Ethical Quality Autistic-Led Support (EQUALS) is a project run by the University of Sussex in collaboration with the National Autistic Taskforce. The Principal Investigators for the project include Yo Dunn (NAT Strategic Lead). The University of Manchester and the University of Edinburgh are also collaborating on the project. The project will start in January 2025 and run for 2 years.
In 2019, the National Autistic Taskforce produced the NAT Guide, an independent guide to quality care for autistic people. The EQUALS project aims to build on this foundation by trialling ways of implementing the NAT Guide in supported living and residential social care services, providing materials to guide that implementation. Many of these materials will be made open access, maximising their potential reach and utility across the care sector.
This work is supported by NIHR funding grant NIHR206559: Developing and applying new autistic-led standards for social care environments: a participatory action research study of Ethical Quality Autistic-Led Support (EQUALS).