Grants bid to boost autism services in Birmingham and Solihull

Projects coordinator Sharon Brown has an adult son with autism and wants to help widen services

Leaders of a new scheme to help boost services for autistic people say there are still grants available.

All-Age Autism, a £1m programme to support projects in Birmingham and Solihull, was launched last year.

Projects coordinator Sharon Brown urged groups to apply for grants of between £5,000 and £20,000.

Mrs Brown, who has an autistic son, said she wanted to play a part in funding services and activities to provide wider support.

She works for employment and training charity Landau, which is leading the All-Age Autism project. It is being run in partnership with Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board, with funding from NHS England.

Mrs Brown said there had been a good response to the grants so far, and early applications were being assessed. It aims to help autistic children and adults as well as their families.

"It can be any group, voluntary sector or private sector. It can be literally anyone who has a programme or a service that is not already being provided or there is not already funding out there," she said.

The mum-of-four said she would have welcomed more tailored services to help manage the needs of her adult son, who also has learning disabilities.

Her family were never offered respite care, for example.

"In terms of my son becoming an adult, we haven't had any support. But he could do with respite care, again, not to get away from us but to have his own space and do his own things," Mrs Brown said.

"At the moment we do things as a family, so you're trying to pick which parts to suit the other siblings, which doesn't always work out."

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