The Government has promised to tackle long diagnosis waiting times in the new autism strategy for England, after successful campaigning from National Autistic Society supporters. This strategy represents the biggest investment in England’s autistic people ever. 

Read the strategy here.

Today the Government has published its autism strategy, which sets out how it plans to support autistic adults and children in England over the next five years. The strategy promises to: 

• Invest £10.5 million into finding new ways to reduce diagnosis waiting times for children and young people 
• Invest £2.5 million to improve the quality of adult diagnostic and post-diagnostic pathways and diagnosis waiting times 
• Increase public understanding of autism with a long-term, nationwide initiative 
• Provide £18.5 million to prevent autistic people from falling into mental health crisis and £21 million to local authorities to help people in mental health hospitals back into the community 
• Improve understanding by training education professionals, job centre staff and frontline staff in the justice system.    

All the commitments total almost £75 million and represent the biggest investment in England’s autistic people ever. However, they only account for the first year of the strategy – we are expecting further financial commitments for 2022-26 when the Government sets out its long-term spending promises later this year (called the Spending Review).  

Read the five main things you need to know about the autism strategy here.

National Autistic Society campaigners have long demanded better support and services for autistic people through our Not Enough and Left Stranded campaigns. Thank you to all our campaigners and everyone who gave evidence in the All Party Parliamentary Group on Autism’s (APPGA) Autism Act: 10 Years On parliamentary inquiry. 

In 2019, alongside the APPGA we found that over 2 in 3 autistic adults don’t get the support they need. This was made even worse by the pandemic, which disproportionately impacted the mental health and education of autistic adults and children. 

We’re really pleased that the Government has recognised many of these inequalities and committed to tackle them with some concrete proposals and funding. These could start to make a real difference to autistic people and their families. However, we know that true change will take more than one year and cannot happen without fixing social care, which the Prime Minister promised on his first day in the job – we will keep campaigning hard for this to happen. 

Caroline Stevens, Chief Executive of the National Autistic Society said: “The strategy recognises many of the biggest challenges autistic people of all ages face.    

“We and our supporters have long campaigned for a fully-funded public understanding campaign, significant investment in reducing diagnosis waiting times and better post-diagnostic support. No-one should feel judged for being autistic, or to have to wait many months for a potentially life changing diagnosis and vital help and support.    

 “So, we’re really pleased to finally see these as concrete actions in the first year of the new strategy, alongside other important commitments for autistic people and their families.    

“But the true success of the strategy will depend on the Government investing in autistic people each year, as well as the Prime Minister honouring his promise to fix the social care crisis.  If this happens, this strategy could be a significant step forward in creating a society that really works for autistic children, adults and their families.” 

Nellie Allsop, autistic woman and campaigner said: “I’m extremely happy to see the launch of the strategy.   

“Having been diagnosed last year, age 25, I’m still yet to tell people close to me that I’m autistic, for worry that they won’t quite ‘get it’. That’s why I’m delighted to hear that this strategy aims to improve the understanding and acceptance of autism amongst the general public.