Norfolk Autism Partnership Board

Meeting summary

Norfolk Autism Partnership Board Meeting Summary
Meeting Date: Tuesday 25th November 2025
Venue: Microsoft Teams

Overview
The Norfolk Autism Partnership Board (NAPB) met to discuss a range of updates on autism services, strategy, and support in Norfolk. The meeting focused on diagnostic services, community engagement, the autism strategy progress, and intensive support for autistic adults within mental health services.

Attendees
The meeting was attended by board members from health and social care organisations, local government, the police, autistic people, parent carers, and community groups.

Main Updates and Discussions

Public Engagement Network
Emma from the charity Choice Support introduced the Public Engagement Network (PEN), a group that supports people with learning disabilities, autism, and mental health needs. PEN works closely with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to gather feedback from individuals on health and social care services, especially those whose voices are often missed. PEN runs advisory groups for young people and adults with learning disabilities and autism, meeting online four times a year. Members receive thank you payments, and anyone interested can join as individuals, not just organisations. Two board members expressed interest in joining.

Diagnostic Working Group
The group shared updated information about autism diagnostic services for adults. There had been 53 new GP referrals since June 2025, with 42 assessments completed and 84 people discharged from the service. Currently, 1,130 people were waiting for assessment, with the longest wait being two to three years and a forecasted wait of nearly five years for new referrals. The group is standardising data collection to better monitor waiting lists and quality. The "Right to Choose" pathway, which allows people to use private providers, has helped reduce waiting times, though this comes with high costs and some challenges in monitoring consistency. Questions were raised about referral drops, discharge reasons, and how diagnoses through private providers are reflected in NHS records. The board was invited to join the working group, which is recruiting more members.

Young Person Autism Advisory Group (YPAAG)
The advisory group for young people aged 11–17 struggled with engagement in its last meeting and used the session as team building. The January meeting will focus on supporting young people into employment, including discussions about being job-ready and part-time work experiences.

Autism Norfolk Forum and Steering Group
A recent autism forum had very low attendance, partly due to scheduling issues. Efforts are underway to improve community engagement with the Adult Safeguarding Board’s support. Upcoming forums are scheduled for January, April, and July 2026. The autistic-led Steering Group, which addresses issues not covered by the main strategy, paused due to low attendance but has since recruited more autistic members. Meetings will restart with dates confirmed for next year.

Support Pathways Working Group
A new group has been formed to focus on support pathways for autistic people, including statutory and community services. The group now has a full membership with autistic people and parent carers. Its first meeting is planned for 15th December to set priorities and working methods. Progress updates will be provided in future board meetings.

Autism Strategy Oversight Group
The group co-produced the Year One update “You Said, We Did” which explains progress in accessible language and an easy-to-navigate web format. The Year Two Plan was also developed with consistent formatting and clearer explanations. Most organisations have signed off on their parts of the plan, with minor adjustments made as needed. Norfolk County Council is seeking presentation of the Year Two Plan to the Health and Wellbeing Board, which has shown support for autism strategy work. The board approved the Year One update, Year Two Plan, and website publication, subject to governance. Action owners will be asked to provide progress updates in December, and a progress review is scheduled for the next board meeting in January 2026.

Follow-up: Autism Intensive Support
Joanna Roberts from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, with colleague Joanna Smith, presented progress on transforming adult community mental health teams (CMHTs) to improve autism-related mental health support. The work is based on national frameworks and standards for personalised, trauma-informed, and culturally competent care. Key principles include avoiding diagnostic overshadowing and making reasonable adjustments such as flexible appointments and advocacy support. The Green Light Toolkit is used to audit services, with champions in each team. Next steps include staff training, standardising processes, and gathering feedback from service users and carers.

Board members discussed significant challenges in mental health services for autistic adults, including service denial, lack of autism knowledge among professionals, long diagnostic waits, and lack of post-diagnosis support. The need for more detailed working groups was highlighted to address these issues beyond board-level discussion. Training tiers were explained, with Tier 3 National Autism Training co-produced with autistic people to cover deeper knowledge. Concerns were raised about conflating autism with learning disabilities in training and the need for greater inclusion of varied autistic experiences. Plans to involve academic institutions to improve neurodiversity training were mentioned. Accessibility of technology and communications was also discussed as an important factor. Actions were agreed for further meetings to explore this work in more depth.

Any Other Business
A recent House of Lords Autism Act Committee report was shared, with plans to add it as an agenda item for the next board meeting. Sergeant Andrew Sampson-Munday of Norfolk Constabulary, who is autistic and has ADHD and PTSD, introduced himself and offered support on autism-related issues. The opportunity for an autistic board member to co-chair the partnership board was highlighted, inviting interested individuals to discuss further. The reintroduction of optional post-meeting welfare checks was also announced.

Meeting Close and Future Dates
The co-chairs thanked participants and confirmed future meeting dates in 2026: 27 January, 31 March, 26 May, 28 July, and 29 September.

Summary of Actions and Next Steps
The Support Pathways Working Group will hold its first meeting on 15 December to set priorities and working methods.
Action owners will be asked to provide progress updates on the Year Two Plan by 1 December.
The Autism Strategy Oversight Group will meet on 12 January 2026 to review progress and highlight issues.
The Year Two Plan will be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board when the date is confirmed.
Lee Gibbons will share 2023 NHS guidance on supporting autistic adults in mental health services alongside the minutes.
A follow-up meeting will be scheduled to explore autism intensive support and mental health services in greater depth.
The House of Lords Autism Act Committee report will be added to the next board meeting agenda.
Board members interested in co-chairing the NAPB are encouraged to make contact.
Welfare checks (post-meeting surveys) will be reintroduced to gather feedback from members.

This summary provides an accessible overview of key points discussed and planned actions without additional interpretation or inference beyond what was recorded in the official minutes.