Meetings

The Committee considered correspondence from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, Cardiff and Vale Regional Partnership Board and the petitioner, and agreed to close the petition in light of the information received and because the Petitions Committee is not in a position to recommend that specific organisations should receive funding from the Welsh Government or others.

In doing so, Members wished to thank the petitioner for raising such an important matter through the petitions process.

The Committee considered correspondence on the petition and agreed to write to:

• the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services to ask for further information about the decision-making process behind the development and roll-out of the national Integrated Autism Service and why a tender process was not conducted; and
• Cardiff and Vale Regional Partnership Board to ask for details of the process undertaken in rolling out the Integrated Autism Service locally, and how the Service is working with Autism Spectrum Connections Cymru.

The Committee considered correspondence from Autism Spectrum Connections Cymru together with further comments from the petitioner and agreed to write to the Minister for Children and Social Care to ask for details of the processes that were followed when funding for the Integrated Autism Service was awarded, and whether opportunities were given to third sector organisations to apply.

The Committee considered the petition for the first time and agreed to write to Autism Spectrum Connections Cymru to seek their reflections on the petition and the response from the Minister for Social Services and Public Health.