Formal meeting (oral evidence session): Treatment of autistic people and individuals with learning disabilities

Purpose of the session

MPs will hear from autism campaigner Alexis Quinn on her personal experience of being held in the secure estate, in the first of two sessions of this inquiry. This session will consider long-standing issues around the use of restraint, sectioning orders and seclusion also hearing from senior representatives of Mencap, Challenging Behaviour Foundation, Learning Disability England and Rightful Lives.

The Committee will explore the current situation and ask why limited progress has been made in improving the treatment of autistic people and individuals with learning disabilities by the NHS.

The session will also consider what the Government’s recently published white paper on Reforming the Mental Health Act means for these groups.