manifesto for change

The following key points have been agreed by the families, individuals and organisations who took part in Autism Awareness Year.

• We seek an informed, coordinated and consistent response by the relevant statutory agencies in education, health and social services to meet the needs of children and adults with autistic spectrum disorders. We want an end to the ‘post code lottery’ in service provision and support.
• We urge government to allocate extra resources to educate professionals and public alike about autism; to fund additional services and support, and to acknowledge the very specific needs of people with autism when allocating resources.
• We will strive for an acknowledgement, backed by adequate resources, of the lifelong needs of people with autism.
• We seek a coordinated national approach to the training and education of professionals in autism specific skills to address the current disparity and scarcity in such areas as speech and language therapy and specialist teaching.
• We wish to see an increase in research into key aspects of autism throughout a person’s life, as well as into causation.
• We specifically seek additional resources to go into respite care provision for parents of children and adults with autistic spectrum disorders.

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