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Extra £300,000 to help people with autism



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Published Date: 06 March 2008
ALEX Salmond, the First Minister, yesterday announced an extra £300,000 to train staff to deal with autism.
The money has been awarded by the Scottish Government to the Scottish Society for Autism. It will allow the society's staff and assistants to benefit from specific training modules on autism spectrum disorder.

An estimated 50,000 Scots are autistic.





The full article contains 66 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 05 March 2008 10:33 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Autism
 
1

Charles Linskaill,

Edinburgh 06/03/2008 01:21:24
Its not much if you think about it, but it is a start!
Any disability deserves more warrant.
2

subrosa,

06/03/2008 02:26:43
At least the money is being given to train staff in modern procedures and surely this must benefit many in the long run. These staff will be able to train others and with well trained staff this will be of benefit to all.
3

Autism Rights,

Ayrshire 06/03/2008 08:44:05
Whilst parents would welcome such an injection of cash for training, it will be of little actual benefit to the majority of children or adults with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder if there are no standards in place for service provision (as is currently the case). Most particularly, given that the SSA only provides services to a tiny proportion of those with an ASD who manage to receive funding from their local authorities, the impact of this money will be extremely limited.
 
 Autism Rights, which is the only national group in Scotland campaigning for the rights of people with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and their families that is led by service users, is currently canvassing the views of parents and people with ASD on the various services that are provided for people with ASD. Comments should be emailed to proposals@autismrights.org.uk. Autism Rights's general proposals for all services for people with ASD are available at:-
 
 http://www.autismrights.org.uk/AutismRightsProposals.html
4

Autism Rights,

Ayrshire 06/03/2008 09:13:03
#1&2 - a `start` should have been made a long time ago - and this money is not going to do this. The autism charities have received millions from the taxpayer for the services they provide, and for training courses that are unassessed. They have even received money from the government (over 650,000 pounds in the case of the National Autistic Society) to put together accreditation schemes - so `standards` for people with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder have been farmed out to charities, who are themselves service providers!!! The Scottish Society has received funding for a separate accreditation scheme from the previous Scottish Executive. Why we need to pay for another one, when such `accreditation` can be given to local authorities whose sole provision for children with ASD is a service which dispenses `tips` over the phone to classroom teachers and rotates those teachers providing the tips every 2 years!! How do these teachers providing the `tips` get to develop any worthwhile experience, and why would it be worthwhile providing them with a professional training course leading to a professional qualification (assessed - as opposed to unassessed) which lasts at least a year?!

Huge amounts of money are being wasted on ineffective `initiatives` which result in not one improvement in service provision - parents do not want to see a continuation of this practice by the Scottish Government. There are no service standards in any service provision that are specific to the needs of people with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder - because of the nature of the disability,there should be.

Parents and other service users must be involved in decision making - the autism charities do not represent us, and should not be the sole source of expertise that government draws on to make policy - with the disgraceful closure of the Cross Party Group under the previous Executive, the last point of contact with decision makers was removed. We're calling for the reinstatement of the Cross
5

Autism Rights,

Ayrshire 06/03/2008 09:25:04
I got cut off!!

The sentence at the end should read `We're calling for the reinstatement of the Cross Party Group and for direct service user involvement in the formulation of government policy on services for people with an ASD.
6

Reverse LIB/LAB Pact Systematic Abuse Of Autist's,

Kirkcaldy, Fife 06/03/2008 15:09:20
While the £300k is a start I agree with Autism Rights comments. I know of one boy with severe Autism and it is costing the state more than £300k per annum to look after him. Come on Alex and Nicola we need many 100's of £millions to resolve this one. It is time that the Goverment listened to organisations like Autism Rights and Autism Treatment Trust. I'm afraid that the Step Change in Improvement required is not being delivered through the Scottish or National Autistic Societies. We know they are meeting the needs of a small fraction of People With Autism and good on them for that but my son has had no Education for nearly 5 years and the Prime Minister Constituency of Fife Council and the Councillors are simply refusing to do anything to help reverse the rampant Systeamtic Abuse both in Fife and throughout Scotland.
7

I GAVE BLAIR THE FINGER LAST WEEK,

BY OBAN 06/03/2008 15:13:38
who gives flip what Scottish Society for Autism (SSA) does, says, or sponsors? I for one hear the word and RUN! And wont out of principle use anything to do with SSA. The reason SSA drives us all crazy is because it feels like they are controlling the message and control scarce funds that could be and should be better allocated to families not jobs and respite... They support various theories or lets say they don’t put any publicity out to disagree that we the parents provided bad genes, refrigerator mothers,(REMEMBER THAT ONE) there is never a mention of mentioning vaccines or recovery. Autism Treatment Trust http://www.autismtrust.org.uk/ ( ATT) an Edinburgh charity along with DAN recover these child right offs…RECOVERED HOOORAH!

SSA is starting to drive us all a little mad.

But with the recent , girl in America , helps link autism to childhood vaccines
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/health/stories/2008/03/06/autism_0306.html

the proverbial cat is firmly out of the bag. In fact,
the cat has taken off and is visiting your neighbour’s lawn! Who
cares if Scottish Society for Autism (SSA) doesn’t
mention vaccines? They can no longer fool everyone.
What do you make of SSA ? On the one hand, the kind people they have answering the phones are/can be very helpfulKind representatives of SSA etc . If you are new to the diagnosis, referring me to SSA could be the best thing that could happen .
But, and there is a huge BUT, the hypocrisy of this interaction
leaves me sputtering for understanding. While a person given authority by SSA to
talk to parents clearly has the best of intentions, the SSA that 99% of the world
sees does not acknowledge ATT or DAN!, does not acknowledge recovered children, and does not honestly address the issue of vaccines and the role they may play in the
epidemic. And, SPEND ZERO ££££s in research ,doing nothing to explore the "extraordinary
results" that DAN! and ATT appears to be offering some of the kids.
8

Joan Campbell,

Glasgow 06/03/2008 15:50:04
This amount of money will be wasted and not enough will be done to improve teacher training. I agree that the charities that deal with autistic issues get enough as it is . The money should be going to the schools that have special needs units. I'm sure I won't see any improvement in services for our children and teenagers as well as adults with autism.
9

ConcernedTeacher,

18/05/2008 12:00:17
I have personal experience of the SSA and also have extensive experience in teaching and supporting children with Autism. Unfortunately I can say wholeheartedly that the SSA fail the children that they support in their school and residences. It is a real shame that the SSA manage to pull the wool over so many important people's eyes and get so much money that they will, as others have mentioned, waste...I believe strongly in the principals and practice of the ATT and also have personal experience of their work. It is just unfortunate that they have not secured the same amount of funding. I also believe that if the Executive concentrated their funding on regulating early intervention programmes for young children with Autism and compulsary training in autism for teachers then the problem would be at least on its way to being solved- rather than the system failing these children and them ending up in expensive and very badly run 'specialist' provisions where they will stay until they are 18. It only costs 26000 a year to run an ABA programme- whereas it can cost over 60000 to place a child in an SSA/ NAS school.....with a well run ABA programme many children can then go on to cope in mainstream with less support....surely that would be a better outcome for all concerned.

 

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