Would the Welsh Government support a future vote in favour of an Autism Act for Wales, and will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement explaining the Welsh Government's position?
The Welsh Government published the new Autistic Spectrum Disorder Strategic Action Plan in November 2016, along with a Delivery Plan for 2016-2020. This sets out the commitments we are making to improve the lives of people with autism and their parents and carers and the outcomes we want to achieve. We will provide an annual report on the progress we are making, to be published by March 2018.
We are working with our partners to deliver these ambitious actions. I have recently announced a further £7 million to deliver the National Integrated Autism Service across Wales by 2018, a year earlier than planned. We are already making good progress in achieving the outcomes we all want to see. For example, the Autistic Spectrum Disorder Implementation Advisory Group met for the first time in March, we have established neurodevelopmental assessment waiting time targets for children and young people and continue to roll out our Learning with Autism programme. We are developing new resources for professionals and for people with autism and their parents and carers, which are freely available on the ASDinfowales website.
The New Integrated Autism Service is now available in Powys and will open in Cardiff and Vale, Cwm Taf and Gwent in the coming months. Our additional investment brings a total of £13 million of funding for the service up to 2021. The new service will be rolled out to all regions in Wales by 2018. We have commissioned an independent evaluation of the implementation of the service.
At the planned plenary debate on autism on 14th June I will make a statement regarding the Welsh Government's position on the autism legislation in Wales.