Families affected by autism call for more support

Dianne Dodd said a local autism charity "saved" her and her son

An autism charity founder says she can breathe a sigh of relief after receiving their biggest funding grant.

Julie Simpson, who set up Autism Adventures in Merseyside, said she had been "really panicking" about whether services could continue until they received a £50,000 sum.

She called on the government to fund autism services "properly".

The government said it had invested more than £74m as part of its renewed national autism strategy.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said the funding would "improve understanding in society, reduce diagnosis waiting times and improve access to high quality health and social care for autistic people".

Julie Simpson set up Autism Adventures to support children and parents in Merseyside

Ms Simpson said the charity provides free access to specialised gym and sport activities because current alternatives do not cater for autistic or sensory needs.

She said the new funding, which has been provided for by Liverpool City Council and the NHS Alder Hey trust, "has given us stability to not only continue but to expand".

"The coaches who are coming to us every week, they don't know from six weeks to six weeks whether they're going to be with us.

"If they've got an offer from someone else, we were always frightened they might have to leave because obviously they need security as well.

"Without this funding, we would have either had to reduce the services we offer or we wouldn't have been able to offer them at all."

Rising diagnoses

Parents who use the charity also joined calls for more support for those affected by autism.

Dianne Dodd said the service had "saved" both her son and herself after he was diagnosed with autism at the age of eight.

"Something more needs to be done about it because parents should not have to fight - we are noticing more and more cases now."

NHS data shows the number of patients with an open referral for suspected autism has increased from just over 88,000 to just over 122,000 between July 2021 and June 2022.

Ms Simpson said the government "need to invest in schools - they need to make more places available in schools right across the city"."There's loads of organisations - like Autism in Motion and the Inclusive Hub - who deliver a really good service. We deliver really high quality services but we seem to be going cap-in-hand to everyone. The government should fund it properly."

A government spokesman said "we know it's vital to have a timely diagnosis of autism", adding it has "made £4.2 million available this year to improve services for autistic children and young people".

Sophie Wade, who said her son had "found a family within a family" through the charity, said: "When Callan was diagnosed, I was given a piece of paper with his diagnosis and I was sent away from the hospital for me to go out into the world to research and find things like this."

One boy who takes part in the sports said: "It makes me feel happy and better around people because before I came here, it was just all stressed out for me."

He later joked he "breaks a sweat because it's that fun".

You can see the full report on BBC Politics North West on BBC iPlayer.