John Enjoys a Holiday Break at the Kingwood Caravan
20 July 2026
A year of fundraising, seven months of building work and a huge amount of commitment from so many people, culminated in the opening of our new services in central Reading.
The Mayor of Reading, Dr Alice Mpofu-Coles attended the opening of this pioneering new project, as well as autism professionals, families and our new support team, who look forward to welcoming the first residents later this month.
We have completely refurbished the property to support ten high-need young autistic adults with learning disabilities who are leaving school. Within the property, there are three services: Dame Stephanie Lodge (in memory of our founder, Dame Stephanie Shirley) which will support four people, Bradbury Lodge (in recognition of the late Mr Bradbury) which will support five people, and Giles Lodge (in memory of Dame Stephanie’s autistic son) which is a self-contained flat supporting one person.
Sarah Butcher, Autism at Kingwood’s CEO said:
“All too often, young high-need autistic adults with learning disabilities ‘fall off a cliff’ when they transition to adult social care. After being ably supported at autism specialist schools, families go through the frequently fraught process of seeking appropriate support within their local authority for their loved one; autism school Priors Court in Newbury reported that over the last few years, 35% of adult placements resulted in a placement breakdown or some kind of difficulty.
Autism specialist schools have in place successful social and educational approaches, delivering the very best and most appropriate support for the child. This approach should continue when the young adult reaches adult services, but we lack this joined up working between child and adult services. Without the familiar tools to learn, communicate and thrive, young autistic adults can regress; it is heart-breaking to see years of tailored support and progress disappear from someone’s life when they leave school and enter adult social care.”
Autism at Kingwood is redressing this with these new services, where we will provide a continuum of quality support, ensuring that young autistic adults transitioning to their care will continue to receive the individualised support they are familiar with, whilst actively bridging the gap between their more formal education setting, and the growth, development and lifelong learning they require as they transition into adulthood.
We are fundraising to create a wonderful back garden space for our residents -take a look at our plan and how you can support us here.
We provide supported living and outreach support, helping and enabling autistic people to live in their own homes and make their own choices about the lives they want to lead.
Our relationship with the families of those we support is incredibly important to us and we work in partnership with families wherever possible.
All Autism at Kingwood support staff receive our Specialist Autism Training, making us leading care providers in Autism support.
If you’d like to make a donation directly to us then you can do this in a number of ways.
You can fundraise for us, through sponsored events or in a number of other ways.