About Us Our Strategic Plan As Chief Executive Officer of Autism Anglia, I am delighted to share our strategic plan, highlighting the Charity’s principles, priorities, values, and vision for the future. When I set out our last strategy back in early 2020, we could not have predicted the unprecedented and difficult effects Covid-19 had on our charity. It’s fair to say it’s been a tremendous challenge and the sad reality is, it’s still very much present. We are contending with increased external factors including increases in the national minimum wage and cost of living along with serious challenges with recruitment and retention of good quality staff. Local authorities continue to scrutinise our fee levels yet asking us to ensure our services are of the highest quality. We will not compromise on the quality of care, support and education we provide and we will continue to provide tangible evidence to Local Authorities to demonstrate the significant positive differences we make. For the next three years, our strategy enables us to address these specific issues, ensuring that we build on our financial resilience as well as continued reform resulting in efficiencies at all levels. In 2023, I am delighted to share that we will be celebrating our 50th year of enhancing the lives of autistic people in East Anglia. I am extremely proud to be a part of this and to have the chance to celebrate the huge achievements this charity has made in our community over the past 50 years. As we look to the future, we would very much welcome the opportunity to increase our services. However, in order to achieve this, we must ensure we are in a sound financial and stable position to do so, ensuring our ongoing services are our first and foremost priority. It remains of the upmost importance that those within our care receive the best possible education, support and outcomes. Equally as important, our aim is also to ensure our staff teams are happy and engaged and we become an employer of choice. I am pleased to say we have appointed a new Director of Finance who joins our existing leadership team in ensuring our objectives are fulfilled, with our values remaining at the core of everything we do. Despite the difficult challenges we have faced and are still facing, our staff teams have shown the utmost dedication to the charity and to the people we support. I cannot thank them enough for everything they do. In October 2021, we launched a brand new North East Essex Advocacy Service (NEEAS) which is funded by the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group and forms part of their Early Intervention and Family Offer - supporting young people and families with neurodevelopmental conditions. The NEEAS has enabled us to respond to the needs of young people and their families in this area, supporting them through diagnosis, education, health, and social care. The demand for our Advocacy Service has been very high and the team continue to work tirelessly creating so many positive outcomes for families in North-east Essex. Our Learning and Development team have continued to provide bespoke autism training to local businesses, education settings and providers to help them with better understanding to support and empower people with autism, with a particular focus on employment and education as a result of working in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions. Doucecroft school has made significant positive changes over the past 3 years and has been rated Good from a recent Ofsted inspection. The school has also reached capacity with 64 students and continues to receive referrals. Staff continue to strive to improve the school environment as well as our education opportunities. Our Adult Services team continue to work closely with the Wellbeing and Independence team to enable the people we support to live as independently as possible and thrive within our community. They continue to provide enriching experiences to suit their needs through active support and meaningful activities. The strategy has been laid out for the next three years and we aim to achieve these goals with the support of our community; through partnership working, donations and volunteers we will work together to achieve these goals. Finally, it will not be without it’s challenges and difficulties, but I am positive for the future and by continuing to work as a team, we can look forward to the next 50 years! Download Strategic Plan Manage Cookie Preferences