New campaign to get autism on general election agenda(UK)

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The National Autistic Society is encouraging autistic people across the UK, and their families, to talk to their local general election candidates about autism, by holding candidate coffee mornings. The charity has produced a range of resources to help set up the meeting and decide on what topics to focus on.

This is part of the charity’s I’m One campaign, which aims to help candidates of all parties to understand the challenges autistic people in their area face and to make sure autism is a priority in the next Parliament. The National Autistic Society has free resources on its website to help autistic people to set up the meetings and decide what topics they want to cover – and staff are there for support too.

During the 2015 election, hundreds of campaigners talked to the candidates running for office in their local area. Many of the candidates they spoke went on to become MPs who helped achieve things like:

guaranteeing autism training for every new teacher
securing Government support for recording autism diagnosis waiting times
getting autism specifically included in the NHS health mandate

Arran Linton Smith, 61, is autistic and got involved in I’m One during the 2015 general election, when he met three candidates for the Broxtowe constituency in Nottinghamshire.