Solihull councillor's autism comments 'absolute insult'

An "absolute insult" is how mums of children with autism have labelled a councillor's suggestion that poor parenting skills are partly to blame.

Angela Sandison told a Solihull Council meeting in which she queried the number of diagnoses that some mothers should spend less time on their phones.

Michelle Miley, whose son has autism, said her initial reaction was "complete disgust and upset".

Ms Sandison has stepped down from the children's services scrutiny committee.

The Conservative councillor made the comments last week while highlighting rates of autism in the area - almost double the regional and national average by the time children reach secondary school.

She questioned whether cases were being "over-diagnosed", adding: "In a previous generation of children they'd never even heard of autism and now we've got so many."

She told the committee: "You see mothers all the time now, they're on the phone, they're not even looking at the baby and it's so important to look at the baby."

Ms Miley said: "We're clearly fighting a broken system that is not up to date or aware of what autism is and how [children] do get it.

"They do not get it from parents, it's an absolute insult."

Heather Delaney, who has two children with autism, said she was "shocked" that in "2021 somebody could still say things like that".

She added: "To blame people looking at a phone screen or a computer screen for a child having autism is just outrageous.

"It is not an excuse not to have understanding of autism, and if you don't understand it, don't talk about it and go and get educated."

Councillor Laura McCarthy, leader of the Liberal Democrats group at the authority, said as a parent of a child with additional needs, she found the comments "incredibly insensitive".

She said: "We're not 100% sure why the rate is as it is, but feedback that we're getting from other local councils is that our wait for assessment is a lot shorter in Solihull than in many other areas, so in other councils you might have a wait of three to five years, which is just unacceptable."

Ms Sanderson, who resigned from the scrutiny committee on Friday, said in a statement: "In no way is autism due to bad parenting. Autism is real and I in no way meant to blame parents. I unreservedly apologise."

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