Sherwood mum calls for autism ‘screening’ for premature children

There are currently National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines in place for care providers – but Mrs Poynter is calling for those to be more robust.

Freddie did have access to a programme of support at the local child development centre, which he was discharged from when he was two and a half years old.

That meant when he started displaying symptoms of ADHD and autism about five years ago, Mrs Poynter and her husband Craig had to “go back to the beginning”.

“We no longer had access back to that service, despite being told at birth that he would be at higher risk of neurodiversity,” Mrs Poynter said.

She had to take her son to a GP to be referred on to the relevant pathway and had to wait in that “queue with everybody else”, she said.