The Latest Breaking News from the Economic and Social Research Council

A growing number of people are discovering that they are autistic in adulthood. This is especially the case among women, with a number of celebrities – such as model and reality star Christine McGuinness and TV presenter Melanie Sykes – sharing their experiences of being diagnosed as an adult.

Any parent who has watched a child learning to read knows that it is a journey. Various skills and processes must come together and build “brick by brick” before a child can read a text and answer questions about it.

Three years have passed since the UK government implemented emergency legislation in response to the COVID pandemic. The Coronavirus Act 2020 made amendments to laws affecting many aspects of society, including the duties and powers incumbent on England’s local authorities to provide adult social care under the Care Act 2014.

More than a million people in England are waiting for mental health support due to soaring demand exacerbated by the pandemic. On top of this, an estimated eight million people with mental health concerns are not seeking NHS help.

The pandemic has exacerbated the problem of school absences. When schools reopened, fewer pupils went to school than before the COVID-19 school closures.