The third Strategy Board meeting of NAP took place on April 21st in Balliol College, Oxford. The main item of the agenda was the recruitment of Incisive Health to lead our campaign in the second phase of the project. In addition we discussed at some length the flavour of the report and how we must avoid if at all possible contributing to the polarisation of viewpoints on interventions within different sectors of the autistic community. We must accept that there is no single “correct” point of view within the community any more than there is outside it, and therefore we must explain to what part of the community our conclusions on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness are directed.
As for the report content, we still intend to triage topics into those that are cost-effective (“in”), those that are not (“out”) and those that are “promising and in need of further research”. The quality of the evidence will also be graded. Our recommendations are likely to be of two kinds; the first based on the triage process identifying interventions to be encouraged or further researched, and the second on how the first might be implemented. This second set of recommendations is important because it will allow NAP to use the LSE work as a platform for policy messages around implementation and research and a call on others to get together to create an implementation plan. This will be the focus of the second phase of the project.