Category: Uncategorized

All ACCT members are very welcome to join us at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Autistic Children and Carers Together (ACCT), which is taking place online via Zoom on Monday 26th January 2026, starting at 1pm. 

The AGM is an opportunity for members to have a vote and a say in the formal running of ACCT. In particular, it is the place where people can stand for election to the board of trustees of ACCT, i.e. the volunteers who are responsible for the governance of ACCT who participate in our monthly trustees’ meetings and help make sure that ACCT is meeting all of our responsibilities as a charity. If you think you might be interested in becoming an ACCT trustee, we would love to hear from you – please email us at enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk and we can share more about what’s involved. 

The AGM is a brief meeting (normally around 30 minutes) at which we have short presentations on our activities over the past year, a summary of our finances over the previous year; we appoint an external accountant to independently examine our accounts for the next year, and we hold the trustee elections. 

It is also a formal opportunity for members to ask any questions or raise any issues for discussion. Though you don’t have to wait for the AGM to do this: you are welcome to ask questions or raise issues at any time by emailing us at enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk

The details for joining the AGM are:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84898449453?pwd=v6VPIa8bt3d0xrCNt1t73uopZB9M4s.1
Meeting ID: 848 9844 9453
Passcode: 874974

We hope to see you there. The agenda for the meeting and the minutes of the last meeting are here.

We have made the decision to cancel tonight’s ACCT Academy sessions due to the heavy Snow Yesterday and weather warnings in place. Apologies for any inconvenience. We’ll be back next week!

We have made the decision to cancel tonight’s ACCT Academy sessions due to the heavy rain and weather warnings in place. Apologies for any inconvenience. We’ll be back next week!

Our planned Air Haus tonight is cancelled. The inflatable park is closed as they are experiencing technical difficulties. Apologies for any inconvenience.

We have made the decision to cancel tonight’s ACCT Academy sessions. There are weather warnings of heavy rain and high winds from 3pm in South Yorkshire. Apologies for any inconvenience. We’ll be back next week!

A huge thank you to the 105 ACCT members who took the time to respond to this year’s member survey.

Our annual questionnaire is vitally important for ACCT’s continued work. We use it to help measure the impact of our activities and to receive feedback and suggestions that help shape our activities for the future. A summary of the results is available to read here.

Parents’ Zoom Meeting, Tuesday the 15th of July @ 7pm-9pm.

We will be welcoming two BSL Interpreters on the call to support our deaf and hard of hearing members. Please get in touch if you require any support or would like more information. 

Join facilitators of the group Nicola Hough (parent and manager) and Nadine Cain (parent and trustee) to learn and share. Nadine will be on hand to share advice on EHCP’s and EOTAS packages.

Peer support and discussions will include diagnosis, school support, attendance and provision, managing anxiety, EHCP’s and much more. If you require information and support please join us. 

Please contact enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk to register your interest and you will be sent an invitation to join the meeting along with a guide to using Zoom.

ACCT is looking to recruit:

Football / Sports Coaches and Playworkers

We are seeking experienced and passionate coaches and playworkers to lead play sessions in an inclusive and supportive environment. The ideal candidates will have a strong understanding of Autism and other neurological differences, as well as excellent behaviour management skills. If you’re enthusiastic about providing high quality support and fostering a sense of community, we’d love to hear from you!

Please visit our Recruitment at ACCT page for more details and to download a job pack.

Danny attended the Sheffield-wide Autism Partnership Board meeting today.

The purpose of the board is to, “hold to account Sheffield City Council, Clinical Commissioning Group and Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust to implement the requirements of the Autism Act (2009), the Department of Health’s subsequent national Adult Autism Strategy and Statutory Guidance, and the Care Act (2014).”

And its stated aim is to:

“make Sheffield an autism friendly city

ensure the views of autistic people and their families and carers drive change and contribute directly to planning

raise the profile of autism in Sheffield

improve the experience and life chances of autistic people”

It was quite an internal-focused meeting today. A new officer within Sheffield City Council (Richard Groves) has now taken over lead responsibility for the board but wasn’t able to attend.

Board members were expressing quite a few concerns that the different areas of work (called workstreams) that the board is supposed to be delivering are losing momentum. There are plans within the local authority to find funding for a Project Manager role who can support the workstream tasks and help keep the board’s work moving.

I can see it’s difficult – the board involves people from the Council, the health service, voluntary sector organisations and individual autistic people, and trying to make work happen across multiple different ‘sectors’ like this can be really hard and slow.

There was quite a bit of discussion about whether the board is able to properly represent all autistic people, thinking especially of autistic and learning disabled people who may need more support to have their voices represented, and how the separate learning disability board relates to this.

The Autism Festival was also on the agenda. The members that were involved in organising it will be having a meeting to reflect and report with learning points for next time. The feeling was that the activities that were organised went well, but there are concerns about the rushed nature of it.

The National Autistic Society has produced guidance for mental health professionals on how to adapt mental health talking therapies for autistic children and adults; Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust are rolling out this guidance within their services.

It was also noted that the most recent set of minutes on the Autism Partnership Board webpage are from 2022, so they’re going to make sure that the page can be updated with recent minutes and slides/notes from any presentations given to the board.

For what it’s worth, the minutes from the last meeting (2nd April 2025) are here:

And here is the Sheffield All Age Autism Strategy document with a summary of the different workstreams.

Many thanks to all members who attended ACCT’s Annual General Meeting on Monday 3rd March 2025.

Minutes from the meeting are here

These are the slides for the presentation of the annual report

And here are the slides from the presentation of the annual accounts.

We would like to express our sincere apologies for not notifying our members that Hillsborough Leisure Pool was closed today due to a broken pump.

We were notified by email but our staff do not work on Sundays. Due to the handover of the running of Hillsborough Leisure Centre, Everyone Active did not have an emergency telephone number for this situation. I would like to reassure our members that this has now been rectified.

Due to the freezing temperatures and icy conditions we have made the decision to cancel tonight’s ACCT Academy Football Club. Hopefully we’ll be back next week!

ACCT’s annual report and accounts for the year April 2023 to March 2024 has been approved by the ACCT trustees and published on the Charity Commission register. The document is available to download from the Charity Commission, or right here.

We will hold ACCT’s Annual General Meeting in the new year (1-2pm, Monday 3rd March, online via Zoom) which is always a good opportunity for all members to come along, discuss ACCT’s work and find out more about how members and trustees run our charity.

ACCT is looking to recruit:

Dungeon Master / Game Master 

We are seeking an experienced and passionate DM/GM to lead tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) sessions in an inclusive and supportive environment. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of Autism and other neurological differences, as well as excellent behaviour management skills. If you’re enthusiastic about creating memorable adventures and fostering a sense of community, we’d love to hear from you!

Please visit our Recruitment at ACCT page for more details and to download a job pack.

Dear all

Unfortunately, Hillsborough Leisure Centre have had to close the pool today.Therefore the ACCT swimming session will not be running today

Apologies for the disappointment to families

Kind regards 

The ACCT Team

Many thanks to all members who attended ACCT’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 30th January 2024. Here are the minutes from the meeting.

Dear ACCT Member,

You are invited to attend the ACCT Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 30th January 2023 from 7-8pm held online via Zoom – link and codes to join the meeting below.

This is an important meeting in the ACCT calendar. It is the main opportunity for the wider ACCT membership (that’s you!) to discuss the work of ACCT, our finances, how we’re doing as a charity and what our future plans should be. We present the annual report and accounts from 2022-23, appoint an independent examiner for our 2023-24 accounts and elect trustees to serve on the board. It’s normally quite a short meeting, lasting no more than one hour. We really hope you’re able to join us for some or all of the meeting.

The agenda for the AGM, the minutes from last year’s AGM and the 2022-23 Annual Report and Accounts are all available to download from here.

The Zoom details are:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82396671230?pwd=UzlPdVMrVW5QaEp1Vjc2SlJ2ZkZEdz09

Meeting ID: 823 9667 1230
Passcode: 605736

Kind Regards

Danny Antrobus, Fundraising and Finance Coordinator, Autistic Children and Carers Together

Due to the heavy rain we have made the decision to cancel tonight’s ACCT Academy Football Club. Hopefully we’ll be back next week!