A new report into autism employment makes the “moral case” for helping neuro-divergent people into work, a Conservative former minister has said.

Sir Robert Buckland, who led the Buckland Review of Autism Employment, said employment can provide “fulfilment and happiness” for people on the autistic spectrum.

Sir Robert, whose daughter is autistic, said it was important for him “on many levels” that neuro-diverse people were involved in the report’s findings.

He told MPs: “This had to be a review that was led by autistic people about autistic people. In other words, nothing about us without us.”

...

“So there’s a moral case to be made for the recommendations that are set out in the review, but there’s also, and I make no apology for this, a hard-edged economic case as well. What’s good for autistic people will be good for the rest of our society.”

He added: “Only just under three in 10 autistic adults are in full-time or part-time work. It’s the lowest of all disability classes. That’s about 30% as opposed to 50% for disability generally.”

...

Sir Robert suggested a new approach that was “universal by design” and so would benefit autistic people who did not have a diagnosis or did not feel comfortable discussing a diagnosis with an employer.

He said: “A universal by design approach is going to make the most difference here and we’ve heard a lot over the years about autism friendly environments, and going out of our way to reach out and understand and allow people to explain, but that I think will only have a limited impact, or an impact upon those people who are comfortable and prepared to talk about autism.

“Surely it would be better to have a universal change to the way in which we recruit and retain employees.”

Recommendations in the report include initiatives to reduce stigma and capitalise on productivity, support programmes for autistic people to begin or return to work, and education for employers on working with neuro-diverse staff.

Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, Labour MP Sir Stephen Timms, welcomed the report but described it as a “missed opportunity”.

He said: “As the review points out, the employment gap is much worse for autistic people than it is for disabled people more broadly.

“A disappointing feature of the report for me though, is the rather unambitious nature of the recommendations. They’re along the lines of ‘the Government ought to try a bit harder on this and do a bit more of that’ there aren’t any targets set out in the report, nothing to really help us to monitor progress.

“So I feel when the question is asked in two or five years time, have these recommendations been delivered? Then the answer is going to be a bit unclear.”

The extraordinary rise in demand for autism assessments and ADHD treatments in England has overtaken the NHS's capacity to meet it, a think tank says.

Since 2019, there has been a five-fold rise in people waiting to see an autism specialist and a 51% increase in prescriptions for ADHD medication, according to the Nuffield Trust.

Growing backlogs and longer waiting times are negatively impacting people's daily lives, it warned.

It said a "radical rethink" was needed.

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One out of every 100 people is on the autistic spectrum, it is estimated, while 2.6 million people in the UK have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) .

The Nuffield Trust said 24% of patients referred for ADHD in England were having to wait one to two years for an assessment.

On top of this, thousands of people with ADHD have been unable to get prescribed medication amid a major supply shortage. This was announced in September due to "manufacturing issues and an increased global demand".

Meanwhile,172,000 adults and children are on a waiting list for an autism assessment - the highest recorded figure - according to NHS data analysed by the think tank.

Between October and December 2023, the median time spent on a waiting list after an autism referral rose to over nine months, compared with four months in the same period in 2019.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/7325208

Dozens of young autistic people have died after serious failings in their care despite repeated warnings from coroners, BBC News has found.

Our investigation found issues that were flagged a decade ago are still being warned about now.

Hi all,

I'm a parent of a teenage boy who is probably somewhere on the spectrum of autism. There's a long wait for a diagnosis and we haven't managed to convince him that it would be useful to him yet in any case. However, I found a book that I found useful, and I thought others might too - or alternatively those of you who are on the spectrum might be able to say whether or not these resources are helpful / accurate to your experience.

The book I found is 'Autism and Your Teen' by Blythe Grossberg.

Has anyone else read it and have opinions on it? Or, other suggestions for good books?

Hi there!

I have set up this community for those seeking an alternative to Reddit.

I am not affiliated with any autism organisations or charities, however I was a member of the Autism UK subreddit and, although I was more of a lurker than a poster, I found the community helpful. I hope this community will become as useful in due course. (If the mods from the subreddit are reading these, please feel free to PM me. This is my first off-Facebook community, and I'd appreciate your help, if you can spare it.)

I've not set up rules or guidelines yet. I will do so in due course. For now, however, I ask that you all please:

• try to be mindful of the impact that words can have
• ask if you're not sure about something
• avoid using gendered language
• try to be compassionate towards one another

Please note that:

• discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated
• self diagnosis is valid

Lastly, for all of us, please feel free to introduce yourself here, if you wish.

I'm El. I was diagnosed as autistic in my early 40s. I also have diagnoses of ADHD, depression, anxiety, and fatigue. I live in South Wales in the UK. I was working from home as a social media manager, but am currently signed off. I have many and varied special interests (yay ADHD!), but have been consistently obsessed with the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (GNU pTerry), yarn crafts, writing, and drawing.