Lutfur Ali, the CIPD's senior policy and practice adviser for equality, diversity and inclusion, explores why closing the autism employment gap demands a fundamental reset in how employers recruit and support people with autism.
At a time of persistent skills shortages and pressure to improve workplace productivity, UK employers can't afford to overlook talent. Yet thousands of capable autistic people remain underemployed, unemployed, or in roles that fail to use thier strengths.
The House of Lords Select Committee’s report Time to deliver makes it clear that employment outcomes for people with autism remains unacceptably low. It calls for a stronger, more coherent national focus on ensuring they can access and thrive in work. Government statistics (2024-25) show only 31% of people whose main health condition is listed as autism were in employment, compared to 53% of all disabled people and 83% of non-disabled people. This gap represents both social injustice and a major economic inefficiency.
The Government’s response sets out constructive proposals, including an aspiration to build towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support, and reform of the Disability Confident scheme. These have value, but they operate largely at the margins of the labour market.
For many people with autism the greatest barriers are found in everyday employment practices, limited access to resonable adjustments and line managers who lack the confidence and capabilty to manage neurodivergent people well.
Highly capable, detail-focused and motivated people spend years navigating processes that seem designed to exclude them. Vague job descriptions, timed tests, group exercises, ambigious questions and panel ineterviews with no adjustments. The problem is not their ability, it's often organisational inflexibility.
Too often, policy discussions frame the challenge as “getting people with autism ready for work”. The evidence suggests the opposite. The greater challenge is getting work ready for them through inclusive recruitment, well designed jobs, flexible working, psychologically safe environments and confident line managers. These are not specialist interventions, they're the foundations of good people management.
The Buckland Review, published under the previous government, highlighted the organisational benefits of recruiting and retaining people with autism through focusing on their strengths, noting that:
“Autistic people can introduce different ways of thinking and working. A neurodiverse team is more likely to generate a wider range of ideas and avoid cognitive biases.”
The CIPD’s Neuroinclusion at work research reinforces this. Among organisations that invest in neuroinclusive people mangement practices, 63% report a positive impact on employee wellbeing, alongside improvements in culture, engagement and people management quality. Where HR professionals feel confident in supporting neurodivergent colleagues, the impact is even stronger: 89% report improvements in retention and 90% report better employee performance. Inclusion is not a trade-off. It's an enabler of better business performance.
Yet systemic weaknesses remain. Up to one in five people may be neurodivergent. Only around half feel supported to perform at their best. One in five report harassment or discrimination. Fewer than half of managers say they feel confident supporting neurodivergent employees. These figures point to capability gaps that policy announcements alone cannot fix.
The Lords Select Committee rightly highlighted the long-standing gap between strategy and delivery. The Government’s response signals intent, but ambition must now translate into measurable change in workplaces.
This means embedding autism employment within mainstream labour market and people management policy, not treating it primarily as a health or welfare issue. It also means raising expectations of employers while equipping them to succeed.
The planned reform of Disability Confident is also critical. Too often, the scheme is perceived as a badge rather than a driver of change. A strengthened peer-to-peer model has potential, but participation must be linked to demonstrable improvements in recruitment practices, access to adjustments and management capability.
The Government’s commitment to improving disability employment data is welcome. But aggregated data masks very different experiences across conditions. Autism-specific insight is essential to assess progress properly.
At employer level, many organisations lack meaningful data on disclosure rates, progression barriers or employee experience. Fear of stigma remains a major barrier to disclosure. Data collection must therefore go hand in hand with visible action to build cultures of trust, transparency and accountability. Data is only useful if it actively supports learning and improvements in in workplace practice.
Employers are central to progress. Financial incentives and awareness campaigns can help, but they need to connect to higher standards of people management.
The CIPD continues to contribute to this agenda through policy work, research and collaboration with ACAS and partners. But lasting progress depends on shared learning and sustained action.
We want to hear from employers testing new approaches and from policymakers shaping the next phase of reform. What’s working? What’s not? And what would help you go further?
To support this dialogue, we will be convening roundtables bringing together employers, HR professionals, EDI specialists and policymakers.
Contact: lutfur.ali@cipd.co.uk or claire.deller-rust@cipd.co.uk
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