We recently published a post asking families in the Yorkshire area to get in contact if their child with autism had been refused social care support or blocked from accessing the Children and Disabilities team. We have had a great response so thank you for everyone who got in contact.

We are now looking for families from all across England and Wales to potentially be interviewed by the BBC. If your child has autism and your family have experienced the issues outlined below, we would be keen to hear from you, for example:

• Has your child with autism been refused a social care needs assessment by your local authority?
  • If so, was the local authority’s reason for refusal based on the fact that your child must also have another condition (such as a severe learning difficulty or challenging behaviour) to be eligible for an assessment and subsequent support?
• Perhaps your child is waiting for a formal diagnosis of autism and your local authority are refusing to carry out an assessment until a diagnosis is confirmed?
• Has your local authority excluded your child from accessing the Children and Disabilities team perhaps stating that children with autism are not eligible for support from this team?

If any of the above sound familiar and you have experienced any of these issues first-hand, please get in touch with our LEaP Project Co-ordinator as soon as possible by emailing [email protected].