The year in review - Annual Report now available
We trust that you will enjoy reading of the many activities, contributions and successes of Autism CRC and its unique national collaboration in our 2023-24 Annual Report.
As always, we are most grateful for the valuable contributions of many individuals and organisations to our national collaboration over the past twelve months – a collaboration that has delivered the outputs and positive impacts described in this report.
With the support of our network and funding partners, in 2023-24 Autism CRC undertook a range of new work addressing current priority needs in practice and policy development. These demonstrate our commitment to co-design and delivery with stakeholders, founded on evidence from quality research combined with the wisdom from practice and community.
This year our new and ongoing projects focussed on:
- analysing the current international research evidence for best-practice supports, along with the gaps both in the research evidence base and in the translation of evidence to policy and practice
- expanding and maintaining our range of evidence-based practice guidance and related capacity-building resources relating to assessment and diagnosis, early childhood supports, inclusive education and employment, health and wellbeing
- supporting the Australian Government’s development of the National Autism Strategy and the National Roadmap to Improve the Health and Mental Health of Autistic People and other related government initiatives by providing research evidence and co-design capacity through our collaborative national network.
More broadly, the past year has seen a raft of national and state-based policy and program reviews and major initiatives. Together with autism-specific initiatives, such as the National Autism Strategy and the National Roadmap to Improve the Health and Mental Health of Autistic People, these define a substantial agenda of inter-related reforms that will significantly impact upon the lives of autistic people, their families and carers, and those who work to support them.
For our community of stakeholders, 2023-24 was therefore a year of major considerations, concern, change and promise. The challenge for all is to ensure that the objectives of these reforms are delivered effectively and sustainably. Autism CRC remains committed to continuing to work with all stakeholders to meet this challenge.
On behalf of the Autism CRC Board and team, we express our sincere gratitude to all who have contributed to our collaboration, our work and our successes over the past year – our Members, Affiliates and other project partners, government, and the many autistic individuals, family members and people working with them who have engaged with us this year.