A new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) entitled ‘Supporting people with autism through adulthood’ which can also be found in our Resource Bank assesses current service provision for adults with autism. Although adults are the focus of this report, it brings to light a number of important findings concerning children - most importantly, children’s transition to adult’s services which starts formally at age 14. The report covers service areas such as health, social care, education, benefits and employment support.

It is estimated that there are currently around half a million people with autism in England, with about 100,000 of these being children. A recent study at Kings College London estimated that autism in children costs the UK economy £2.7 billion a year.

Key findings of the report regarding children include:

• Diagnosis, monitoring and awareness of autism in children has improved rapidly in recent years.

• However there are still a large number of Local Authorities which do not know how many children there are with autism and special educational needs (SEN) in their area.

• There is research suggesting that in the past, transition planning for young people with SEN (including autism) has been generally poor.

• The NAO’s interviews and focus groups with transition managers and employment support providers suggested that transition support requires more effective leadership and relationships between services, and that there is confusion around who is the lead, and whether individuals are covered by children’s or adult services.

• They also suggested that there is a lack of clarity about the roles of health, education, and social services, often resulting in the absence of a decision-making authority, conflicts in responsibility, and lack of understanding between services.

• As at December 2008, Connexions did not know the training, employment or education status of 31 per cent of its clients aged 16-24 with a learning difficulty or disability.

• Further education institutions have highlighted that in many cases Section 140 assessments were vague or poor in quality and while they were useful to highlight that the student had support needs, they did not provide sufficient details of what support was required.

Geoffrey Maddrell, Chairman of Research Autism says:

"Research Autism is not surprised with the NAO's findings, which confirm what people with autism, professionals and their families have long been saying; that there is an appalling lack of joined up and accessible provision for adults with autism. Help for autism in children has improved greatly in recent years; in theory this should mean that these children are known to government services and should benefit from a planned and tailored transition from education into adult life. However, the report found that despite good intentions in many areas, there was a general lack of planning and it is clear that the level of expertise is seriously below that which is required.”

Download the report here.