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Meeting Details
Date: Wednesday 22 May 2019
Time: 10:30–13:30
Venue: Costessey Town Council, Longwater Lane, Costessey, Norwich,
Norfolk, NR8 5AH
Agenda Item 1: Welcome and Introduction
1.1 James Bullion, co-chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting. Copies of papers and action cards
distributed. Apologies from members who could not attend.
1.2 Attendees introduced themselves, giving brief description of their roles and interest in Autism.
1.3 Amanda Dunn, Zandrea Stewart’s replacement as Assistant Director Learning Disabilities and Autism
Commissioning, was introduced.
1.4 There were no interests to declare.
Agenda Item 2: Minutes of previous meeting (04/10/18) and matters arising not on the agenda.
2.1 Position and role of Rosemary Boutet has been resolved to all party’s satisfaction.
2.2 Relevant data was circulated in advance of this meeting.
2.3 A glossary has been developed and is available on request from autism@norfolk.gov.uk.
2.4 An application form for NAPB/ NAPG roles is being developed. A draft has been distributed to volunteer members for comment.
2.6 ECHP powerpoint has not been sent out. It may not be possible to do this. Tracey Walton to chase this.
2.7 Draft autism strategy was shared with all NAPG members for feedback, as well as interested members of the public. Feedback received with changes made.
2.8 Expenses policy is comparable to other, similar boards. NAPB members can claim expenses for the partnership board and working group meetings. Members can only claim expenses for the open public meetings (NAPB) with a formal request by the chair to support the meeting on behalf of the NAPB.
2.9 Plan for working with group leads underway with an action log. A timeline for delivery can be arranged.
2.10 Date for the next NAPG meeting will occur two weeks after the NAPB. In future, the NAPG will fall in line with agreed direction.
2.11 Following consultation with the autism community via Tracey Walton, no objections were noted to Mark Rushen’s appointment as co-chair.
2.12 Mark Rushen briefly described the meeting with Sarah Tough and advised he is willing to answer questions directed to him privately.
2.13 Member training was delivered in Dec Ongoing training can be accessed through the e-learning programme, with all members invited to attend the one-day face to face training course when
implemented. To access the training please contact Tom Bassett.
Agenda Item 3: Updates from Working Groups
3.1 Workforce Development and Training
Tom Bassett gave an update on progress made in the
last six months. Tom Bassett has joined as Autism consultant; Clare Smith and Lauren Lonergan have left
the group; and Ryan Hardy and Trevor Key have joined. The completed training needs analysis has been sent to stakeholders in health, crime and education. Feedback has been gathered. There are
inconsistencies around autism from SIFF providers and the quality of training. Autism e-learning is on the NCC Learning Hub has essential training. James Bullion and Sarah Tough have cascaded it down through their departments with the aim to have as many people complete it as possible.
One day intermediate training for social workers was completed on 21 May 2019. Planning training test
runs to ensure it meets the needs of the target audience with the ambition to roll out from July. Ambitious About Autism (AAA) has been selected as the provider to deliver the training. Tom gave background on AAA and emphasised the high quality of their work. Stressed that NCC needs to push the training out to all
of social and health care to complete the e-learning and do the one-day training.
Looking ahead, need to examine how to share with wider stakeholders. Presently the training is only for staff within NCC and not wider partners, as it can only be accessed from NCC training portal. It is part of the next steps to offer this to wider partners. The additional costs need to be understood (cost of licences, delivery and venue) and budgeted.
Sue Bridges advised that NSFT provided the original training and supported the development of the training. It would be disappointing to then have to pay for the training given the relationship. Tom Bassett clarified that the costs of putting the training together is very expensive and has tried to create a pricing structure. NCC will not be profiting from charges but paying for learning platforms and internet hosting costs with external providers.
Rebekah Muttitt noted that Helping Hands have released eLearning on the same day. It will need to be
looked at alongside what NCC provides, as well as costs involved. Rebekah will work with Tracey to find
out more about this.
James Bullion stated that strategy leads need to have a conversation about the costs involved but should
make a commitment to making it universally available to community and staff. A business case needs to be prepared and submitted to aid discussion and management decisions regarding budgets.
3.2 Engagement
Tracey Walton updated the board as agreed by the engagement group. The coproduced adult autism
questionnaire has been completed and now needs to be converted into easy-read format before it can be
distributed. Two NAPB members are receiving easy read training, with one more space available.
Interested parties are to contact Tracey Walton.
Engagement tools for adults and children and young people are being researched. Further conversations
with carers are needed. Engagement Working Group will work with Education Working Group to progress
this. A report on the successful Autism Awareness Day at the Forum in Norwich on 05 April 19 was submitted. Rosemary Boutet spoke about the positive experience. Given success, would like to run a similar event in Great Yarmouth. Agreement obtained from all members.
3.3 Data collection
Tracey Walton gave a report on Mark Rushen’s behalf. Recording of autism across council has improved.
Autism Self-Assessment Exercise was returned in December with consensus obtained from NAPB members.
An autistic person is on placement with NCC to work on an Autism Dashboard which will gather all the data currently available. Doing so will also highlight what data is needed and what is missing. Once complete a focus group will be arranged to discuss the data requirements and a NAPB autism dashboard.
The Public Health Autism Needs Assessment has been circulated and updated on a number of occasions.
Members approved the Needs Assessment for wider distribution.
3.4 Diagnostic Pathways
Tracy McLean advised that the report on mapping pathways across adults and young people is nearing completion. Work on the report started last year but it has taken time as it is extremely long and complicated.
It is currently in draft and is expected to be signed off on Friday 24/05/19. It will be brought to the next
NAPB and Working Group meeting.
The service specification for the autism diagnosis with pre and post support has been issued to Norfolk
Community Health and Care to deliver as Autism Service Norfolk. NCH&C have been given the full
financial envelop that was previously NCH&C, Asperger’s Service Norfolk and an NCC social worker.
Commissioners will continue to work with NCH&C to make improvements and reduce the waiting lists.
Mark Rushen asked if people currently on the waiting lists have been informed of the changes, as this does
not seem to have happened and some organisations appear to be misinforming customers about the
changes. Tracey Walton advised that NCH&C have been asked to contact customers and referrers to
inform them of the changes. Rebekah Muttitt added that nothing can be released until the new specification has been signed off by NCH&C.
Tracey Walton and Amanda Dunn will agree a plan of
action to discuss with the provider. NAPB as a partnership will make sure that relevant
information is given out.
3.5 Education
As agreed by the education working group an update was provided by Tracey Walton. Maxine attended the
public forum (NAPG) to facilitate a conversation about what was working and what was not and to influence SEND and EHCP to drive work forwards. Work is arising from this and is in very early stages, with a need to understand the themes. A plan of action will be drawn up.
In additional, the council has approved a capital programme of improvements in SEN since last board
meeting, with £120m for 170 special resource base places. There are 5-6 workstreams for SEND
transformations, developing what new schools would like as part of SEND. Some of this work is co
produced. Mark Rushen commented that this is a good plan but does not have much impact on parents/children currently in school.
Agenda Item 4: Update from NAPG Meeting, 14/05/19
4.1 Mark Rushen gave a brief feedback report on the public forum (NAPG) held on Tuesday 14 May 2019.
Maxine Blocksidge was in attendance and dealt with education queries. She was felt to have done a good
job in a stressful situation as parents / carers were very vocal and frustrated. Maxine will give an update
herself at the Education Working Group.
Successes were celebrated, especially regarding training. Good feedback was generated for the Data working group, especially the need to gather the right data for service delivery and support. Turnout was 19 people.
4.2 Concerns raised regarding the ambience of the meeting with attendees reminded, a number of times,
regarding the meeting rules. The meeting was stopped on two occasions. Following the meeting,
several attendees raised individual concerns regarding the “unwelcome” and “negative” environment of the
meeting with a need to change to make it productive. Tracey Walton advised that NAPG meetings need to
be managed differently.
Suggestion offered to deliver an update report on the NAPB and then offer individual surgeries managed by the commissioner and autism co-chair rather than group meetings.
4.3 Rosemary Boutet endorsed individual sessions. Trevor Key agreed that the NAPG meetings need to
be restructured and that current negativity would put him off attending in future. Tracey Walton cautioned that there needs to be a balance as the public forums are not there to provide counselling, but individual sessions are potentially a good idea. These ideas will be taken under advisement for future meetings.
Agenda Item 5 : Findings and Recommendations of the Independent Review
5.1 James Bullion gave a brief introduction and thanked participants for their patience, co-operation and
engagement during the independent review and then introduced Clare Charlwood (independent reviewer).
5.2 Clare Charlwood provided a presentation to the board, outlined the scope of the review, her competency to carry out the review, the methodology and findings. Specific details were not given to ensure the privacy of respondents.
5.3 Unanimous decision by board to accept the recommendations of the report. Tracey Walton to
build the recommendations into the communication and engagement plan and provide a plan for
implementation.
Agenda Item 6: Update on the Autism Strategy
6.1 Tracey Walton provide an update on the Autism Strategy.
The draft strategy has been coproduced through a range of methods 1:1 with autistic people and their
parents/carer, the public forum (NAPG), specific autism strategy working groups, meetings with
voluntary organisations and providers and shared at various points that included an event at the forum
during world autism week. Feedback has been gathered at each stage. The final draft is expected to
be signed off by NCC cabinet in August 2019. James Bullion asked all members to go back to their
organisations to endorse the strategy and advised he is happy to sponsor the strategy.
Sue Bridges asked what to do if partners are unable to sign off on specific parts of the Strategy and if any
monitoring will arise from this. Tracey answered that this should be taken back to relevant Working Group to identify solutions where these cannot be resolved they need to be escalating to the board.
6.2 Specific formatting issues were raised as potential issues, particularly the use of “GP” instead of “Primary Carer” and the use of emoji faces in specific parts of the document. Tracey Walton to update.
Board unanimously signed off the strategy with the above changes made.
6.3 Tracey Walton advised members that the autism needs assessment has been distributed to members
several times with no additional comments received. Members were asked if they were happy to sign off the report for publication. Consensus agreed. The report will go with the autism strategy to Cabinet
Agenda Item 7: Draft Standards
7.1 In light of the Independent Review recommendations, it was decided that the draft standards would be
revisited and replaced with volunteer agreements.
Date, time and location of next meeting
Thursday 18th July 2019, 10:30am–1:30pm. Edwards Room, County Hall