS authorities. That struck me as a landmark in the debate. We have started the journey. We have the luggage and the map, but will we reach journey's end? It is such a long journey. The NAO found that 74 per cent. of local authorities do not have a commissioning strategy for adults. Some 80 per cent. of GPs told the NAO that they needed additional training and guidance. This is a huge problem and we must not underestimate how much needs doing. Training is necessary across the board. Hon. Members have mentioned Jobcentre Plus, and it is my experience that even when a young adult is provided with a contact at Jobcentre Plus who is said to have had the relevant training, communication is still difficult—that is probably the politest way to put it—for whatever reason. I have seen some of the e-mails that have resulted, and the dissatisfaction. Communication is a two-way process, and it is difficult, but we need so much more training. We know that more young adults could be in work, and those who are not in work need to access benefits and not get into financial problems because their benefits have been cut off following their failure to fill the forms in on time. We also need cultural changes and the resources—we should not pretend that resources will not be necessary. As has been pointed out, some of the proposals in the Bill mean investing to save. Unfortunately, local finances do not always work like that, because the money is not available in the year when the investment is needed. I would like the Government to take that on board. There has to be longer-term financial planning for local authorities, health services and all others who are involved. We have rightly raised expectations with this Bill, but as well as raising expectations and making these excellent proposals today, we all have a duty to continue to work on a cross-party basis at all levels of government and to encourage all relevant services to work together. We can do better and we must do better.