Autism diagnoses since 2020 (FOI)

​Request

A

Please advise how many people have been diagnosed with autism in Jersey? 

B

Please provide these figures for the last five years.

C

Please break this down by the ratio of adults to children who have been diagnosed with autism?

D

How many specialist primary and secondary schools are there for children with autism? Please name each of them.

E

Please confirm the number of children with autism who go to one of the island's specialist autism centres within mainstream schools?

F

Please advise what the current waiting list is for children who are currently in a mainstream school but require access to a more specialist school that supports children with autism?

G

How many specialist teaching assistants are there for each child with autism?

H

How long on average can it take a child, from an autism diagnosis, to getting them a place in a specialist school that can support their educational needs?

Response

Health and Community Services (HCS) Contribution

Questions A to C 

Records are not held by HCS for the number of adults with a diagnosis of autism in Jersey. Therefore, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

The Community Services Electronic Client Record system identifies 234 adults with a diagnosis of autism who are open to HCS. 

Only those individuals with a diagnosis of autism recorded in the ‘Title’ (primary diagnosis) field of the Community Services Electronic Client Record system are included in this count. For individuals where autism is one of multiple diagnoses, if it is not recorded in the ‘Title’ field, this cannot be reported nor identified from the central record.

Figures will not include those who have received care and are now closed to the service (historic input), or those who have been diagnosed privately or in other jurisdictions and are not yet known / not open to the service, including those who have arrived in Jersey with a diagnosis who have never been referred to HCS. 

For these reasons, it is not possible to give definitive figures for the number of adults living with autism in Jersey.

Department for Children, young People, Education and Skills contribution

Questions A to C

The number of children and young people that have been diagnosed with autism by Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services: ‘CAMHS’ within the last five years are shown below:

• 2020       28
  
• 2021       76
• 2022     108
• 2023     133
• 2024       71 (this figure is year to date and will increase)

These figures only include children and young people diagnosed and recorded by CAMHS and not those children and young people who may be autistic and closed to CAMHS (historic input), those not known / not open to CAMHS or who have been diagnosed privately, off island or by Child Development Centre or have arrived in Jersey with a diagnosis and not currently supported by CAMHS.

D

The Government of Jersey does not have specialist Primary or Secondary Schools for children with Autism.

Placements in schools are based on educational needs, and the arrangements required to meet these needs, rather than a diagnosis.

The Government of Jersey has two Special Schools, plus 11 Additionally Resourced Provisions (ARP) in Jersey mainstream schools: seven in primary and five in secondary. 

E

The Government of Jersey does not have specialist autism centres.

Furthermore, children and young people who have access to these provisions are recorded on the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities: ‘SEND’ register by their prime area of need, not by a diagnosis of Autism. 

F

The Government of Jersey's specialist School, Mont a L’Abbe, is currently at capacity so Education has made arrangements for these pupils to access Additionally Resourced Provision in mainstream schools. 

G

This data is not collated as each school employs a range of staffing to meet the needs of pupils within their setting. The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 gives a right to request information that is held in recorded form, unless exempt. Therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

H

An autism diagnosis is not the driver for a placement in a special school. The Education Department considers a child’s needs and considers the arrangements required to meet these based on the advice of professionals meaningfully involved.

Article applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.​