We want to make life better for autistic people across all areas of life. But this is such an ambitious aim, with so many different contributing factors, that it’s not something we can do alone. What we really want is for autistic people and those who support them (including charities and other organisations) – to have more power and to drive change themselves – with us, alongside us, and of course sometimes independently of us. We believe that by working as part of a network like that, we’ll amplify our collective power and each have much more impact than working in isolation.

We’re always looking for ways to empower our community members. This might be by helping large numbers of people have more of a say in the laws and national guidance that directly impact their lives across education, NHS and social care. That’s why we’ve worked so hard to include people with lived experience in ‘major change opportunities’ such as the House of Lords Autism Act Committee, the Lampard Inquiry, and in calling for improvements to the systems that are supposed to learn from and prevent deaths. 

We also empower people to have say in what we do as a charity, by helping us make decisions about next steps, design community surveys and research projects, and get sensitive wording right. Our team has lived experience and years of professional experience in what’s often called ‘community engagement’ or ‘PPI’ (Patient and Public Involvement). 

We’re striving to do more, seeking the funding we need to grow our empowerment work, from increasing representation of minority groups in our panel, to exploring ways that community members can influence both our decisions and Government decisions. In the meantime, as part of our commitment to transparency, we want to be open about all the many ways we already empower people. Some of these are relatively modest tasks that help us develop and fine-tune a piece of work that autistic people will believe in, while others are more in-depth, such as co-design or co-production, shaping strategy and developing new ideas. You can read about those on the right-hand-side of this page.