Sun, 26 Feb 2017

Autistic Hackney residents participate in developing an autism strategy for the borough

The Hackney council established an Autism Alliance Board in 2016 to eventually create an autism strategy for the borough. Autistics, parents and carers joined to establish a User Engagement work group to contribute to this work.

Autism  infinity awareness symbol We’ve published a few web pages at Autistic Hackney to give some information on the work group, how to join it and some key documents.

One of these documents, the Terms of Reference of the Hackney Autism Alliance Board, reflects some early successes of our work group:

The Board has also adopted some Engagement and Consultation Principles that were developed by our work group. These principles include a section on autistic representation on the Autism Alliance Partnership Board, which was the basis for most changes to the Terms of Reference and also for ensuring that autistic representatives and carers on the board should be remunerated for their participation. Another section on accessible meetings suggest accommodations for sensory needs and that if an autistic representative needs a break, the meeting is suspended for everyone. These principles also recommend that consultation on the strategy is conducted in ways to make it accessible to most autistic Hackney residents.

Work is now about to start on drafting the strategy. If you’re autistic and live in Hackney, check out the Autistic Hackney web page to find out how to join our User Engagement work group and contribute to the strategy work.

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