Our Legal Entitlements and Problem Solving Project (LEaP) is looking for a family in the Yorkshire area to be interviewed by the BBC. If your child has autism and your family have experienced any of the issues outlined below, we would be keen to hear from you:
- 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?
- Is your child 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].
The LEaP Project helps parents and carers who need help to resolve a legal problem regarding access to health, social care or other support services. It is an innovative problem-solving project that has been developed with the School of Law at the University of Leeds.
Since September 2019, student researchers at the University of Leeds, led by Professor Luke Clements, have carried out extensive research into how children with autism are treated by local authorities. Specifically, the research focuses on the barriers English local authorities construct to deny children with autism crucial support services.
