My son is Autistic he went through Primary school with a one to one classroom assistant and then progressed to Secondary school. At Year 9 the Special Needs Co-ordinator for the school advised that the school was unable to give him a place to do GCSEs with a reduced curriculum of two subjects. I was supported by my daughter at this meeting luckily and she has always supported her brother. We let my son stay at the school much to their annoyance but when other children and parents went to pick up their GCSE exam results - I was the proudest of all - my son didn't understand - but he walked away with GCSE Maths at C Grade, Welsh Second Language C Grade, BTech Science (C Grade equivalent) and BTech Work Skills (C Grade equivalent).

At the insistence of the Director of Education (now Chief Executive of the Council) and Social Services my son then moved to the Special Education Centre - they don't do any exams - he spent the next two years there because they wouldn't allow him to have the funding for a Specialist College placement.

He is now at that College after a lot of hard work and the support of the Community Nurse, his one to ones through the years, his teacher in the special education centre who supported his bid for the college.

He has settled in and is enjoying his course in hospitality.

What I hope is in this Bill is that it gives the chance for the individual to have a voice and the chance to dream as much as anyone else? And for those that are non verbal people who can just do the best to bring the best out of them no matter what.