East Lothian Autism Strategy

Overview

Work is underway to develop an East Lothian Autism Strategy. The East Lothian Partnership has been working with families, carers and professionals from health, the third sector and the local authority to produce a draft Strategy and is now keen to gather further views on what the Strategy should look like.  

The draft Autism Strategy sets out the commitment of the East Lothian Partnership to support people with autism, their families and carers and outlines how it plans to do this. The East Lothian Partnership wants to make sure that people:

• Are supported to have choice and control over their lives so that they are able to have the same chosen level of privacy as other citizens
• Have care and support that meets their needs and is based on their needs and wishes
• Are supported to feel safe and secure without being over-protected
• Have the opportunity to achieve all they can
• Have access to information, assessment and services

The Partnership wants partners to work together to redress inequalities and challenge discrimination.  

Why your views matter

We are particularly keen to hear from people affected by Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), their families, carers and the professionals and agencies that provide support in relation to autism.

Children's Wellbeing and Education spokesperson Shamin Akhtar says:

'The Strategy looks at where things are working well in East Lothian and also at things that are not so good at the moment. We carried out a big mapping exercise and a number of consultations to make sure that we had good information about what needs to be done. We hope that as many people as possible who are impacted by ASD will read the draft Strategy and let us know if they think we've got it right or if there are other things we need to look at'