REF 2021 Impact Case Study: The ACRE profiling assessment tools: Enhancing employers’ ability to provide person-centred support for autistic people

Description of impact

Dr Beatriz López and her team at the Autism Centre for Research on Employment (ACRE) have developed an innovative approach to autism employment support that focuses on supporting employers, not just autistic employees. As part of this approach, ACRE has developed a suite of freely available Profiling Assessment (PA©) tools, which have benefitted 137 of the 150 autistic adults without learning disabilities (LD) known to Hampshire services. Specifically, the PA© tools have led to: 1) changes in policy and practice at national level across all 638 Job Centres in the UK; 2) changes to employment provision by autism professionals across Spain; 3) higher employment rates and wellbeing of autistic people without LD across Hampshire; 4) improved ability of employers to make tailored adjustments in the workplace for their autistic employees without LD; and 5) a reduction in the costs of delivering employment programmes.

Impact status	Closed
Impact date	1 Jan 2015 → 31 Dec 2020