Autism Involvement Group (AIG) February 2023
Devon County Council (DCC) Adult Social Care Vision and Living Well (18- 64) Strategy.
An update on the current process of DCC’s Adult Social Care Vision and Strategies. A member of DCC explained about the engagement work done for this and how all feedback was given back to the team to update the Vision and Strategies. Members were informed of the deadline date to give anymore feedback on the updated Vision and Strategies before the consultation takes place; deadline date is March 19th 2023.
Strategic and Commissioning updates from Devon County Council, NHS Devon and the ‘One Devon’ Integrated Care Board for the overall health and social care system, covering geographical Devon.
DCC went through the governance presentation that was circulated to members prior to the meeting; it spoke how the new DCC Vision and Strategies and wider health and social care strategies in Devon will link and support implementation of the National strategy for autistic children, young people and adults: 2021-2026.
Discussion spoke about bridging the gap in the transition for young people into adulthood as member mentioned not a lot of schools inform parents about this support for their children leaving education as you need to opt in the process however once this is done Preparing For Adulthood (PFA) support do really good work. It was agreed it would be useful to invited the PFA team to future AIG meetings so discuss this topic further.
Operational Update from DAANA (Devon Partnership Trust/Health)
Service continues to be busy; the intervention team specifically are looking for a manager and advertisement for the post has begun however the closing date for this post is ending soon. Members asked what the process was when making a referral as it was believed only consultants can do this. A website link was shared with members where they can research and look more into this if they wish.
Universal Credit Migration Discussion
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) declared that they are going to move all existing claimants on ‘legacy benefits” over to Universal Credit (UC) over the next 3 months. As members were concerned about this, the DWP were invited to the AIG meeting where they could discuss it further with members. The DWP section was a ran as an opportunity for members to ask any questions they may have on this topic and for DWP to answer them where possible.
Members questioned as in what kind of additional support or reasonable adjustments were in place for autistic people when going to Job Centres or DWP, reaching out to these services can be anxiety triggering and be overwhelming for autistic adults; DWP reassured that if any needs or reasonable adjustments need to be communicated to them as alternative support can be put in place, for example quiet rooms can be arranged. Members also suggested alterative support for communication for autistic adults.
Dimensions for Autism (DFA):
Group activities were discuss with the group and information was circulated to AIG members prior to the meeting.