£1m plan to ease autism assessment wait frustrations
A £1 million plan is being developed to provide alternative offer to support children, families and carers waiting for an autism assessment.
BCHC is commissioned to deliver 160 autism assessments per month but, in common with the national position, continues to receive high levels of demand for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) assessments and has a significant number of children on a waiting list.
At the end of January, there were nearly 12,000 children waiting to be reviewed to see if they need an assessment. This number continues to rise and BCHC is committed to improving the experience for children, young people and families who are waiting.
While the system develops a longer-term plan, BCHC is putting together an alternative offer to support children, families and carers waiting for assessment. To achieve this, the Trust has reserved £1m of non-recurrent Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board -approved funding as part of financial planning for 2025/26.
Children’s services colleagues have held a series of stakeholder workshops to help develop an alternative offer. Feedback has shown that, while BCHC provides a wide range of information and support, it can be difficult to navigate and access. So we want to do more.
An autism hubis to be established providing a singlepoint of contact for children, families and referrers (including schools and primary care). From the point of referral, all relevant information will be collected to help families access frequently updated information and support resources while they wait for an assessment.
The hub would see an extension of the current online patient portal, incorporating technologies to support families waiting for an assessment, streamlining operations and increasing clinical capacity; and a centralised advice line, integrating existing therapy, advice and support lines into a single service.
Further development of existing online support would aim to deliver a wide range of digital enhancements, such as updates and reminders by text or email and automatic referrals to other services, if required.An interactive website would display real-time data on current waits; patients would receive text notifications about wait times, delays, and an alert when their turn for assessment is imminent.
A secure online portal would enable patients to access their records, ask questions, or request prescriptions. And direct online channels, such as ‘chat bots’ or portals to capture SMS/email/in-app messages could be used for patients to communicate with staff.
An autism support team will deliver advice, workshops and training to schools and families. This will include school in-reach with children at risk of exclusion and delivery of rapid assessments for those identified as high priority. The team will provide a response service for families and professionals, offering:
- shorter, doctor-led assessments and same-day outcomes where the autism presentation is clear, increasing the number of children seen per clinic;
- working with key referrers, eg. school special educational needs co-ordinators (SENCOS) and GPs, to offer awareness-raising sessions in supporting children at home or at school;
- training in schools with high numbers of referrals to help staff support children with more complex needs and provide assessment on-site, where appropriate; and in-reach to schools with children at risk of exclusion to provide clinical needs review, assessment and/or additional support. Stronger links will be forged with SEND therapists and link SLTs in these schools as well as local authority specialist services, such as the communication and autism team (CAT);
- online workshops for referrers and families, to support needs while waiting, eg. managing anxiety, behaviour, sleep etc.
To ensure families are supported and have their voices heard while we work closely with them to redesign systems., we plan to employ two full-time family support workers to link families to the support available in their communities.
Chief operating officer Reva Stewart said: “High levels of demand for autism assessments and long waiting times for Birmingham families is a challenge for NHS providers across the country.
“We are committed to improving the support we provide to families and carers on the waiting list and engaging meaningfully with them while a longer-term national plan is developed to meet the demand. The extra funding will help us develop that package of support and is very welcome.”