Northern Lights: A disgrace and crying shame what’s been happening on many fronts

I have been in advocating for Sheffield and other Yorkshire and East Riding Disabled children and young people, whom without any consultation with them and their families, have had their specialist residential and specialist respite provision stripped from them in one fell swoop.

In addition, commissioning services who pay for these very vulnerable children and young people to attend these provisions, were also not adequately consulted about the proposal to cull these provisions.

These residential and specialist respite provisions are the only ones existing for autistic children specifically in our region.

The organisation enacting this brutal culling, is a leading national registered charity and a company in law. They are seen as the leading advisors on Autism in the UK.As an entity they service an All Party Parliamentary Group for Autistic people.

Though public funded to the tune of multiple millions of pounds over many years, gained through tax-payers monies and although delivering a public function, the organisation concerned, have argued back at the children and families in our area, that they had no need nor obligation to consult with the Disabled children and young people nor their parents/carers.

They assert that their organisational priority in shutting down the provisions for our children in this area, was in fact informed to conserve their resources, along with their unwillingness to deploy finance and other resources to improve governance standards and their prioritising the employment termination rights for their employees over the rights of the Disabled children, young people and families and other stakeholders to be consulted.No impact assessment of any kind has to date been forthcoming, and no adequate alternative provisions nor transition arrangements were put in place, to aid the Autistic children’s and young people’s onward care, despite the organisation claiming they considered the impact of their decision before they made their decision.Nor did the organisation consult with prominent Autism charities and organisations on our region to pursue consideration of alternative means of keeping the provisions for our children and families here in Sheffield and the wider region going.

The culling notice, served on parents, basically told the Disabled children and young people not to bother coming back to their residential and respite provisions in September 2023 and they have since been blaming commissioning organisations, including our local authority, for the closure of the provisions, claiming they refused to pay unspecified increased costs that the organisation were seeking to levy at them too.

As a result of their CEO refusing to speak to the children and young people, despite requests being made for this to take place once the decision became known, some of the children and young people took themselves off to the headquarters of this leading national charity and company in law, in London to see if they might be able to speak to the CEO there or indeed any other senior person associated with the organisation concerned, doing so, in attempt to be given the opportunity of having their voice and influence heard by this organisation, which was established to champion Autistic people’s rights, entitlements and protections, including that of Autistic children and young people.I went with them.

We left Sheffield at five o’clock in the morning and due to traffic congestion it took us near to five hours to arrive at the destination, only to find staff in the building refusing to answer the buzzers and refusing to even open the doors of the building to allow our Northern children to use the toilet after a five hour journey, and this happening even though I had rung through to let them know, the children and young people wanted to speak with a senior staff member and had been commuting for five hours to do so that morning.

The ‘welcome’ however went so as far also as to include the organisation calling in the Police, (whom I had already notified in advance of the visit) and whom on their responding to the call out informed the organisation and us on arrival their arrival at the headquarters in person, in follow through of the call out, that the Autistic children , young people and parents present, were breaking no laws and could remain at the headquarters. If they so wished.

No one in the headquarters came out to speak to our Northern Autistic children and young people and nor have any from the headquarters bothered to speak with them since either. Attempts made by parents to bring what’s been happening to their children and them to the attention of senior ministers and representative parliamentary groups, have been met with closure and bias, as per these entities refusing to give the Autistic children, young people and their families a fair hearing and going so far as to them favouring the national lead organisation concerned , despite these parties not once bothering to review the documentary evidence of ill-treatment and to take on board other concerns. Shockingly too , they’ve even gone so far as to back the closure of our Northern provisions , not only on the basis of resource conservation for the organisation concerned but for national Government resource conservation reasons too.

The pretence of complying with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 and the upholding of children’s voice and influence as well as the smoke and mirrors public persona of championing the rights , protections and entitlements of Autistic people have been well abd truly blown asunder in the above lived experience.In the horror of all of the above, there have been however, shining lights, bringing hope and comfort to the children, young people and families in our area, one of these being our own Sheffield MP Gillian Furniss and her parliamentary staff, who stepped up for the Autistic children and young people in her constituency subjected to having their voice and influence ignored.

The North/South divide is very evident in this case, with yet again our area and our people, despite already being starved of provisions and resources to meet their needs, being yet again the subject of service culling and this being done without any regard or care or compassion and devoid of the decency to consult those adversely affected by such decisions.What makes this all the worse, is that it’s not some national (at distance) Government department doing this to our children , young people and families but a long established high profile organisation who pride themselves as being the champions of Autistic people doing this to them and to our underserved and under-resourced area of England too .It is an outright disgrace and crying shame what’s been happening on many fronts and it will not go unchallenged.