Who we are and how we work
We are here to transform lives and change attitudes to help create a society that works for autistic people.
Our people
Over 3,000 people work for the National Autistic Society in our schools and services as well as our training, fundraising, policy and campaigns teams.
Our leadership team
Led by our Chief Executive, Caroline Stevens, our strategic management group of seven directors is accountable to the Board of Trustees.
Our trustees
Our Board of Trustees give their time, experience and expertise for free and are responsible for making sure our charity is doing what it was set up to do.
Our Patron and President
Our Patron, HRH the Duchess of Edinburgh, has worked with us since 2003 to help create a society that works for autistic people.
Vision to Reality strategy
Our three-year strategy sets out the role of the National Autistic Society in creating a society that works for autistic people.
The Moonshot Vision
Autistic people and their families worked with the National Autistic Society to create a vision for a society that works for them.

Our ambassadors
Our ambassadors live and breathe the National Autistic Society’s values and vision of creating a society that works for all autistic people.
Read more about our ambassadorsOur impact in 2019/20
Scroll through the carousel below to see some of the ways we transformed lives and changed attitudes in 2019/20. You can also read our annual report here.

We opened our purpose-built autism centre in Belfast.

We grew our local branch network to 117 branches, the highest number ever.

We mobilised 217,828 people behind our campaign to end the scandal of autistic people being inappropriately detained in mental health hospitals.

We provided autistic people and their families with essential guidance about coronavirus.

We lobbied governments to ensure coronavirus policy changes took account of autistic people's needs.

We pushed NHS England to publish autism diagnosis waiting times for the first time.

We joined with a network of employers to advertise job opportunities to autistic people.

We celebrated 20 years of our Moving Forward service in Scotland that helps autistic young people find work.

We partnered with Scouts and EastEnders to help people learn more about autism.

We welcomed the first students to the new Vanguard School in London.

We reached 52,000 people with our Spectrum Live broadcast on autism in women and girls.

We supported 14,500 businesses to host 37,000 Autism Hours.
Fighting for autistic people's rights since 1962
Watch this film with one of our founders, Michael Baron, and autistic film maker, Robert John Windows, discussing the early days of the charity.