CELTIC NATIONS AUTISM PARTNERSHIP

That this House commends Autism Cymru, Autism Northern Ireland and the Scottish Society for Autism as the national autism organisations of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland; supports these societies in their pioneering work in establishing the Celtic Nations Autism Partnership to facilitate the sharing of training, information and skills from one country to another as well as to encourage joint research and campaigning on relevant national UK, European and worldwide autism spectrum disorder (ASD) issues; further commends these societies for their strategic endeavours over the past three years in acting as catalysts for the development of political, policy and strategy profiling for autism in each nation; congratulates each of the Celtic autism partners for their respective pioneering, innovative work responding to a demonstrable constituency of families with an individual with an ASD; welcomes the respective charities' capacity and practice for discerning needs from families and practitioners informing policy-makers and shaping services through research-based practice; and further commends the forthcoming national launches of this innovative partnership and looks forward to the first national launch in Cardiff on 30th January 2007 by the Minister of Education and Life-Long Learning and the Minister of Health and Social Services within the National Assembly for Wales.