Conclusion

Mental health services are discovering how to make adjustments to what they do so that autistic people, people with learning disabilities and autistic people with learning disabilities can obtain effective help when they need it. Environments are getting quieter, communication is clearer and staff are finding out what helps.

The refreshed Green Light Toolkit will help mental health communities to consider what they can do. It offers more choice and control than before, so everyone can work together. Good solutions will be coproduced, since expertise comes from life as well as research. Families can be involved in taking stock too, as they are keenly aware of what is working and what is not. Together, mental health communities will be able to celebrate the best of what they do every day and then bravely name the difficulties that remain and plan to overcome them.

In these busy times, addressing the Green Light agenda is not easy. Despite the challenges, it reduces discrimination, serves the whole community and improves outcomes in line with government expectations. Most importantly, it provides the kind of service that autistic people and people with learning disabilities deserve. We hope that mental health services will rise to the challenge.