<h2 class="fr-text-bordered">Update March 2025</h2>We have now produced a report on the consultation findings which if you wish to, you can access in PDF format in the widget titled &#39;Consultation Findings&#39; on the right side of this page.We are now using these findings and the input from people who came to our workshops in February 2025 to feed into developing a strategy. We expect the drafting and development of the strategy to happen over the next few months. <h2 class="fr-text-bordered">Introduction</h2>We want to make West Sussex a better place for autistic people across all ages and for their families and carers. To achieve this, we are working together with autistic people and their families and carers to co-produce an autism strategy and plan. As a first step towards this, we are undertaking a consultation between October and December 2024. The consultation, which includes on-line surveys and workshops, focuses on finding out how autism-friendly West Sussex is and gathering information about people&#39;s needs and quality of life. Through the consultation we want to give autistic children, young adults, adults and their families and carers the opportunity to describe their experiences, tell us what they think could help to improve these experiences, and also to share what they think are the most important areas a wide range of public and community services in West Sussex should be working on to improve. In the Spring of 2025, these consultation findings will be used to support co-producing a strategy and plan. There will be further consultation around this once it is drafted prior to the strategy&rsquo;s final agreement in early Summer 2025. If you belong to any of the categories below, we therefore invite you to take part through completing a survey and or attending a workshop:<ul><li>autistic over 13 years old (with or without a diagnosis) </li><li>family and carers of autistic people of any age</li><li>staff working with autistic people of any age </li></ul> <h2 class="fr-text-bordered">Surveys - (please scroll to the bottom of the page to access the surveys)</h2>Our surveys will be open from 14/10/2024 until 16/12/2024.The survey questions focus on finding out how autism-friendly West Sussex is and gathering information about people&#39;s needs and quality of life. If you are an autistic person who is also the parent or carer of an autistic person, and or also working with autistic people you can complete two or three of the surveys which each consider experiences from a different perspective. If you only wish to complete one, please complete the one you think is most relevant to you. You do not have to answer all the questions, although it will help us if you can answer as many as you can. Please skip questions you feel are too difficult to answer, you don&rsquo;t feel relevant, or that don&#39;t make sense to you, or if you just don&#39;t wish to answer them. If you do answer most or all the questions, people who have tested the survey for us have said it has taken an average of 30 minutes to complete. If you <a href="https://yourvoice.westsussex.gov.uk/register" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">register with the Your Voice Engagement Hub (opens in new window)</a>, you can save your answers and continue later using the link at the bottom of each page. Each time you click &#39;Next&#39; your answers and progress in the survey are remembered. Your responses will be anonymised for analysis and securely stored. Please do not include any names or other information which would identify you or anyone else. Your responses will only be accessed by West Sussex County Council staff responsible for drafting the autism strategy. The Council will use and share anonymised data generated from this survey to develop an autism strategy. It will also be used to support the development of services which benefit children and adults with autism and their family and carers. If you need help completing this survey, or need an interpreter and translation support please contact <a data-fr-linked="true" href="mailto:mhcommissioning@westsussex.gov.uk">mhcommissioning@westsussex.gov.uk</a> <h2 class="fr-text-bordered">Consultation Workshops for Autistic Adults, Parents and Unpaid Carers</h2>Workshops have been set up to collect the views of autistic adults, and their unpaid carers who prefer not to or don&rsquo;t feel able to complete the on-line survey but if you wish to you can do the on-line survey and also attend a workshop. We are running four workshops in November and December 2024. Please use this <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/autism-all-ages-strategy-development-workshops-3696389" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eventbrite link</a><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/autism-all-ages-strategy-development-workshops-3696389" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> (opens in new window)</a> to book onto a workshop. <h2 class="fr-text-bordered" id="alternate-formats-and-accessibility-3">Alternate Formats and Accessibility</h2>If you require any of this information in an alternative format, then please contact us via email at <a class="fr-strong" href="Mailto:mhcommissioning@westsussex.gov.uk">mhcommissioning@westsussex.gov.uk</a> or telephone us on<a href="Tel: 01243642121"> 01243 642 121</a> and we will assist you. If you are deaf or hard of hearing and have an NGT texting app installed on your computer, laptop or smartphone, you can contact us on <a class="fr-strong" href="tel:1800101243642121">18001 01243 642121</a>Please note, you can use the Google Translate function to access this project in a range of different languages. The Google Translate widget can be found at the top left-hand side of the project page, where it sits just above the black West Sussex County Council ribbon.For more information about the accessibility of this website, please see our<a class="fr-strong local" href="https://yourvoice.westsussex.gov.uk/accessibility" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Accessibility tab (opens in new window) </a>at the foot of the page.Please use one of the browsers below when completing the survey to ensure it looks and works as it should. These are:&middot; Microsoft Edge version 86 and above&middot; Chrome version 86 and above&middot; Firefox version 78 and above&middot; Safari version 14 and above

A golden infinity symbol with the words 'Autism All Ages' diagonally dissecting the upper right loop 

Autism All Ages Consultation

Your Voice West Sussex

Do paid work supporting autistic children 

Volunteer supporting autistic children 

Do paid work supporting autistic adults 

Volunteer supporting autistic adults 

Adur District 

Arun District 

Chichester District 

Crawley Borough 

Horsham District 

Mid Sussex District

Worthing Borough

I am also diagnosed or self identify as autistic  

I am also the parent or carer of someone who is autistic

Someone in my family is also autistic

Prefer not to say

None of the above

Mainstream school

Specialist school or specialist college

Further Education college

Higher Education

Other (please specify)

Outreach/care at home services 

Respite and or short break services 

Residential and nursing care services

Day services or activities 

Supported living services 

Neurodevelopmental Services

Mental health services

Learning disability services   

Voluntary sector children and young people 

Voluntary sector – Autism 

Voluntary sector – Mental health 

Voluntary sector – Learning disability 

Voluntary sector – Carers 

Housing or homelessness 

Strongly agree

Agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Disagree

Strongly disagree 

Not at all 

A little bit 

Fairly

Very

Not sure

Education

Children's social care

Adult social care

Community services

Other

Yes, please keep me informed about the project's progress

Yes, please tell me about any workshops

No, thank you

Do paid work supporting autistic children and adults 

Volunteer supporting autistic children and adults   

Not Sure

Autism Survey (Staff & Volunteers)