Developing an All-Age Autism Strategy for Barnsley

Our new local strategy is being developed to reflect the national all-age Autism Strategy and accompanying implementation plan/ policy guidance that was published in 2021. 

In the national strategy for autistic children, young people and adults: 2021 to 2026­ published 21/07/21, the following six key areas have been highlighted as those that would have a significant impact on people with autism's lives:

1. improving understanding and acceptance of autism within society

2. improving autistic children and young people’s access to education, and supporting positive transitions into adulthood

3. supporting more autistic people into employment

4. tackling health and care inequalities for autistic people

5. building the right support in the community and supporting people in inpatient care

6. improving support within the criminal and youth justice systems

Over the past 18 months, we have formed and been working with an Autism Strategy Stakeholder Group which includes young people and adults with lived experience of autism, parents and carers of children and young people with a diagnosis of autism and professionals from groups/organisations who provide support services for children, young people and adults with autism, along with their families to develop our collective involvement approach to capturing views, feedback and experiences from our wider communities to shape the development of our local strategy.

We collectively planned and held several local drop-in events and sessions during November and December 2023 across the borough as part of the first phase of involvement.  This enabled local people and organisations to be able to attend and share their views and experiences directly with us in relation to the six key themes highlighted above as part of the national strategy. In addition to this we also promoted our local survey and 1:1 feedback form which has also been designed by the stakeholder group members throughout this time as a way for people to be able to provide us with their experiences and feedback too.

This planning and involvement process was replicated for the second phase of involvement carried out in the autumn of 2024 and more details can be found in the summary involvement reports which can be accessed via the links provided.    

We have also been working with local organisations and services across the borough during this time to link into existing groups and opportunities to gain their views and experiences.

There were several ways in which people could get involved and share their experiences with us throughout our initial involvement phase, which ran from November 2023 until January 2024. 

They could either -   

• Fill in our feedback survey which was made available both via an online link and via hard copy for people to be able to return via freepost
• Provide feedback to us directly via email or over the phone
• Attend one of our four larger community drop-in events held during November and share feedback and experiences with us in person or come along to one of our seven local drop-in sessions held throughout November and December and get help completing the feedback survey in person.

All of the details were made available on the ICB ‘Get Involved’ page of our website, promoted via the ICB social media channels, advertised in the Barnsley Chronicle via both the print and online versions through both paid for advertisements and media releases, and also promoted via our local statutory and community partner organisations through their networks and bulletins.

A communications toolkit was developed and provided for all partner organisations which included posters, content for both internal and external bulletins, and content and graphics for social media posts.  This was updated and circulated several times throughout the initial involvement period. 

This process was largely replicated as part of our second shorter phase of involvement that was carried out during September and October 2024 and further details can be found in the involvement summary reports which can be accessed via the links provided. 

First phase 

Throughout November and December, we held four large community drop- in events and seven community drop- in sessions where people could attend and provide their feedback and get help filling in the survey.

In terms of numbers, initial feedback highlighted that we received over 300 survey responses throughout our initial involvement period. 

Over 100 people attended one of our four larger public drop-in events held throughout November 2023 and provided comments and feedback in relation to each of the six key themes highlighted previously that our local strategy will focus upon.   

We’ve also had more detailed 1:1 feedback from a small number of people that attended one of the seven drop-in sessions held in each of the neighbourhoods at one of our local family centres throughout November and December.

Second phase 

Over 150 people attended the Barnsley SEND Local Offer Live event where our second phase of involvement was launched on 25 September 2024.  Attendees were encouraged to provide their views and feedback in person in relation to the commitments made within our draft strategy document. Attendees were asked if they felt that anything was missing in relation to each of the six themed areas that our local strategy is focused upon.       

We received 32 survey responses throughout our second involvement period which was carried out throughout September and October 2024. 

First phase of involvement 

As part of our first survey, we asked people to answer a set of optional equality monitoring questions and the breakdown of responses is as follows.

Who responded - Nearly half of the total number of the total number of survey responses received to the survey came from a Parent/ Carer of a child/young person with an Autism Diagnosis (aged under 25) – 48.68% (111 people)

•This was followed by those people identifying themselves to be a Parent/ Carer of a child/young person awaiting an Autism Diagnosis (Under 25) – 17.98% (41 people) and professionals who work with autistic people -16.67% (38 people).

Age - All age ranges were represented as part of the feedback.

•Over half of the total number of responses to this question came from people aged 31 to 50 years old – 55.69% (126 people)

Gender - The majority of responses to the survey came from women– 85.40% (193 people).

Sexuality - The overwhelming number of responses to this question came from those people who self-identified as being straight/heterosexual – 87.17% (197 people).

Disability - The slight majority of responses to this question came from those people who highlighted themselves/ the person they care for as having an additional physical or mental health condition in addition to autism – 48.89% (110 people) and of those people, who provided a response to the associated question regarding type of disability, over 40% of respondents highlighted a mental health or psychological disability – 42.11% (80 people) and this was closely followed by a sensory disability – 38.95% (74 people)

Area of the borough that people live in - All locality areas of the borough have been represented as part of the feedback received and of those people, who provided a response to this question, the majority indicated that they live in the central locality area – 25.66% (58 people) and this was closely followed by the north-east locality area – 21.68% (49 people) and south locality area – 19.47% (44 people) 

Second phase of involvement 

As part of our second survey, we asked people to answer a set of optional equality monitoring questions, and the breakdown of responses is as follows.

Who responded - Nearly half of the total number of responses received to the survey came from a Parent/ Carer of a child/young person with an Autism Diagnosis (aged under 25) or of those awaiting a diagnosis (aged under 25) – 38% (12 people)

•Professionals who work with autistic people accounted for the highest number of responses to this survey – 41% (13 people).

Age - All age ranges up to and including 65 were represented as part of the feedback.

•Over half of the total number of responses to this question came from people aged 31 to 50 years old – 63% (20 people)

Gender - Most responses to the survey came from women– 78% (25 people).

Race/ Ethnicity – Almost all the respondents identified as White British – 94% (30 people).

Sexuality - The overwhelming number of responses to this question came from those people who self-identified as being straight/heterosexual – 90% (27 people).

Disability – 42% (13 people) highlighted themselves/ the person they care for as having an additional physical or mental health condition in addition to autism and of those people, who provided a response to the associated question regarding type of disability, half of the respondents highlighted a mental health or psychological disability – 21% (6 people) and the other half highlighted a sensory or cognitive disability – 21% (6 people)

Area of the borough that people live in - All locality areas of the borough have been represented as part of the feedback received and of those people, who provided a response to this question, the majority indicated that they live in the North locality area – 19% (6 people) and this was closely followed by the Central locality area – 16% (5 people) and South locality area – 16% (5 people)