In recent months, there has been a lot of discussion about the growing rate of autism diagnoses in the UK, particularly amongst children and young people. A few people have used the term 'overdiagnosis', but as an organisation that supports hundreds of autistic adults across all our services, we believe it can be quite damaging. 

One of the reasons why more people have received a formal autism diagnosis in recent years is because diagnostic professionals and the public have become more aware of autism. Despite that, we know from our work that it's quite challenging to obtain a formal diagnosis.  

According to the NHS, in December 2025, there were over 250,000 patients with an open referral for suspected autism. Of those, 90.1% had a referral open for at least 13 weeks. 

Getting a diagnosis can be useful. It can enable someone to access autism-specific support. A diagnosis can also help people to understand their own autism, especially if given useful information on what help is available to them.  

Advonet does a lot of work in empowering autistic adults to say how services should work with them. Any improvements in accessing diagnostic services or other support should be informed by autistic people themselves. 

Listening to autistic voices 

Over a decade ago, we spoke to autistic adults in our area, asking what support they needed. After getting their feedback, we listened to them and set up our Autism AIM service. It filled gaps in support, such as navigation and signposting, one-to-one peer support and access to self-advocacy tools. 

In taking an advocacy approach to setting up Autism AIM, we have helped hundreds of autistic adults in Leeds, Bradford and Craven to overcome barriers and have their voices heard.  

Our advocacy and learning disability services also support autistic adults, linking in with Autism AIM where needed. This is through advocacy support, accessing groups and activities and even volunteer training.  

When speaking to clients who either have a formal diagnosis or are seeking one, we are there to provide information needed on support they can access. 

As well as having autistic clients, more than one in five of our wider staff team are autistic themselves. They work in a variety of roles across all our services with clients from a range of backgrounds. 

We stand with autistic people 

At Advonet, we want to let you all know that we stand with autistic people in our part of the world. Whether it's through supporting you to speak up for yourself, when navigating services, needing help to understand your diagnosis or wanting to access peer support, we are there. 

Our Autism AIM and advocacy services are free to access. Relevant training for volunteers is co-delivered by autistic staff, whilst we strive to make our services accessible for autistic clients throughout Advonet.  

Autism AIM also offers some services for adults who are self-diagnosed or seeking a formal autism diagnosis. Navigation, signposting, and peer support groups are all open to them, free of charge.