Backlog on assessment for autism in Stockport

AROUND ninety children in Stockport have been waiting for a year to be assessed for autism due to a ‘backlog’, claimed a healthcare boss.

Duncan Waldeck, children’s manager for Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group (SCCG), revealed the ‘worrying’ figures during Wednesday’s children and families scrutiny meeting.

The healthcare executive presented the group’s refreshed children and young people’s transformation plan to board members.

He said the clinical group had not made any difference in the length of time it takes from an autism referral to diagnosis.

“It currently takes a year for that to happen – recognising it’s a complicated process with numerous stages – but we know that is too long to wait,” said Mr Waldeck.

“It’s not an issue of money – it’s about finding suitable people who can actually do the assessments.”

He continued: “The problem we have is that we have a backlog of between 80-90 children currently waiting to be assessed. However, we’re aiming to get rid of that by March 2019.”

Committee chairman Coun Linda Holt asked how confident he was in reducing the numbers because it was a ‘worrying’ amount.

Mr Waldeck said he was ‘relatively’ confident.

“I have received a plan from the service provider. However, I returned it because it needed more analysis in terms of workload against the number of staff,” he replied.

“That said, the service had identified additional resources to do some of the work – and staff from children’s therapy and educational psychology services are to do extra hours.

“Although I’m not 100 per cent confident we are going to reduce the backlog, we will make an impact this year.”