About Autism

Autism is a lifelong developmental condition that affects the way that individuals communicate with and relate to other people and how they make sense of the world around them. Like everyone, those with autism have their own strengths, differences and needs. While all autistic people share certain challenges, some autistic people will need very little or no support in their everyday lives while others may need high levels of care, such as 24-hour support in residential care. Some people may need help with a range of things, from forming friendships, coping at school, managing at work, or being able to get out and about in the community. This variation in the condition is why it is sometimes referred to as a ‘spectrum condition’. Not all autistic people see themselves as disabled but some do. A person is described as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. Some autistic people might find their autism does not affect them in this way, but many do. Autistic people often seeing autism as part of who they are rather than something separate and prefer to be described as ‘autistic’ rather than ‘someone with autism’.

This video from National Autistic Society explains what autism is and how autistic children and young people see the world. 

You can find out more about autism, including information about the difficulties autistic people may have, on the National Autistic Society website.

Worcestershire Children First have produced a series of eight podcasts featuring a young autistic person, talking about a range of topics from masking, school assemblies, to clothing. Mind-Boggling Conversations aim to share the experiences of young autistic people in Worcestershire.

Listen to Mind-boggling Conversations on YouTube

All-Age Autism Strategy

Herefordshire and Worcestershire’s Autism Partnership Boards have worked with autistic people, carers, professionals from social care, health, public health, police, support providers and advocacy services to co-produce a new All-Age Autism Strategy for the two counties. You can find out more about it here: All-Age Autism Strategy.

There are 7 priorities of the All-age Autism Strategy:

1. Improving understanding and acceptance of autism within society
2. Improving autistic children and young people’s access into education and support positive transitions into adulthood  
3. Supporting more autistic people into employment
4. Tackling health and care inequalities for autistic people
5. Building the right support in the community 
6. Improving support in criminal and youth justice systems 
7. Keeping safe

As part of priority 4, NHS Herefordshire & Worcestershire have produced videos about autism sensory friendly environments. All of the videos are here  Autism and Sensory Friendly Environments : Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care System (hwics.org.uk)