Speeches by Craft.

“Anna, I will start with you. What challenges do the families that you support most frequently come to you with, in terms of accessing paediatric services?”

“Behaviour is communication.”

“I was interested in what you said about workforce challenges. What role do you see early years providers and early years settings playing? You talked about having more trained specialist early years staff. Are there some light-touch interventions that require a small amount of training but do not require a speech and l…”

“Is there almost a cumulative cost? So if you intervene earlier, is there less of a cumulative cost from conditions worsening or interventions not being made more quickly?”

“Thank you very much; that was really brilliant, clear scene-setting. Doug, what are the long-term impacts on families and children of the waits that Anna has set out so very well?”

“Thank you. I am running out of time, but I am going to ask a quick question on the equitability of the system. A lot of parents opt to go to independent or private providers to get a diagnosis, which is fairly inequitable itself. Is there something about the way the system currently operates, and the pressure, almost, …”

“Very briefly, before I move on to the questions that I have written down, I want to pick up something that you said, Professor Mark, about rewarding schools for inclusivity. How?”

“I want to touch a little bit more on waiting times and what can be done to address them. Previously there has been some resistance and controversy when services have introduced additional referral criteria in an attempt to manage waiting lists. What are your thoughts on having additional criteria so that maybe local ca…”

“Thank you. I will come to you, next, Anna.”

“You are looking at it more as addressing the needs—you said that throughout—rather than addressing the need for diagnosis.”

“There is a need for diagnosis. Coming back to my question, I will try to put it differently. We can probably all recognise that some people’s need for diagnosis is fairly pressing and urgent. I know you will come back and say that due to the current system most people approach it at a level of crisis. Is there a fair a…”

“Henry.”

“Thank you. Professor Thapar.”

“Thank you. Professor Mon-Williams.”

“I know that schools have a significant role to play in the assessment process currently. Is it the case that ICBs across the country all have their own different forms, for example centres, schools or early-year settings, to say, “Does this child display potential characteristics of autism or ADHD?””

“Thank you. That is very interesting. That was a bit naughty of me, but thank you for answering that. You have all spoken very interestingly about this. What are some of the workforce and resource implications for delivering an early identification and early intervention approach? You spoke earlier a little bit about ta…”

“Henry.”

“Thank you. Anna.”

“I would like the Minister to clarify that the additional support and ambition that she is talking about is to improve the SEN side. For Members who are not aware, the statutory bit is the SEND side, and there will obviously be improvements in that; but if we improve the SEN side, which is the bit that children do not n…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stuart. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) on securing this important debate. Knowing their history, I always find war memorials particularly poignant places to visit. Our local memorials all tend to stem from the exam…”