Autism charity TreeHouse welcomes NAO report calling for more data on autism

TreeHouse, the national charity for autism education, welcomes the National Audit Office (NAO) report on supporting people with autism as it highlights the significant lack of national data on autism that is currently available. The report was published today (Friday 05 June).

The findings show impacts across a range of services, including education, and states: “The relatively low numbers of students with autism in higher education, and the lack of national data on the prevalence of autism among students in further education, makes it difficult to carry our robust comparative analyses of educational outcomes of adults with autism.”

Sasha Daly, Policy & Parliamentary Manager at TreeHouse, said “The findings of the report highlight the crucial issue around the lack of understanding of autism that still exists. Raising awareness and understanding of autism is at the core of TreeHouse’s work. We know that whilst many people may now have heard of autism, most people do not know what it means or how common it is - and this has a direct and significant impact on how services are commissioned and delivered. In a recent survey of nearly 2000 people, TreeHouse found that 57% believe people with autism usually have special talents such as amazing memories or mathematical genius; and 87% of people are unaware that 1 in 100 children in the UK have autism.

“We welcome recent commitments from the government to make the long needed changes to legislation through the Autism Bill to address some of these concerns, as well as commitments to change guidance to ensure better information about children with autism is also collected. It is vital that the government takes on board the key finding about the lack of information. TreeHouse has argued for many years for better information and understanding of autism to allow for better service delivery to those who need it – people with autism and their families.”