Visiting Parliament alongside bereaved parents – asking Government to step up for autistic people
Note: Content mentions suicide and may be distressing Suicide prevention was debated in Parliament this week, prompted by World Suicide Prevention Day We took the opportunity to deliver a letter to Baroness Merron, who has responsibility for suicide prevention, highlighting the failings of the Government’s action plan and calling for improvements. The full letter can […]
New suicide prevention research furthers our understanding of the links between suicide risk and autism and helps us plan for change
The first batch of research commissioned by Autism Action into understanding why the risk of suicide is higher in autistic people and, crucially, what we can do about it, was released last week. The research, led by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Bournemouth University, has been published in the journal Autism in Adulthood, and […]
Will the LeDeR report be about saving lives or saving face?
We expect the overdue LeDeR report to be published imminently We’d like to say a big thank you to everybody who supported our public call for the LeDeR* report to be published. We are confident that making a noise about this issue is starting to make a difference. If you added your name before August […]
Response from Minister regarding delay to LeDeR report
In July we sent a letter to the Health Secretary, with over 40 signatures including those from bereaved families and disability campaigners. Since then, over 200 additional people have added their support here. The letter demanded action to get the LeDeR programme – ‘Learning from Lives and Deaths: people with a learning disability and autistic […]
Joining forces to call for overhaul of the system to reduce preventable deaths
On Monday 21st July, 2025, we joined forces with charities, bereaved family members, campaigners and academics to call for overhaul of the system designed to learn from the deaths of autistic people and people with learning disabilities and reduce preventable deaths. Read the letter – and add your support – below. Our full press release […]
Autism flagged as key theme in Lampard Inquiry evidence requests
CW: sensitive content, mental health, death We welcome news that the Lampard Inquiry is now asking witnesses about autism and considering the adequacy of adjustments made to the care received by autistic people. We’ve been making the case to the Inquiry since July 2024 that it’s vital to understand how many autistic people were among […]
Statement on reforms to the Mental Health Act
Tom Purser, CEO of the Autism Centre of Excellence at Cambridge (ACE), said: Today’s news of the long-overdue reforms to the Mental Health Act is important and should be welcomed. However, there are aspects of the reforms over which we still have deep concerns. We hope that many of these will be addressed in the implementation of the […]
