Autism Guernsey secures £100,000 funding boost

Autism Guernsey has secured £100,000 from BBC Children in Need, giving the charity funding for the next three years after losing a government grant in 2024.

The charity said the money would fund new support programmes aimed at helping autistic children manage anxiety.

Chair Andrew Warren said: "We're delighted. It's going to enable us to do some stuff that we've been wanting to do for a while, but just haven't had the funds and other resources to do."

He said the interventions would be delivered through small groups or one-to-one sessions and could have a significant impact on children's lives.

"It will be huge because they suffer quite significantly from anxiety," he said.

"That means that we can actually hopefully make a real difference with some of these children. And it can mean things like getting them into school when they weren't previously."

The funding would mainly cover staff costs, he said. A new member of staff had already been appointed and started work this month.

Warren said the programme was expected to support between 20 and 30 children each year, with the charity hoping to reach close to 90 young people over the lifetime of the grant.

He said demand had risen sharply around the Covid pandemic and had not returned to previous levels - with the charity now supporting more than 200 people and struggling to keep pace with requests for help.

"We've got goodness knows how many more on a waiting list," he said.

Although the charity does not operate a formal waiting list, he added that initial appointments for parents and adults seeking support were "fully booked now, pretty well through to Christmas".

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