Our Charity Details

The Autism Trust is a registered charity (Nr 1117657)

The Autism Trust Limited in a company limited by guarantee and registered in England (Nr 5965790)

The objectives of the charity are: to promote and protect the physical and mental health of adults on the autistic spectrum, through the provision of support, education and practical advice, and the creation and operation of high quality residential care facilities

This means:

"To promote and protect the physical and mental health of adults on the autistic spectrum …"

• Campaigning to raise awareness of the needs of autistic adults
• Campaigning to improve the level of support provided to individuals with autism
• Conducting objective research into the current care options to assist understanding and support the assessment of the relative merits of the publicly funded, the not for profit and the commercial alternatives

"… through the provision of support, education and practical advice …"

• Drawing upon the skills and experience of professional psychologists, educationalists, nutritionists and others whose skills can assist management of the autistic condition
• Developing personal programmes and development plans to support autistic adults - whether as residents, ad hoc visitors or, in due course, as remote callers through telephone or consultative support

"… and the creation and operation of high quality residential care facilities"

The primary goal and defining characteristic of our charity:

• Creating and operating of a new model, residential community care environment: our 'village'
• Acquiring the land, planning, designing, constructing and maintaining a new residential care facility
• Employing the expert and support staff to provide full 24 x 7 care to residents, assisting them in their continuing development, and ensuring they have a safe long term home

Our Trustees & Governance

We have four trustees: Polly Tommey as Founder, Oliver Jones as Chairman, Lisa Galton and Stephanie Lord.

Polly Tommey is the mother of Billy, her autistic son now aged 10. She is a professional presenter and actress and the editor of The Autism File (www.autismfile.com).

Oliver Jones is a business and property professional and investor involved in a range of commercial and not for profit organisations.

Lisa Galton has a first class reputation for fund raising and Stephanie Lord is well known for her experience and leadership in the educational and development needs of autistic children at the Disability Trust's Heathermount School in Sunningdale.

Our governance structure is:

As the structure diagram above indicates, we recognise that credibility and quality can only be assured if we have the right level of involvement of experts in all the key fields from the outset.

We have an incredible opportunity of creating something very special if we engage with the best, capture their experience and knowledge, and design accordingly.

We have therefore created a series of advisory panels:

• The Fundraising Panel to determine the communications and marketing strategy, take the lead in developing and managing sponsor and donor relationships, and to organise the campaign and events programme;
• The Property Panel to focus on design development (based on inputs from the Autism Experts Panel), cost modelling, land acquisition, securing planning and management of the overall construction process; and
• The Autism Experts Panel which comprises the range of specialised areas considered essential to both plan to accommodate and then in due course to support the residents living and working in the new community. We anticipate that this Panel will ultimately broaden into the three key areas of medical and nutrition, education and development, and agriculture and horticulture.