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Speak Out Essex

Working as co-production partners with Essex County Council for the All Age Autism Partnership Board.

What does Speak Out Essex do?

Speak Out Essex enables autistic people, family members, carers, supporting organisations and service providers to work together as equals to identify how services in Essex can be improved for autistic people. 

How we’ve shaped Speak Out Essex so far

The launch events for Speak Out Essex were a great success. We received 500 comments from autistic people, their families, carers and professional support services via the in-person events and online surveys.

Data from the launch events and surveys were collated so we knew which services areas people wanted to discuss first in order to create We’ statements.

Members of the Speak Out team, parents, a community support worker, and the Essex All Age Autism co-chair (Colchester)

We held a series of focus groups which allowed us to co-produce We Statements that highlighted changes the group felt were needed. These were discussed in the focus groups, together with service providers and local authority representatives. We also discussed potential solutions, some of these are already being implemented and others have been passed on to the local authority to review. 

We’ll update and provide more details soon.

What is happening now?

We want to ensure that we’ve heard from as many people as possible and, importantly, we’d like to hear from underrepresented groups in the autistic community.

We’d really like the opportunity to speak with you and hear your story. This could be a specific occurrence or an ongoing situation that you feel has been particularly challenging due to autism. 

Maybe you feel that being situationally mute excludes you from being heard. We’ll work with you to find a communication style that works for you to make sure that your voice and story is heard.

We’ll use this information to inform the next autism strategy.

We welcome and encourage your continued involvement. We’d particularly like to hear from underrepresented groups in the autistic community, such as:

  • Non-verbal
  • Situationally mute
  • Co-existing disabilities
  • Older autistic people
  • Ethic minority groups – e.g. Afro Caribbean and Asian communities
  • Other minority groups
  • Travelling community
  • Supported living
  • Home schooled

Please reach out to us at speakoutessex@voiceability.org or 0300 303 1660.