Today, the Government released its 10-year plan for the NHS. Here's what the plan may mean for autistic people, who experience significant health inequalities.

The Government has published its long-awaited 10-Year Plan for the NHS. The 10 Year Plan is based on three general shifts:

• hospitals to communities
• analogue to digital
  
• sickness to prevention

Each of these shifts brings opportunities to tackle the health inequalities faced by autistic people. For example, the Neighbourhood Health Service may enable autistic people to avoid the busy, overwhelming sensory environment of hospitals, while expansion of the NHS App has the potential to improve access to healthcare for autistic people who find the scramble of 8 am phone calls difficult. However, the 10 Year Plan makes little reference to specific groups facing inequalities, with no mention at all of autism in the main body of the document.

Properly supporting autistic people is crucial to achieving the 10-Year Plan's aim of preventing ill-health before it arises. As services and policymakers begin to put this plan into practice, we would like to see:

• Urgent action to tackle the crisis in autism assessment and support. Bringing down years-long waiting lists and preventing inpatient admissions will require targeted research. This research could develop and test new models of identification and support for a lifelong pathway, as well as a workforce equipped for the autistic population.
• Renewed commitment to offering every autistic adult a regular health check, as set out in the previous NHS Long Term Plan and the Government’s Autism Strategy. Autistica and NHS England have funded a large-scale trial of autism health checks at Newcastle University, for which findings are expected in the near future.