Our plan for making the lives of people with autism and their families and carers better Please tell us what you think Easy read 1
Who we are We are part of the Government in Northern Ireland. What this plan is about This plan is about people with autism and their families and carers in Northern Ireland. It is about making sure they get the right support for all of their lives. We made this plan because of a new law called the Autism Act 2011. Different parts of the Government are working together to make it happen. 2
We want people with autism to have better support in every part of their lives. It will take a long time to make all the changes we need to. This plan is about the work we will start in the next 2 years. After that there will be more plans about the work we will do until the year 2020. We asked lots of people what they thought before we made this plan. We want to know what you think of it. You can find out how to tell us on page 13. 3
Work we have already done The Government in Northern Ireland has already done lots of work, like setting up special teams of people in each area to work on better health and care for people with autism help for doctors and others to find out early on if a child has autism making sure there is good information for parents and carers making laws so that children and young people with autism get the extra help they need at school. 4
Things we will work on in the next 2 years 1. Helping more people understand about autism We think more people need to understand about autism and what people with autism need. We will work on good training about autism for our staff who support people with autism. We plan to tell more people in Northern Ireland about autism. This will help them understand more and think better things about people with autism. 5
2. Making it easier for people with autism to do the same things as other people Different groups give people support with things like health, education, jobs and the law. We want them to work better together to support people with autism and their families and carers. We will work on better information and advice for people with autism and their families and carers better information about how many people have autism better ways of finding out who has autism and what support each person needs 6
better support for people with autism to learn at places like school, college or university better support for people with autism to use transport. For example, better travel information and more training to help people travel on their own. 3. Better support for children and young people with autism and their families We want children and young people with autism and their families to get the right support at the right time. We will work on giving support with things like going to school healthcare doing everyday things. 7
4. Helping people make their own choices People with autism should be able to make their own choices. This is so they can live their lives in the way they want to. The support they get should help them to do that. We will work on helping find more places for people with autism to live on their own with support where they need it. 8
5. Making sure people with autism get good support all through their lives It is important that people with autism get the right support when anything changes in their lives. We will help make sure lots of people work together to give people the right support when they need it. 6. More support for people with autism to have a job and learn good skills Many people with autism want to work but they find it very hard to get a job. We will work to make sure people with autism can get the right support to carry on learning after they leave school at places like college and university have a job do training and learn good skills. 9
7. Being safe and getting the right help from the law The law is things like the police and courts. We will be working on better support for people with autism if they have to do things like talk to the police or go to court more information and training about autism for staff who work in jobs to do with the law. 10
8. Doing things in the local area It is important that people with autism can join in with things like everyone else, like sports going to places like museums or the cinema other things to do in the local area. We will work on making sure people with autism and their families can join in much more with things in their local area. 11
9. Making big decisions and having a say People with autism should be able to have a say about their support and other big decisions and plans. We will work on making sure people with autism and their families and carers help us with our plans about autism we keep checking with them to make sure the plans are working well. 12
How to tell us what you think We would like to know what you think of our plan. Please tell us by 15 March 2013. You can tell us By post DHSSPS Autism Strategy Core Team Room D1 Castle Buildings Stormont Estate Belfast BT4 3SQ By fax 028 9052 2500 By email Autism.Strategy@dhsspsni.gov.uk We may put what you tell us on our website. If you don t want this to happen, please tell us when you get in touch with us. 13
You can tell us what you think of our plan here if you want to For example, are we doing the right things? Is there anything else we should be doing? 14
About you Please tell us a bit about you if you can. Are you a person with autism? Please tick 1 box Yes No Your name The name of your group - if you are telling us what you think as part of a group Your address and postcode Your email address 15 Easy words by Mencap. Pictures by Photosymbols and Mencap