Questionnaire For Parents With Children With ASD Or ASD Traits

The Shropshire Children’s Trust has commissioned a Children and Young People Autism Needs Assessment (for
ages 0-25). As part of this needs assessment we are keen to understand from parents their experiences with regard
to services and support for Autism Spectrum and behaviour disorders – whether diagnosed or not diagnosed.
We have developed three questionnaires to help fill the gaps: one for parents/guardians, one for schools and one
for service providers.

Please complete this questionnaire if your child has autism or autistic traits. By this we mean children diagnosed with
autism, Asperger Syndrome and other diagnoses on the autism spectrum and also children not diagnosed, but
showing autistic traits, whether or not they have been assessed.
The results of this questionnaire will help us to understand how many children in Shropshire have difficulties
associated with the autism spectrum and how parents feel services in Shropshire are responding to your child and
family’s needs. To ensure that parents’ views are representative, please complete one questionnaire for each of your
children.

Please note: you are required to answer all questions with a *

Questions about you and your child:

1. My child is...

0-4 years 5-11 years (at primary school)

11-16 years (at secondary school) Over 16 years

2. My child...

has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum condition (including Asperger syndrome) or autistic traits.
has been through assessment but was not diagnosed as having an autistic spectrum condition.
is waiting for assessment.
does not have a diagnosis because we have not yet asked for an assessment.

has been refused an autistic spectrum condition assessment.

3. My child has further additional needs due to:

learning disability
physical disability
sensory impairment
Other

Please provide your post code to help us identify if there are

4. We live in: any specific issues to a particular geographic area...

Central Shropshire/Shrewsbury
North Shropshire
South Shropshire
5. My child received his/her diagnosis of autistic spectrum
condition from:

The Child Development Centre (CDC)

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
Paediatrician
Not diagnosed
Other

6. If your child has received a diagnosis, at what age did the diagnosis happen?

0-4 years 5-11 years (at primary school)

11-16 years (at secondary school) Over 16 years
N/A

7. My child attends a:

mainstream school or nursery/preschool/early years setting

special school
college
is in employment or supported work
training/further eduction/adult education

Other (e.g. independent sector, home schooling)

8. We receive support from the following services (please tick all that apply)

Speech and Language Therapy

Occupational Therapy

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

Physiotherapy
Other physical health services
Early Help Services Enhance
Early Help Services Targeted Youth
Early Help Services Children Centres
Autism West Midlands
Other voluntary sector services (e.g. PACC, Empathy, Young Carers)
Social Workers
Police
Education Access Service (Education Welfare)
Short Breaks

Employers/Supported work
Job Centre
Leaving Care Team
Enable
Information, Advice and Support Services (IASS formally PPS)
School/College/Early Years
GP
N/A
Other
Your answers to the following questions will help us understand what is working well or not working well for
children and families.

9. If your child/young person has been offered an assessment for an autistic spectrum condition in the last two years, how
satisfied were you with the process?

Very Unsatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very Satisfied N/A

Unsatisfied

Select one box

Please provide any particular feedback on this issue

10. If your child has used any of the services listed below in the last two years, please tell us how satisfied you were with
the support you received with regard to your child's autism/autistic traits.

Very Unsatisfie No Satisfied Very N/A

Unsatisfie d Opinion/ Satisfied
d Don't
Know

GP

Speech and Language Therapy

Occupational Therapy

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

Physiotherapy

Early Help Services - Targeted Youth

Early Help Services - Enhance

Early Help Services Children's Centres

Autism West Midlands

Other voluntary sector services (PACC, Empathy, Young

Carers)

Social Workers

Education Access Service (Education Welfare)

Schools/Colleges/Early Years (Nursery)

Short Breaks

Employers/Supported Work

Job Centre

Leaving Care Team

Other Physical Health Services

Police

Information, Advice and Support Services (IASS)

Enable

If you wish to make any comments relating to your answers given in Q.10, please use the box below.
11. Professionals understand the impact of autism spectrum disorder upon family life.

If you have accessed services in the past two years, please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with this
statement (please comment on all services that apply).

Strongly Disagree No Agree Strongly N/A

Disagree Opinion/ Agree
Don't Know

GP

Speech and Language Therapy

Occupational Therapy

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service

(CAMHS)

Physiotherapy

Early Help Services - Targeted Youth

Early Help Services - Enhance

Early Help Services Children Centres

Autism West Midlands

Other voluntary sector services (PACC,

Empathy, Young Carers)

Social Workers

Education Access Service (Education Welfare)

Schools/Colleges/Early Years (nursery)

Employers/Supported Work

Job Centre

Leaving Care Team

Enable

Information, Advice and Support Services

(IASS)

Police

Other Physical Health Services

12. a) Services in Shropshire support my child to become as independent as possible:

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Select one
box
b) Services in Shropshire support my child's transition to adulthood:

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Select one
box

c) Services join up well to support my child:

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Select one
box

13. Where do you access services? Please tick all that apply

Shrewsbury Ludlow Bridgnorth Craven Arms Church Stretton

Oswestry Whitchurch Ellesmere Market Drayton Other

14. Do you access any services at a local school?

Yes No

If you answered yes to Q 14., please state the name of the school.

15. Where would you like to access services?

16. Have you used the following directories to find services for your child? Please tick all that apply:

Shropshire Local Offer

Shropshire Family Information Service/ Shropshire Family Information Directory
I have not used these directories
Other

17. How useful are the Shropshire directories for finding information and available services for children and young people
with ASD?

Very Useful Useful No Opinion/ Don't Not Very Useful Not Useful At All
Know

Select one
box

18. What support do you find useful from the voluntary sector (agencies such as Autism West Midlands, Parent and Carers
Council (PACC), Empathy etc.)
Information Sharing and Communication

19. Would you like services to share information about your child?

Yes No
It depends (please comment)

20. How strongly do you agree with the following statements:

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Services and organisations

in Shropshire share
information suitably to
support my child

I know where to go for help

with regard to my child's
behaviour

I know where to go for

support with regard to other
asked of family life, affected
by autism (eg, financial
support, short breaks,
family relations, etc)

Professionals understand
how services work together
and are able to guide me/us

Talking to other families

helps

Please use this space to make comments about this

21. Please give us an example of what has worked well to support your child with autism/autistic traits

22. If there's one small thing that would make a big difference to you and your family, please describe it here:
23. Please use the box below to make any other comments

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire.