Nid oes tystiolaeth i dderbyn hynny ar hyn o bryd, iawn, Hefin. A byddaf yn datblygu’r dadleuon, gobeithio, a fydd yn helpu eraill i weld hynny.

Because, essentially, the problem is when a patient and a family come to me and they believe that their child has autism, or even that an adult has autism—there have been huge delays in diagnosis of autism over the years. Sometimes, we don’t get the diagnosis right until people are adults, and that’s why it’s not appropriate to have it under the additional learning needs legislation, because adults also need diagnosis.

There is new legislation that has been brought forward, but the system is extremely complex. It’s not just a matter for social services and care services, it’s an issue of education, it’s an issue in the health service, and it’s an issue for the voluntary sector, too. It does need huge co-ordination, and that co-ordination doesn’t happen most of the time. Because you get diagnosis within the health service, very often after lengthy delays and various specialists are involved. It will sometimes take years to get that diagnosis. The provision is sometimes outwith the health sector—in education, with social services, and occasionally better provision is actually available in the voluntary sector. There is wonderful work being done in the voluntary sector that we couldn’t do without. The provision is poor, and we’re failing our families given this complex diagnosis. The diagnosis is complex, the behaviours of the individual with autism are complex and difficult to understand on occasion, and it’s difficult to treat these people and there is never enough support available.

I’ve been preaching about this in this place for almost 17 years, with that brief unfortunate period of five years when I wasn’t here and I was actually dealing with people with autism on a full-time basis. The situation hasn’t changed. Something needs to change, because we are still talking about strategies, plans, provision here, provision elsewhere, but at the end of the day, nothing has changed. That is why I support the need for specific legislation. These people have been waiting for years—as a rule, suffering, with very little or no support, because there aren’t enough professionals working on the ground to support them as families. It’s time to acknowledge that. We here can change things and that’s why we went into politics and that’s why we are politicians. We can legislate and we need to use that ability today. Thank you.