Autism Alliance welcomes the Buckland Autism Employment Review

The Autism Alliance welcomes the publication of the Autism Employment Review, led by Sir Robert Buckland KC MP and supported by Autistica and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Employment can be the key to a happy and fulfilled life, and building and sustaining genuinely neuroinclusive workplaces across the UK would make a huge difference for autistic people, as well as contributing potentially billions to the economy.

With so many skills and strengths to offer, it’s indefensible that autistic people continue to have one of the lowest employment rates of any group. We urge the Government to implement the recommendations of this important new report, led by a taskforce to ensure change is real and embedded.

The report is also right to call for more evaluation and evidence building – so much of good practice is intuitively right, but larger scale change will need a more robust evidence base, evolving as wider acceptance and understanding of neurodivergence continues to grow.

Finally, the Review also notes that changes that could support better employment for autistic people could have wider benefits for the whole workforce. This is an absolutely key principle, and one the Autism Alliance will continue to emphasise in relation to wider system change.

By putting the voices of autistic people at the heart of policy thinking, we can reshape public services around the principles of embracing difference, and recognising and meeting need – principles that in the long run will deliver better services and more cost-effective use of public funding.