In our report The Autism Dividend – Reaping the Rewards of Better Investment we not only set out our recommendations for improving the lives of autistic people through investing in evidence-based practice and high-quality research, we also commit to inviting a range of authors to tell us about the future they would like to see, setting out a vision of what could be achieved if our recommendations are indeed taken up. Our aim is to publish a series of essays throughout 2017 and by the end of the year to have addressed all the recommendations in the report so that a strong picture emerges of what The Autism Dividend really looks like.
Our first contributor is Dame Stephanie Shirley explaining why her foundation set up the National Autism Project and what she personally hopes it will achieve.