Written Off?
Take action to improve education for autistic children and young people.
The government knows that the SEND system is not working. We’ve spoken to nearly 2,000 parents and young people and they’ve told us the same – the system is broken.
We need your help to campaign for the SEND reforms to deliver urgent improvements. We can’t risk the reforms making things worse and writing off autistic young people before they’ve even left school.
What are we calling for?
We want the government – and all political parties – to commit to:
- protect the rights autistic children, young people and their families depend on for support
- protect the funding needed to deliver that support
- make autism training mandatory for all education staff.
Use our simple template to ask your MP to support our call for autism training for all education staff.
Saffron from our Ambitious Youth Network explains why autism training is so important in this video.
What has the campaign achieved so far?
The Written Off? campaign launched in November 2022, with the publication of a report based on a survey of over 2,000 autistic young people, parent and carers.
Download the Written Off? report
Since we launched:
- More than 10,000 people have signed our petition.
- Autistic young people from our Ambitious Youth Network have met with influential MPs like Chair of the Education Committee Robin Walker, to share their experiences of school and their views on what needs to change.
- Young people have given powerful feedback directly to the government on the SEND reforms and shared their views on how Education, Health and Care plans should be improved.
- The government have pulled back on some of the elements of the SEND reforms we highlighted as posing risks to families’ rights to support, such as mandatory mediation.
How can I help?
- Join our campaign, and check the box to hear about future campaign actions
- Email your MP asking them to support our calls for mandatory autism training
- Share these actions with your networks to help build a movement government can’t ignore
- Join our Ambitious Youth Network and Talk about Autism communities to connect with others, and share your views and experiences to shape our campaigns.
We stand with autistic young people and their families
We are calling on the government to uphold current laws that help children with SEND get the assessments, support, and school place they need, and protect their funding, to avoid making things worse and causing active harm to children and families.
Help us protect SEND funding and rights for autistic children and young people in the education system. We have created a campaign toolkit to help you support our campaign. The toolkit contains sample social media posts and shareable graphics to help raise awareness with your friends, families and networks.
Everything we do starts with listening to autistic young people and their parents and carers and acting on what they tell us.
If you have any questions, or would like to know more about our campaign, please contact our policy team at policyteam@ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk.
