The Social Communication Pathway (SCP) is the local autism assessment service in Manchester. The SCP team is a multi-agency team which assesses social communication difficulties in children and young people living in Manchester. If a young person or their family thinks they might be autistic, this team will make an assessment to see if they meet the criteria for a diagnosis of Autism.

You can read more about the SCP on the University of Manchester NHS Foundation Trust’s (MFT) website. They also have an FAQs document that you can download.

There is also a new Social Communication Pathway for Early Years children (i.e., those aged 5 years or younger) that was piloted in South Manchester in 2022-2024. You can read about that here: http://manchesterparentcarerforum.org.uk/the-early-years-social-communication-pathway/
The Early Years SCP pilot has shown a number of positive outcomes so we are hoping that it will get implemented across Manchester someday.

The MFT has also developed padlets where you can find even more information about the assessment process and help & support that’s available. There’s a padlet for parents and carers, and another one specifically for young people.

Below are some articles and events on our website that are related to the SCP: