Thank you for joining the National Autistic Society and the EC4 Music Choir for our annual Starshine Carol Concert. Your support enables us to transform lives and change attitudes to help create a society that works for autistic people 

2024 has been a huge year for this event as it is our eleventh anniversary of seeing in the festive period with the wonderful EC4 Music Choir and we couldn’t be happy that you were here to celebrate with us!

This year has seen the continued work put into our new Vision to Reality strategy launched in 2023. As a result of that we’ve been proud to launch our first ever impact report and I’d love to talk you through some of the things we were able to highlight:

• Nearly 25,000 campaigners joined our efforts to demand action on vital reforms to the Mental Health Act in England and Wales and to support the Let Every Autistic Child Learn campaign for better education for autistic children. In Scotland, our work helped secure key autism provisions in the Learning Disabilities, Autism, and Neurodivergence Bill. In April 2023, we successfully reversed restrictive autism diagnosis criteria in Bristol. Our 2024 General Election Campaign – Change The Conversation - engaged over 800 autistic people to share their campaigning experiences.
• We also supported nearly 450 children in autism-specific schools and our Cullum Centres, trained over 100,000 professionals in education, health, and social care, and hosted nearly 1,000 attendees at our annual conference. Additionally, we collaborated with over 100 organizations to improve autism practices through our Accreditation and Inclusion Awards.
• On the fundraising side of things, a particular highlight was our 100 Miles in October campaign which has raised over £330K to date in only it’s second iteration.
• Elsewhere we were proud to announce that volunteers at our charity’s North Northumberland branch have received The King’s Award for Voluntary Service; celebrating the outstanding work they do in their local community. This prestigious award is equivalent to an MBE and is the highest award given to local voluntary groups in the UK.
• We were also fortunate enough to have a garden at the prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Our charity's garden, themed around autism and masking, was created by co-designers Sophie Parmenter and Dido Milne from CSK Architects and sponsored by Project Giving Back, a charity that provides funding for ‘gardens for good causes’ at Chelsea. The garden was a Silver Gilt medal winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, 21-25 May 2024.

All this is on top of the vital support we provide every day to autistic people and their families through our schools, services, branches and online communities. 

We, of course, could not do any of this without our wonderful supporters and volunteers who generously donate their time and money.

Thank you for your donation.