24 November 2025
The RCSLT has welcomed the House of Lords Autism Act 2009 Committee report, Time to deliver: The Autism Act 2009 and the new autism strategy.
We are very pleased that the Committee has highlighted speech, language, and communication, the role of speech and language therapy, and the barriers too many autistic people, of all ages, and their families face accessing it, across education, employment, health, justice, and social care.
We are delighted that the Committee quoted from our written evidence in relation to:
- Meeting autistic people’s support needs in healthcare – where we recommended that the Government should fund models for autistic people to access speech and language therapy support for the longer term after diagnosis, including help to navigate healthcare, education and employment.
- Identification, screening and assessment in criminal justice – where we said that early identification of autism following entry to the criminal justice system was vital in identifying communication needs.
- Support and adjustments – where we said that access to speech and language therapy services throughout the criminal justice system was vital.
The RCSLT urge the Government to accept the Committee’s recommendations and to work with us on the next autism strategy so autistic people can be better supported to communicate in the way that suits them best and those working with them are trained in recognising communication differences and how to make adjustments both to the environment and to their own communication.
We were also pleased that the Committee sought to ensure that autistic people and those who support them had opportunities and a variety of means for meaningful involvement in the Committee’s work. This echoes the call of the Inclusive Parliament coalition for Parliament to be more inclusive of signers and people with communication disability, difficulty, or difference.
We hope the House of Lords Procedure and Privileges Committee and the Liaison Committee will accept the Committee’s invitation respectively to consider ways to facilitate involvement for all people in the work of Committees and to provide the time and resources to do so.
