At Dudley Autism Partnership Board, we believe in sharing useful and thought-provoking resources with our community. One important area that often gets overlooked in discussions around autism support is intimacy — things like love, relationships, and sexual wellbeing. A new policy brief from the SAAIL project (Supporting Autistic Adults’ Intimate Lives) shines a spotlight on this gap, showing how many local autism strategies in England are missing a vital piece of the puzzle.
What’s this document about?
This short, accessible policy brief looks at how well local councils in England are supporting autistic adults’ intimate lives. It was created by the SAAIL research team, who analysed 89 local autism strategies to see how many of them mentioned love, sex, relationships, or intimacy.
Their findings are eye-opening:
- Fewer than 4 in 10 councils had up-to-date autism strategies.
- Of those, only about half mentioned intimate lives at all.
- When relationships were mentioned, it was usually in terms of “risk”, not support or empowerment.
- Intimacy wasn’t included as a priority area, unlike things like employment or housing.
The research team makes several practical recommendations for improving this. They call for councils to treat intimacy as a normal and important part of life, and to reflect that in strategy documents.
This includes:
- Recognising the needs of LGBTQ+ autistic people.
- Involving autistic voices in planning and consultation.
- Creating safe spaces where relationships can develop, especially in supported living.
- Providing clear commitments and timelines for change.
This is a call to action for all local authorities is important for partnership boards like ours to consider.
Want to dive deeper?
You can read or download the full document here:
Including Support for Intimate Lives in Local Autism Strategies – Policy Brief (PDF)
Or visit the project’s website for more resources:
www.autlives.com