National Autistic Society, Chief Executive, Caroline Stevens sets out how our charity is adapting to the heavy financial toll of coronavirus. We have had to take some difficult decisions about how and where to spend the funding available, including reshaping and scaling back some of our work.
This has affected many parts of our charity over the past 12 months and meant losing dedicated and talented colleagues across some of our national programmes, such as in our fundraising and events teams. But by far our most difficult decision has been to close one of our helplines, our general Autism Helpline. This is a significant loss and we are deeply sorry we can’t continue it. But, as Caroline explains, this will allow us to continue other key activities, including our 117 branches and our campaign and policy work holding the Government to account and pushing for better support and services for all autistic people across the UK. We will get through this and we will continue to help tens of thousands of autistic children, adults and families each year, and to fight for your rights.
