Co-Production, Neurodiversity and the Future of Our Clinical Services: Learning from Our Work with Autistic Radio
Reframing Co-Production Through a Neurodiversity Lens
In recent years, conversations around neurodiversity, lived experience and meaningful collaboration have gained significant momentum across the social care and education sectors. Across PSG there is a growing recognition that co-production and neurodiversity-affirming practice must shape not only the support we provide, but also the wider assumptions and structures that underpin our clinical services. If support is to be genuinely person-centred, it must be informed by the insights and experiences of the people who use it. This understanding has guided a significant new collaboration with the charity Autistic Radio – a partnership designed to place neurodivergent perspectives at the centre of how we refine and develop the BICS 5-stage process.
Beginning the Partnership: A Different Way of Engaging with Materials
The project began with the sharing of anonymised BICS materials – including the model overview, information sheets and behaviour-support templates – which Autistic Radio members explored independently before entering group discussion. This initial stage allowed participants to engage with the materials in their own way, without the pressures that often accompany professional meetings or consultations. Several facilitated focus groups then followed, offering time and space for deeper analysis from lived-experience perspectives, before Autistic Radio and PSG came together for a joint reflective session.
What We Learned: Themes from Lived-Experience Analysis
A nuanced set of insights emerged through this layered process. A thematic analysis highlighted themes relating to power dynamics, accessibility, institutional language and the emotional experience of navigating behavioural services. Crucially, the reflections also drew attention to how neurodivergent communication styles can be constrained by environments that implicitly expect people to speak, behave or present in particular ways. Even well-intentioned attempts at inclusion can unintentionally reproduce norms that were never designed with neurodivergent perspectives in mind.
Why the Autistic Radio Model Matters
Autistic Radio was created in response to precisely this dynamic. The model offers a deliberately different kind of communicative environment – one in which conversations can unfold slowly, comfortably and without performance. Participants are given space to speak without the expectations that often shape professional dialogue. Recordings are then carefully edited, not to sanitise what is said, but to support clarity and ease for both speaker and listener. This approach foregrounds the importance of creating the right conditions for authentic dialogue and provides a powerful reminder that meaningful collaboration depends as much on the environment we cultivate as on the questions we ask.
Shaping the Future of Our Clinical Services
Insights from this partnership are now being progressed through PSG’s internal co-production working group. The learning is informing revisions to BICS client-facing documentation, guiding improvements to practitioner guidance and contributing to developments within our CPD programme. In this way, neurodivergent perspectives are increasingly shaping the evolution of our clinical services, ensuring that they continue to develop in ways that are relational, inclusive and aligned with lived experience.
Looking Ahead
This collaboration with Autistic Radio represents more than a project – it is part of a wider shift towards embedding co-production and neurodiversity-affirming principles across PSG. As this work continues, it offers a resonant testament to the value of mutual dialogue and reminds us that truly person-centred support begins with listening differently and creating space for voices that have too often been shaped or constrained by the systems around them.
