A view from Mark Isherwood – Welsh Conservative North Wales Member of the Senedd
Wrexham.com has invited the four North Wales Members of the Senedd to write a monthly column with updates on their work. You can find their updates – along with contributions from the Wrexham and Clwyd South MPs and MSs – here.
In his monthly column for Wrexham.com, Welsh Conservative MS Mark Isherwood writes:
As Chair of the Senedd’s Cross-Party Autism Group and Cross-Party Group on Disability, I have long sought to champion the needs of Autistic and Disabled people and regularly raise issues of behalf of autistic and disabled people and their families in the Senedd Chamber.
Most recently, I expressed deep concern that the Welsh Government’s Autism Code of Practice is often not being implemented or monitored, causing Autistic people and their families great distress.
Responding to the ‘Statement by the Deputy Minister for Social Services: Evaluation of the Autism Code of Practice and Neurodivergence Update’, I referred to a number of cases in North Wales where people with Autism and other lifelong neurodevelopmental conditions have been badly treated.
The Code of Practice was introduced after proposals for an Autism (Wales) Bill, which I put forward, and subsequently Paul Davies MS, were defeated.
When I pursue constituent casework on behalf of people with Autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions , the providers and commissioners running the show either fail to acknowledge the Code of Practice until reminded, or claim compliance with it.
Large numbers of Autistic people and their families or carers who contact me, almost always tell me that they have been ignored, harmed and blamed.
Earlier this year, I attended a Care and Support Assessment at a constituent’s request, at which the conduct of Council officers drove the Mother into Autistic meltdown, which is not the same as a temper tantrum, and not bad or naughty behaviour, but occurs when I person is completely overwhelmed.
I asked the Minister to respond to the letter then sent by the Council’s Social Services Chief Officer, accusing the mother of verbal abuse and dictating how future contact would be managed.
I also asked the Minister to respond to the allegations I received that young Autistic people in Wales are still being sent to Mental Institutions outside Wales, one of whom, for example, died in institutional care last November, and to the parents of Autistic children, whose children had been Sectioned as a result of placement breakdown and failure of Local Authority provision, who told me last month, that our ability to understand the extent of this problem and monitor it is restricted by the lack of available up-to-date data.
Meanwhile, questioning the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution last month, I made a call for the Welsh Government to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into Welsh law within the time remaining in the legislative agenda.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9th December 1975, states that all disabled persons have the same rights as other persons and recognises the obstacles created by social institutions and society in general.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted on 13 December 2006 and the UK ratified the Convention in 2009.
Disability Wales’ recently released report, ‘Barely Surviving’, called, amongst other things, for the Welsh Government to ‘Incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People’ and goes on to state that ‘despite its inclusion in the Programme for Government, there is still no timeline for incorporation of the UN Convention.”
The Welsh Government need to stop letting Autistic and Disabled people and their families down and instead provide them with the support and the services that they need and deserve.
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