The Buckland Review of Autism Employment is welcome, but we feel employment support workers must be specifically trained in autism, and campaigns to bust negative stereotypes need to be autism led. As autistics need to be a part of the solution to low autism employment.
Phil Bilzon, our Head of Training and Development, said that: “the Buckland Review into Autism employment shines a light on the potential of an untapped labour market. The provisions and strategies it suggests and promotes certainly are helpful and much needed. These provisions cover the common pitfalls of autism employment, such as recruitment processes and workplace adjustments.
“However, where it doesn’t go into enough detail is the need for the specialised input of specifically trained autism employment development workers, mentors and coaches (better still, autistic specialist trainers). It does state the importance of this particular kind of support but doesn’t mention any process or intention to find ways to set these services up.
“Specific services such as dedicated autism trainers are the bridges that help move autistic individuals into employment, where negotiations on autism-friendly adjustments can begin.”
Ella Griffin our Head of PR said that: “The review recognises the role negative stereotypes play in autistics not being employed. It is vital to challenge the perception of some employers that autistic people cannot contribute to a workplace or would be a poor fit.”
“It is also important to challenge these stereotypes to help autistics. As the report says, not all autistics are suited to jobs that are heavy on data checking or coding – and autistics who are skilled in other areas may not feel confident to go into work that would play to their strengths as they have not been made to feel they ‘belong’ in that industry.
“However, the report makes no mention of the campaign to challenge these stereotypes being autism-led. This is concerning to me as without autistics leading the campaign; it may end up pushing other negative stereotypes about autism that non-autistics wouldn’t recognise, or come across as insincere to autistics.”
Here is a link to the report if you’d like to read it: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65ddc8b0b8da630011c86288/the-buckland-review-on-autism-employment.pdf
Autistic Nottingham 