FASD Grows Up Part 4: 3% in our JSNA -

Our own Joint Strategic Needs Assessment already assumes it. 

Officially the need has been identified. 

The 2024 Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Children and Young People JSNA works on the basis that around 3% of local children have FASD. That is roughly 4,500 children in Cambridgeshire and 1,700 in Peterborough — about 6,200 children across the two areas. The assumption is written down. The diagnostic pathway, the workforce training and the post-diagnosis support are not. 

We are not asking anyone to accept a new figure. We are asking Cambridgeshire County Council, Peterborough City Council and NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough to act on the figure they have already published. 

The JSNA: www.cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/2024-cyp-jsna   

Read our local fact sheet: https://www.fieldofenterprise.org/blog/cambridgeshire-peterborough-jsna-fasd 

After nearly 20 years living in Cambridgeshire and advocating for people with FASD and the families that they live with, it is sobering that it has taken artificial intelligence to find the local information that no official has been able to tell me. 

Information that for at least 2 years FASD has been recognised as something that is in a needs assessment for all people working with children and young people in the area. This is the case, but you really wouldn’t know it if you lived here. 

In 2022, the NICE Quality Standard 204 (FASD) was published and all health bodies in England & Wales should have been working to address 5 statements to support reducing the numbers of babies born affected by prenatal alcohol exposure, recording whether individuals had been exposed to alcohol in the womb, having local assessment pathways for those who might have been affected and developing lifelong support networks for people who have FASD. 

Earlier this year in a freedom of information request sent to the then Integrated Care Board I was told that 

• There was no diagnostic pathway for an assessment for FASD, that the need would be met by a wholistic neurodevelopmental assessment. For under 11’s there is a routeway for such an assessment. For secondary age children, the pathway is not clear. 
• A referral specifically for FASD assessment will not be accepted unless there are significant physical or severe developmental needs warranting a neurodevelopmental assessment.
• There is currently no formal reporting mechanism for the number of FASD diagnoses.
• There is currently no dedicated FASD management plan in place. Support for individuals with FASD is expected to be provided primarily through educational settings, based on the needs identified. (this is not a lifelong management plan if it is provided through educational settings).
• They could not tell me how they expected to educate the community about the risks posed by alcohol during pregnancy or how any information about prenatal alcohol exposure would be recorded on a child’s medical notes. 

 The JSNA had been in place for well over 24 months! 

The ask today is simple – 

Is this good enough for 3 % of the population highlighted in the Joint Authority Needs Assessment as having FASD in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough? 

Is this good enough for the 28,000 people in our community that the local services have assessed as having a need?   

These posts across September 2026 are only possible due the support of the National Organisation for FASD. In June 2026, the Charity published an in depth look at the cost of FASD in the UK. professional AI software was used to interrogate available national data so that a detailed report could be written about the impact of FASD to the UK. That report can be found here. https://nationalfasd.org.uk/the-cost-of-inaction-on-fasd/ After a discussion about whether the same software could be used to drill down into locally available data and interesting set of information appeared for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough as well as another set for Hertfordshire where the National Organisation has its office. The following posts reflect the information gathered for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough 

Please search my other posts / blogs throughout FASD Awareness month 2026 for a full picture of the current situation and needs in Peterborough & Cambridgeshire UK. 

Brian Roberts 

September 2026