Written question asked by Roger Berry (Labour) on Wednesday, 28 January 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 2 February 2009. It was answered by Phil Hope (Labour) on Wednesday, 4 February 2009 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Autism

Question: (2) how people with autism were classified in the recent individual budget pilots;

Answer: The independent individual budget evaluation was not designed to examine the outcomes for specific groups of service users, but for broad categories of people: older people, people with learning disabilities, people with physical disabilities and people with mental health problems. It was a randomised controlled trial, in which all those people potentially eligible for individual budgets within each pilot site were allocated at random to an individual budget or a comparison group. Sites varied in the groups of service users for whom they intended to pilot individual budgets.The final report of the independent individual budget was published on 21 October 2008 and can be obtained via the Department's website. A copy has been placed in the Library.The evaluation team was highly dependent on local authorities collecting the data and they allocated study participants to the broad user groups. These allocations to user groups would have reflected convention and practice within specific local authority teams. While some people with autism and sensory impairments are likely to have been included within the sample , it is not possible to identify people with specific conditions from the information the evaluation team collected.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 487 c1349W;487 c1348W; 253679
Session: 2008-09
Related items: Deposited Paper DEP2009-0324
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects: Autism
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk