I was lucky enough recently to attend a reception at the House of Lords on behalf of ‘Ambitious about Autism'.
Ambitious about Autism (AaA) is a national charity for autistic children and young people. They believe that every autistic child has the right to be themselves and realise their ambitions. The charity champions rights, campaigns for change and creates opportunities.
There were a number of speeches at the event. Sir Robert Buckland MP outlined the Parliamentary review he is leading; Tom Pursglove MP, the Disability Minister talked about the importance of helping autistic people into work, from a social perspective, but just as importantly, from a business perspective, highlighting the benefits of different ways of thinking, of different perspectives.
For me, the most impactful and inspirational presentation was from Sophie, who works at Marsh, and who joined them a year or so back via a partnership they have had with Ambitious about Autism. She was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 16, and she talked brilliantly about some of the challenges she has faced but also the strengths she brings to an employer. The insights I picked up were many and varied – I wanted to share just a few here:
The diagnosis helped her to understand why she felt and acted the way she did about lots of things. She talked of how it can be hard and sometimes intimidating to navigate a world in different ways to her peers, but also talked of the strong sense of community.
It’s too easy to make broad generalisations about autistic people – all are geniuses or find social interaction difficult, for example. There’s a huge range – once you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person.
She talked of an ‘employment Catch 22’ – do I disclose my autism or not? If I do, I might be quickly filtered out by recruiters looking for the easiest option. If I don’t disclose, and I get the job, I may be compelled to expend huge energy on ‘masking’ who I really am, and not benefitting from what can be really easy (and cheap) accommodations to help me thrive at work. These could be noise cancelling headphones, just a bit of thought as to where someone sits, or flexibility in working patterns for example.
AaA helped Sophie overcome the Catch 22, she got a role with a company who knew what traits to expect, but also how to maximise the differential skills she bought, and to see how she was driven, passionate and hardworking. The application process allowed her to show the kind of person she was and to evidence that she could do the job.
She finished by reiterating that there is as much diversity within the autistic world as outside it – ‘we have emotional depths and so much to give’.
It’s in the context of the above that I’m so delighted that Zurich have announced this year a 3 year programme with ‘AaA to develop a national programme supporting the mental health of autistic pupils in mainstream secondary school. Linked to that, AaA are also developing training for our own staff.
The programme “Autistic and OK”, aims to reach thousands of autistic young people in the UK and will also provide support and guidance to thousands of parents and care-givers to help them proactively care for their mental wellbeing. It will pioneer ground-breaking autism acceptance toolkits for secondary schools to provide resources for autistic pupils, non-autistic peers and teachers. The toolkit will empower autistic young people with the knowledge and self-awareness to proactively look after their own mental wellbeing before reaching crisis point.
The grant will enable the charity to provide toolkits for up to 600 secondary schools, with the eventual aim of providing them to all schools in the UK.
Why is support needed now?
Last year, a government review identified a “vicious cycle” of late intervention and an inefficient allocation of the resources needed to help those with special educational needs in schools. For autistic pupils, this leads to disproportionately high school exclusions, as well as increased absenteeism, according to AaA.
More than 60,000 pupils in state secondary schools currently receive support for autism as their primary need, although the true number of autistic students is likely to be higher. In response to the government’s review, AaA has called for greater prioritisation of mental health and wellbeing in schools.
Jolanta Lasota, Chief Executive of AaA observed at the launch “Our programme is built on the premise that to support mental wellbeing in autistic young people we need to change the environment, not the individual. By embedding our programme in schools and working with families and the wider school community, we will build an ecosystem of support to ensure autistic young people will be understood, respected, and able to thrive into adulthood.”
I’m sure our partnership will help many autistic children approach new school terms with greater confidence, and the training for our teams will equally help them approach what to them may be unfamiliar terms with new confidence and insight.
You can
Learn more about Peter Hamilton at his LinkedIn page,
Visit the Zurich Insurance website
Visit the Ambitious About Autism website
Read more about the partnership between Zurich Insurance and Ambitious About Autism here.
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