New research presented at the European Parliament reveals the crisis in service provision for autistic people
On 23rd April 2025 researchers from the Autism Research Centre (ARC) at the University of Cambridge presented their findings from studies into service access experiences and priorities for change for autistic people, at a high-profile event held at the European Parliament in Brussels.
This event convened leading researchers from across Europe, to illustrate the need for a ‘common approach’ to autism at the European Union (EU) level in line with a 2024 mission letter from the president of the EU commission. The ARC’s aim was to ensure that scientific research directly informs policy and practice across member states.
The umbrella organisation Autism-Europe and the Disability Intergroup (an informal grouping of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)) co-hosted the ‘Towards a common approach for autism in Europe’ event to promote dialogue between key stakeholders about necessary next steps for investment in autism policy research and autism services. This includes to improve the lives of autistic people, and to push for more equal access to autism services and information across the EU.
The event resulted in commitments from MEPs to call for an EU-wide autism strategy and highlighted new research from the world’s largest research project on autism.
Researchers from the ARC shared their findings as part of the AIMS-2-TRIALS project. They were joined by collaborators and researchers from King’s College London, Birkbeck, University of London, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón in Madrid, and an AIMS-2-TRIALS Autism Representative.
AIMS-2-TRIALS is an ongoing international collaborative research programme, funded by public-private partnership that brings together academic institutions, representatives of the autism community and industry partners from across Europe and beyond. The overall goal of the project is to improve health outcomes and wellbeing for autistic people by matching therapies to individual needs.
As part of the programme, the Cambridge team surveyed autistic people and their carers/families about their experience in accessing services (the ACCESS-EU Project) and about their priorities for change (10 Points for Change Project), for autistic people in Europe.
Presenting the new findings, Dr Siti Nurnadhirah Binte Mohd Ikhsan, a Research Associate in the ARC in Cambridge, said: “We have uncovered worrying service access challenges for autistic people, across different types of service, and reported the urgent priorities for change for autistic people.”
The findings include long waiting lists for a diagnosis, difficulties obtaining post-diagnosis support, inequalities in health and social care, and difficulties accessing services to support with education and employment.
Autistic people’s overall priority areas for change included employment, education, increasing public awareness and understanding of autism, more public funding for autism related services, and improvements in mental healthcare. The latter reflects the known increased likelihood for autistic people to experience co-occurring mental health difficulties, for which early and improved support would improve outcomes. The survey demonstrated the importance of continued involvement of autistic people and their families to map priorities and plan policy change and implementation.
Dr Rosemary Holt, a Senior Research Associate at the ARC in Cambridge said, “This was an important opportunity for us to share our research findings with policy makers and autism community members from across Europe and be part of the discussion on what needs to change for autistic people across Europe. Collaborating with the autism community to shape our research has been a key part of our work. It is vital that this collaboration continues, to shape polices to improve the health and wellbeing of autistic people.”
Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the ARC said, “This event marks an important step toward a more coordinated and inclusive future for autistic individuals across Europe. We need to continue to monitor autistic people’s access to support services, to see urgent and real improvements, to shift the needle with respect to autistic people’s mental health and suicide risk”.
The full program of the event can be seen here.
Further information and summary reports of the mentioned research projects can be seen on the AIMS-2-TRIALS website policy page