Plymouth Autism Spectrum Service (P.A.S.S)

P.A.S.S. is a small psychology-led team that includes occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, social workers, and other allied health professionals. P.A.S.S. works alongside and collaborates with community partners.

How and why has P.A.S.S. been developed?

The establishment of the Plymouth Autism Spectrum Service (P.A.S.S.) was advocated for by Plymouth's Autism Partnership Board and commissioned by Plymouth City Council as part of a wider Devon Sustainability Partnership Trust initiative. This commissioning has been influenced by key legislation: the Autism Act 2009 and its statutory guidance, the NHS Long Term Plan, and the Transforming Care Agenda.

P.A.S.S. has been developed to provide a dedicated and specialist service for adults with autism, their families, health and social care services, and to collaborate with community organisations within Plymouth.

Services have not been adequately meeting the needs of adults with autism; this has huge implications for people with autism and the wider community. It is known that adults with autism are less likely to be in fulfilling employment, may need more support to live independently, may experience reduced access to social and leisure opportunities, often experience enduring discrimination, and are more likely to develop mental health problems.

It is important that people with autism feel empowered, enabled, and advocated for to have equal opportunities to participate in community life. To feel supported to live a meaningful and rewarding life on their own terms and in unique ways.

P.A.S.S. has attempted to be as accessible as possible for the people that need our support and has therefore collaborated with the autism community to help set the foundations of the service and will continue to do so as it develops. P.A.S.S. intends to embed itself and be integrated with Plymouth's community, services, and organisations.  P.A.S.S. hopes that by working in this way, our society will be encouraged to accept and be inclusive of neurodiversity and that a cultural shift can be developed and sustained within Plymouth's health, social care, and community services to embrace and adapt to the needs of adults with autism.

What does P.A.S.S. do?

P.A.S.S. intends to provide a service that is strengths-based, person-centred, holistic, time-sensitive, accessible, appropriate, dynamic, and responsive. The aim is to promote and provide pro-active strategies to support adults with autism to live their lives as they want and to prevent the number of crises that they may experience.

P.A.S.S. offers three services

1. Autism Assessment
2. Advice Service
3. Training and Consultation Service

Autism assessment

What is an autism assessment?

An assessment is the process of gathering and thinking about all the information about a situation or person and making a judgement.

You will be offered an assessment of autism if there is evidence of:

• Difficulties with social communication and social interaction across different areas of your life.
• Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities.

And evidence that:

• These things have been there since early childhood.
• These things cause clinically significant impairment in functioning.
• You do not have a learning disability

P.A.S.S. recognises that these difficulties present differently in different people.

How do I get an autism assessment?

You must:

• Be aged 18 or over
• I do not already have a diagnosis of Autism
• I do not have a diagnosed learning disability
• Be registered with a Plymouth GP
• Be referred by your GP or health and social care worker; we do not currently accept self-referrals for autism assessments.

Advice Service

At the Advice Service, you can access:

• 1:1 signposting and advice for adults with autism and their families
• Navigating Autism Group
• Navigating Anxiety Group
• Workshops
• Support with accessing services
• Other community organisations

How do I access the P.A.S.S. Advice Service?

To access the advice service, you must be:

• aged 18 or over
• formally diagnosed with autism
• registered with a Plymouth GP or doctor

The service is for adults with autism who are not eligible to access support through the Learning Disability Service. You or somebody on your behalf can refer you to the service with your consent.

Specialist Training and Consultation Service 

P.A.S.S. offers a specialist training and consultation service available to adult Livewell Southwest services and relevant adult Plymouth City Council services.

P.A.S.S. provides training to develop teams' and practitioners' understanding of autism and provides an opportunity to enhance knowledge and skills in adapting practice when working with adults with autism. Adults with autism have the right to equitable access and service provision to health and social care services. P.A.S.S. is not a care-coordinating or case-holding service and therefore will work with practitioners, but not instead of practitioners already working with the person.

Is the information correct?

Let us know if the information on this page is wrong and needs to be updated.

Want to create a page on the Plymouth Online Directory?  Register for free and add a page; it only takes a few minutes.