Written Off?

The Written Off? campaign was launched to protect the funding and rights of autistic children and young people. Following feedback from nearly 2,000 parents and young people, it became clear that the SEND system was broken and in urgent need of reform. The goal was to look at the exclusion rates of autistic young people in education. 

What did the Written Off? campaign involve?

We called on the government and all political parties to commit to:

• protecting the rights of autistic children, young people, and their families
• ensuring the funding needed for SEND support is safeguarded
• making autism training mandatory for all education staff.

To take action, we encouraged supporters to email their MPs and advocate for mandatory autism training in schools. 

What has the “Written Off?” campaign achieved so far?

Launched in November 2022, the campaign was built on insights from a survey of over 2,000 autistic young people, parents, and carers. Since then:

• over 10,000 people signed our petition
• autistic young people met with influential MPs, such as Robin Walker, former Chair of the Education Committee, to discuss their experiences and suggest improvements
• young people provided powerful feedback directly to the government on the SEND reforms and proposed changes to Education, Health, and Care plans (EHC plans)
• the Government responded by revising certain aspects of the SEND reforms, including the removal of mandatory mediation, which we had identified as a risk to families' rights.
   

Download the Written Off? report

We stand with autistic young people and their families

We continue to call on the government to uphold current laws that ensure children with SEND receive the assessments, support, and school placements they need, and to protect their funding. This is essential to avoid worsening the situation for children and families. We are currently working on a new campaign to further this.  

  Sign up to our campaigns newsletter

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.