What Are These Reports, and Why Do They Matter?
Across England, there is no shortage of policy about how Autistic people, people with a learning disability, and people with ADHD should be supported in health settings. The problem (and this is well-evidenced) is not that the policy doesn’t exist. It’s that much of it sits unread, unmapped, and unimplemented on proverbial shelves.
Simply: if you don’t know what the rules are, you can’t use them.
That’s why I spent a significant chunk of time in my role at KMMH (Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust) doing this mapping: reading six key national and regional policy documents in full, and mapping every single requirement they contain – 393 in total – into a structured, useable format.
This page shares that work with you, freely. Whether you’re an Autistic person who wants to know what you’re actually entitled to, a clinician trying to do better, a parent advocating for your child, or a manager wondering what your legal and professional obligations look like – this is for you.
The Six Reports
1. NHS Long Term Plan (NHS England, 2019)
The NHS Long Term Plan set out a ten-year vision for the health service in England. It includes specific commitments relating to people with a learning disability and Autistic people – including reducing premature deaths, expanding community services, and improving inpatient care. It’s the foundational document for a lot of what followed, and many of its commitments remain unmet. Knowing what was promised matters, particularly when holding services to account.
2. Learning Disability Improvement Standards for NHS Trusts (NHS England, 2018)
These standards set out what every NHS trust in England is expected to do in relation to people with a learning disability (and, in many cases, Autistic people). They cover four key areas: respecting and protecting rights, inclusion and engagement, workforce, and specialist services. Every NHS trust is required to report against these standards. In practice, compliance is inconsistent – which makes it all the more important that people know what “good” is supposed to look like.
3. Meeting the Needs of Autistic Adults in Mental Health Services – B1800 (NHS England, 2024)
This is one of the most practically significant documents in the set, and one of the least known outside specialist circles. Published in 2024, it provides detailed guidance for integrated care boards, NHS organisations, and their partners on how to meet the needs of Autistic adults across mental health services. It covers reasonable adjustments, workforce, data, and the importance of Autistic-led approaches. I argue that this document, properly implemented, could transform how Autistic adults experience mental health care. We’re a long way from that yet.
4. Culture of Care Standards for Mental Health Inpatient Services (NHS England, 2024)
These 12 co-produced standards set out what inpatient care should look and feel like for everyone – including Autistic people and people with a learning disability. They sit within a broader programme of transformation for inpatient services and address everything from relationships and choice to environment and transparency. Critically, they were designed alongside people with lived experience, and they explicitly require trauma-informed, autism-informed, and culturally competent approaches.
5. Autism-Informed Inpatient Care – Annex A to the Culture of Care Standards (NHS England, 2025)
This companion document to the Culture of Care Standards goes deeper on what autism-informed care actually means in inpatient settings. It covers sensory environments, communication, co-occurring conditions, and the importance of proactive planning. It’s the kind of document that, if every inpatient ward read and acted on it, would prevent a significant amount of harm. It also provides useful language and frameworks for Autistic people and their families when advocating for themselves.
6. Time to Deliver: The Autism Act 2009 and the New Autism Strategy (House of Lords, 2025)
This House of Lords committee report reviewed what has – and, importantly, what has not – been achieved since the Autism Act 2009. It is a thorough, sometimes damning, assessment of systemic failure, and it contains 393 conclusions and recommendations of its own (a remarkable coincidence). It covers assessment waiting times (still unacceptably long), health inequalities (still not adequately addressed), criminal justice, employment, housing, and the urgent need for a new cross-government autism strategy. It is, put plainly, a document that should be on the desk of every decision-maker who works alongside Autistic people.
Why Map Them?
These six documents represent the collective weight of what the NHS and government are required – or have committed – to do. Taken together, they contain 393 discrete requirements, standards, commitments, and recommendations.
I mapped them because it matters who knows these things. At the moment, that knowledge is unevenly distributed. Senior clinicians and managers may have a vague awareness that policy exists; Autistic people and families – who are most directly affected – are rarely given the tools to engage with it. That’s a power imbalance, and it’s one that makes meaningful accountability almost impossible.
The mapping exists to change that. It takes dense, lengthy documents and makes their content visible, searchable, and useable – by anyone.
How to Use the Summary and the Excel
There are two resources available to download: a written summary (and a separate Easy Read version) and an Excel mapping tool. Here’s how different people might use them.
If you’re an Autistic person, or someone with a learning disability: Use the summary to understand what services should be providing for you – reasonable adjustments, accessible communication, person-centred care. You don’t need to read all six reports. The mapping identifies what applies to you and what NHS organisations are supposed to be doing. You can use this to ask direct questions of your care team, or to challenge provision that falls short.
If you’re a family member or carer: Use the resources to understand what your loved one is entitled to, and what questions to ask. Many families report feeling dismissed or talked past by services. Knowing the policy – and being able to cite it – changes the dynamic of those conversations.
If you’re a professional working in health or social care: The Excel tool allows you to filter requirements by theme – reasonable adjustments, workforce, health inequalities, inpatient care, and more. Use it to identify where your service or team may have gaps, to inform quality improvement work, or to ground your practice development in what is actually required of you.
If you’re a manager or commissioner: The mapping is an accountability tool. It shows, at a glance, the scope of what has been committed to nationally. Use it to audit your organisation’s position, to build a business case for investment, or to respond to external scrutiny. 393 requirements is not a small number. Not knowing about them is not a defence.
If you’re an educator: Use the summary to understand the landscape of policy your students or colleagues need to know about. The documents are relevant to nursing, social work, occupational therapy, psychology, psychiatry, and allied health training. The mapping can inform curriculum development, placements, and practice-based learning.
If you’re an employer: Several of these documents contain requirements and guidance that extend beyond the NHS – particularly around reasonable adjustments and workforce culture. The summary will help you understand what “good” looks like, and how your obligations under the Equality Act 2010 connect to the broader landscape of autism and learning disability policy.
These resources are free to use. If you do use them – in your practice, your advocacy, your research, or your organisation – I’d love to hear about it.
Note: This mapping was completed as part of the Learning Disability and Autism programme at KMMH. It was produced by Dr Chloe Farahar and is shared here via Aucademy in the spirit of open knowledge. Please credit if you share.
Jump to documents to download
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