Autism and Merlin RAP

[Perzival]

I think it's fair to say that the amount of people diagnosed with autism has increased by a huge amount compared to the amount of people who were diagnosed with the separate conditions prior to the change in the diagnostic manuals and people with a dx can vary between being a doctor and having a family, mortgage, social life etc to requiring 2:1 24 hour support with very limited communication.

This week Merlin that own Alton Towers, Thorpe park, Chessington and Legoland have decided to not give their ride access pass to people who struggle in crowds. This has caused uproar within the Merlin/ theme park groups as the majority of people who have this struggle have autism.

For those who aren't aware, in order to get a Ride Access Pass (RAP) you have to give evidence of your disabilities to a company called Nimbus who then decide what type of issues you have and give you a card with various icons on that you can them submit to venues for reasonable adjustments.

Throw in the commentary around the SEND white paper and the government review into why so many people are being diagnosed and i'm wondering if this is a more general move and one which is becoming more acceptable.

As the diagnosis has gone from previously representing mainly boy/ men with quite complex needs to representing a vast array of differring presentations and with an ever increasing amount of people being diagnosed, aibu to think that this is just the start and more venues/ places will limit or remove reasonable adjustments for this group of people?

AIBU= No, there isn't a push back against the autism diagnosis and adjustments made for the dx

AINBU= yes, more venues will start to remove or reduce adjustments for those with Autism

To avoid drip feeding I have a ds with profound autism and would imagine he will likely always get various reasonable adjustments (still gets RAP) etc.

Oh no. We have used the ride access pass when we previously went to Legoland. My little boy has ADHD and really cannot cope with long queues. He can manage up to 10 minutes max with supervision, but more than that he cannot. It isn't about not handling crowds. He just cannot stay still/ wait that long without stimulation or he becomes incredibly impulsive.

This will mean we can no longer go. As even on a mid-week day, the standard queues are too long. It feels like they just want to make money (to buy the access is stupidly expensive, and more than the tickets themselves).

Nimbus do not offer +1 as standard on the access card to under 10s.

Perhaps the real issue is the level of greed of the businesses. The model is designed to balance highest of money charged for the day, against the longest length of queues, and smallest numbers of rides per person per day they can get away with.

Obviously disabled people who need shorter queues for their same money are the "lemons" of the operation because they can pack in more non-disabled people and make more profit.

To make it fairer for everyone they should have a limited number of goes per person on the busy rides per day, and stop the ability to pay extra to jump the queue. Oh no that would reduce profit.

They are already making massive losses!

DS who has autism loves rollercoasters but struggles with crowded places. Rollercoasters are one of the very few activities he enjoys but unfortunately and obviously they’re all in theme parks.

He’s in school so obviously we can’t go on quieter days, we’re limited to weekends and school holidays.

Edited to add - we don’t have any kind of access pass, we pay for the queue jump passes because we can afford to and it leaves an allocated RAP place for someone else.

But possibly if you have the pass you are more likely to go. My ex certainly would not be fussed about going enough to queue for an hour plus for each ride. If you are not entitled to one you may well make a decision that it’s not worth it because of cost for the number of rides you get on

Do these things not require you to be in receipt of DLA? Wonder if you will get something more formal around that? There is absolutely blurred lines around autism as a disability. My son would be deemed profound, he gets high rate care & mobility. But i can absolutely see we are going a “prove your disability” route. I guess to some extend its natural, if we get to a point where a high percentage of kids are classed as sen this is inevitable.

You do realise i'm a parent of an equally or even more so complex child so I know pretty well how the systems work?!

I have never mentioned labels such as high functioning in any post on this thread.

If you've only takem the complaint to stage 2 you won't be able to goto JR as this is a last resort remedy. You'd need to follow the full process and goto the ombudsman. Jr would only be considered if urgent which tbh even with your long post it doesn't sound urgent or that you are at crisis point.

If ggoing for eotas, you could have gone to tribunal and used the ectension powers to get them to look at social care too. This isn't as enforcible as section F but the LA have to have an exceedingly good reason to not follow te tribunal's ruling on this.

Finally as your child is disabled, they are classed as a child in need by virtue of their disability.

Funnily enough i wonder how i know most of this?! But here's the thing we didn't have a big fight for a dx as such because his needs were classed as profound, he see's the paed regularly because he needs to and because they have to see him at least once per year for a check up, we've only paid for inde reports for tribunal and had inde therapists provided without tribunal because nhs couldn't meet need.

Your child may have complex needs but yes there are always kids that are deemed more complex, i know kids that are more complex than mine and many that are more medically complex.

My dh has a diagnosis of ASD, he has a full time job and does need some adjustments with interviews and reading subtle social queues.He wouldn't need a ride access pass.
Ds has autism and severe global delay. He receives high rate pip for mobility and care. He gets the disabled element of UC as he is classified as unable to work. He has the mental age of a young child, will never live independently and is extremely vulnerable.
Without a ride access pass we will not be able to take him to a Merlin attraction.

The system has been abused and this is the result. It is terribly unfair to those with the highest needs.

My LA used to give kids on dla a free Merlin Pass. Those were the days!! It was when the Gov told local authorities they had to offer services for disabled children. My LA basically had nothing, so it bought a load of Merlin passes for a few years for parents who enquired. We have a Merlin park within the LA, and it is great at employing yp from the local mld and other yp with additional needs, so the local special needs community was big users of Merlin passes.

Anyway, I think it encouraged Merlin to be particularly disabled-friendly. We certainly found it so compared with say Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

It's such a shame it has come to this.

I have gone to tribunal and the LA failed to submit working document or their case review so it was pushed back.

We have eotas they have conceded that still going to tribunal over section F for specifity.

I KNOW they qualify as a child in need. I stated that to CADS to social worker, to CWD team and showed how we meet criteria. They still refused and had to go through complaints process. We wre now on a CIN plan for my youngest 2 but its all very slow.

My stage 2 complaint is upheld but the local authority have ignored the recommendations which included urgent review of my local authorities policies, procedures re CWD as they were failing. And training for staff as not one member of staff could even say what the criteria was for CWD team, despite telling us we didnt meet it. We did and we do.

And crisis.. well as a solo parent (totally solo prohibited steps and child arrangements order dad is unsafe so no contact allowed). No family nearby, no support network. And child in my care 24/7 as no school to meet needs. The EOTAS he gets currently is 9 hrs oer week in the home, 2 to 1 but the local authority are still saying I have to supervise this.

So when I supposed to get a break or meet needs of my other children i have no clue. He was banded complex, high need via short breaks and given a whopping 2hrs a week PA hours. Not enough for me to even attend my own medical appointments or do the things needed for my other children.

I could go to LGO but I also could just go to Judicial review as they have not acted in the Independent stage 2 complaint report. I have taken legal counsel on this. But LGO can only slap them on wrist and again there is a wait.

Not sure what counts as crisis for tou. But a child who had no education for over 2 years, couldn't leave the house for year. Struggling eith eating, toileting. Receiving no support

In order to attend a medical app it took 3 adults and sedatives to get him there and he was still SO distressed they held an emergency MDT ethics committee to decide what to do in the end I held him down they have him ketsmine then a GA to do mri, lumbar puncture, bloods as needed. We had the support of learning disability team and play therapists who had never seen a child so distressed.

There was a lot to it he had meningitis as a baby and repeated a&e ambulance rides due to poorly controlled asthma so there is a trauma response adding to his sensory and PDA needs. As every person who assesses him says, he is very complex.

But the reports also state how competent I am. How I am educated, trained (I did work with complex needs children) how I am a good advocate, understand him etc. Which is better than parent blame. The tbf CWD did try that too at one point . But I am ONE person with multiple children, 2 others have needs. I have my own health issues including brittle asthma under consultant care.

I do alll the things to look after myself ie ice bath in the garden, pilates, yoga etc. As much as I can around a child who doesn't sleep and can have extremely distressing and difficult behaviours where he can hurt himself and others.

The LA has a lovely policy about early intervention and support... which they have never provided and now they all say his needs are 'too complex'. Years waiting on NHS and for MH support. I do have 2 private reports stick on a credit card and actually the latest LA EP report is brilliant. And then they refuse to follow their OWN report. Even with tribunal telling thrm to.

I cannot afford judicial review I am on unpaid parental leave currently. Getting the benefits I am entitled to but I cant afford anything else. I

But yeah I keep the house tidy, my children are fed and looked after who cares if we are on our knees with it. The irony is I can meet my childs needs in many ways but the battle to get education, support etc is what is breaking us. And I have other children who need me for their own needs.

And no i havent put details in re crisis point because this is a public forum. I dont really want to detail the harms and the incidents that make it crisis. Especially as I am in position of having prohibited steps order for protection. I have reason to protect our privacy, especially my childs privacy.

But also families should NOT be having to reach crisis point. I dont want to be having a hearing into why one of my children was seriously injured or harmed because the local authority failed in their duty of care when I have been actively asking for and trying to get help since 2023.

This is because the system is being abused by those who don’t genuinely need the adjustments. They’ve cracked down across the pond at Disney and Universal too.

Maybe although anecdotally I think it's also because the Ride Access Passes so make the Annual Passes much better value because you can generally have a better experience and get on more rides than the average customer. When I last went to Alton Towers I got on three rides and that's as it! I spent the vast majority of the day queuing. It was horrendous! I would never invest in an annual pass

Yes I agree. I haven't been to Alton Towers for about 20 years because I'm not a fan of rollercoasters but DD went there on a school trip about 3 years ago and also managed to only go on about 4 rides all day because of the queueing. She said it wasn't worth the money at all.

So if RAP pass visitors are increasing the queueing times for non RAP visitors, the non RAP visitors will say sod that for a game of soldiers and just go elsewhere.

I'm sure Merlin wouldn't be doing this if it was going to lose them (more) money, it must be a business decision.

@Madthings when you do jr you lay for the pre action protocol letter but do the jr in the childs name so they qualify for legal aid. Your legal council should have told you this. Jr is a last resort remedy so won't be petmitted if you can go the lgo.

If you're currently in the tribunal process submit changes to include social care needs and provision. They'll order the la to assess.

You could also look at contact a family website and use their templates to request an assessment or calk their helpline.

You're right your story isn't unique but like the rest of us you need to crack on or leave it which is the alternative. Moaning about it on this thread will only help ifit makes you feel better. I still hold my opinion that there are kids more complex, there always are.

I could imagine that Merlin looked at some forms of difference to limit the unable to queue but it is impossible to draw a line and may even cause more outrage. I can also see a rise in needing SN pushchairs and buggies in documentation. The two sides can both be true that it is a much needed accommodation that enhances people's lives and also as a business model it is detrimental to the company and other users.

Economics isn't it.

No one has a right to go to a theme park.

I read that it was Nimbus or the people who do the access cards that have led this change over it being a purely Merlin decision.

I saw this first on tiktok earlier and then read about in the paper & now here. Seems to be a lot of people saying that their children can queue because they have autism & don’t understand it.

queueing doesn’t just apply to theme parks so surely finding a way to teach your child how to cope in these scenarios would be more useful.

I see so many people using a ND diagnosis as a reason for not doing something or not teaching them things that would help them. Appreciate this would not be applicable in all cases

i think someone else said that the priority queues are now sometimes 30 mins long anyway so doesn’t that defeat the object. Its probably one of the reasons why the change has happened.

Its clearly becoming an unreasonable accommodation.

agree with others though that is a very busy themepark the best place for a child that can’t cope with crowds of people/queues.

Just wanted to say you sound amazing and it must be really hard but you are doing a fantastic job. Your kids are lucky to have you.

Can I ask a question? If you qualify for RAP what does it entitle you too? Do you ‘queue jump’ as in just turn up at the accessible entrance or do you enter a virtual queue and then turn up at your allotted time?

I get this i really do, i go specifically when places are quieter I have an annual pass to a science museum we go term time and during the 6 week holidays midweek when its quieter we have an annual pass so we can leave if its too busy

The thing is not allowing family time in term time means everyone is crammed into places during the holidays they charge premium prices for cattle market experience which you feel you should enjoy because your paying a bloody fortune for it! It's not a fun time so I dont go not every childhood needs to be made up of "magical experiences" its ok to keep things quieter and simple and have the occasional magical experience

And yes the self diagnosed autistic crowd have spoilt a lot of things if I cant get my genuinely finally diagnosed autistic child diagnosed earlier than 17 (started at ten) then there is something fundamentally wrong in the system

The issue is probably that they are losing business over it. When I went previously a whole chunk of every ride seemed to be allocated to the RAP queue. With so many people using RAP the waiting queue was hours long. I won't go back because I paid a lot of money to stand in queues forever, when others got on quickly, presumably having paid the same. I couldn't really understand why so many people allegedly weren't able to stand in a queue, yet were happy to go on a roller coaster.

Not sure if they were all genuine tbh, but hopefully Merlin do their due diligence to check.

My ds is autistic, he struggles massively with queuing so queue skips have always worked brilliantly for us as he loves rides . He’s not great with confined busy spaces but ok in open crowds.
I hope all the people affected by this change walk with their feet.

What bits did he like? I loved the tiny London/other countries etc but, but was disappointed there wasn't more like that, just the odd model around. And one of the hotels had Lego to play with in the foyer, but then it felt like I was paying loads of money for my kids to do stuff they could do at home!

I would actually prefer it if it was more Lego and fewer rides with ridiculous queues.

Something had to be done. My daughter has rap for a hip and knee issue and the rap queues and what it was meant to do,it just wasn't working anymore. Many a timee she'd heard families bragging about "how easy it was" or having multiple cards so they weren't getting timed out. It had to be done.

Now everyone on the various rap groups who's local park is Alton towers, are now taking their business to Drayton manor. They're not going to cope either and I can see them putting similar practices in.

Be interesting to see how Universal UK do it in a few years when it opens...