It’s been five years since I joined the National Autistic Society in November 2019, and I’ve been reflecting on my time here.  

So much has happened it’s impossible to fit it all into one blog.

Throughout the last few years, it has been great to see many campaign successes. From the 25,000 campaigners who said it was Time to Act on the Mental Health Bill with us and the 46 MPs who attended our event in Parliament to Let Every Autistic Child Learn to our ongoing Now I Know campaign, exploring the stories of late-diagnosed women and non-binary people.

Launching the Moonshot Vision and our new strategy to help us achieve this vision was also one of my proudest moments. This ambitious project was a huge piece of work. I am so proud that our vision and strategy are led by autistic people and that our ongoing aims represent their voices.

The Moonshot Vision is about taking a broader look at what a society that works for autistic people would actually look like and challenging everyone to help us make it happen. I strongly believe that it will be transformational.

We are already having more public conversations about autism and seeing a greater willingness from the public to engage with our charity.

Earlier this year, our charity was chosen for one of the coveted Show Gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show 2024. We took this opportunity to significantly raise the profile of masking, a coping strategy that can have a devastating impact on autistic people’s mental health, sense of self and access to an autism diagnosis.

With the help of autistic people throughout the process and our amazing staff volunteers, we ensured that important information about masking and autism reached a wide audience, challenging common perceptions about autistic people.
 

Our charity’s legacy and future

As people’s understanding of autism has grown, I’ve also been looking back at how our charity has grown over the years.

During the National Autistic Society’s 60th anniversary year, it was wonderful to celebrate everything our charity has achieved, the revolutionary figures who helped found our charity and all the people who advocate with us, including our brilliant supporters and ambassadors. I also enjoyed joining many colleagues and supporters in completing our ‘600,000 steps in 60 days’ challenge.

I’ve also recently contributed to our upcoming Heritage Project to help capture our charity’s history. We have seen how far society has come in those years, but there is still a long way to go to improve the lives of autistic people and their families.

However, my time here has not been without its challenges.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, all our lives and plans changed. This global crisis was not the planned start to my time at the charity, but I continue to feel incredibly proud of how staff in our services and schools helped keep everyone safe during this most difficult and uncertain time.

Yet, there are still challenges to overcome. The cost of living crisis has impacted everyone, putting pressure on autistic people and families we support, the services we provide and staff. 

As an organisation, we have had to make difficult decisions along the way to ensure we are around to help change society and achieve the vision we set out in Moonshot. 

Although the new Government has pledged additional funding to social care in this year’s budget, we don’t think it is enough, and we will continue to raise this in our campaigns and our meetings with Government officials. 

We know there are still challenges facing autistic people every day in key areas such as employment, education, mental health and accessing an assessment and diagnosis. The new Government gives us an opportunity to further influence change, especially to help reform the UK’s broken SEND provision, and our influential Campaigns team and I are already starting to meet with Ministers and raise our concerns. 

Our strategy is helping to lay the foundations for a sustainable future, both for our charity and autistic people of every age across the UK.

I want to thank you all for your ongoing hard work and commitment to our charity and vision of a society that works for autistic people.

Together, we can make a difference and there are lots of ways you can get involved.