Provision of the Greater Manchester Autism Consortium

The Greater Manchester Autism Consortium (GMAC) is a unique collaboration between adult health and social care commissioning authorities across the ten areas of Greater Manchester. Each authority contributes equally towards the annual cost of the GMAC service. GMAC has been in operation since 1998. Oldham Council is the lead authority in hosting, commissioning and managing the GMAC contract. Members of the GMAC meet quarterly to take a joined up approach to strategy development and implementation across the region.

The Autism Act (2009) was the first ever disability-specific law in England. One of the key things the act did was place a duty on the Government to produce statutory guidance for local authorities and local health bodies on implementing the adult autism strategy. The statutory guidance tells local authorities and NHS Foundation Trusts what actions should be taken to meet the needs of autistic people living in their area. The Government published a new statutory guidance in March 2015 which replaced an existing guidance from 2010.

The GMAC health and social care service specification has been developed with the ambition of the creation of a single Greater Manchester Autism Strategy. It has also been designed in order for the GMAC service to provide support to GM local authorities and NHS Foundation Trusts in fulfilling their statutory duties of the Act. For example, the statutory guidance clearly states that local authorities and the NHS:
• should provide autism awareness training for all staff
• must provide specialist autism training for key staff, including GPs and community care assessors
• have to develop a clear pathway to diagnosis and assessment for adults with autism

Furthermore, brief analysis has been undertaken on the Greater Manchester returns of the Department of Health’s Autism Self-Assessment Framework (SAF). The areas in which localities across GM assessed themselves as requiring additional support included:
• post-diagnostic support services
• housing pathways, advice and support
• crisis support services
• criminal justice.
Through the areas identified above, it is clear that GM would benefit from a consistent approach to providing these services for people with autism across the region.

Prior to 2017, the GMAC service specification has been social care led, therefore, the new service specification includes both health and social care outcomes; it has also been designed in line with the GM principle of commissioning once where possible.