Dr Carly Jones MBE is a British Autism Advocate who has worked for the inclusion of autistic women and girls since 2008. She has spoken on news channels, at universities, and in Parliament, and was the first British autistic woman to address the United Nations on autistic women’s rights.
Carly currently works for NHS England in a senior management governance role, charged with the responsibility to ensure co production is at the heart of the NHS. Designing and delivering a learning, disabilities and autism co-production network and the community of practices meetings for NHS England and 5 regional ICS (integrated care systems) to support ICS in their meaningful work towards supporting disabled people designed services for the people they aim to serve. She was instructed to research and write a “State of the Nation “review on the NHS and co-production in the post pandemic landscape detailing its ethics, budget restraints and make recommendations for future needs, frameworks, benchmarking guidance and policy.
Professional Experience, Highlights and Distinctions:
- Carly was awarded an MBE for services to autistic people in 2017.
- Carly was publicly appointed a member of the UK Honours Committee, is an independent panel member for the Ministry of Justice and works for the Heathrow Accessibility Advisory Group.
- Carly also acts as an independent advisor to East Midlands Railway, Motability UK, Great British Railways.
- Was part of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training of all NHS Health and Social Care Staff
- Carly worked as a Global Developer for Visual Pain Images UK – Healthcare Assistive Technology Phone App. With a “technology for good “ethos, self-designed, developed and personally funded a global assistive technology phone app, free to use for disabled people unable to communicate with their doctors in healthcare settings during the pandemic. Visual Pain Images UK was later signed over to NHS Digital in October 2022, completely free of charge and now is property of the NHS.
- After acting as an expert advisory board member for Professor Sir Simon Baron – Cohen’s Autistic Motherhood research at the Autism Centre at Cambridge 2014, she joined Cambridge University as a keynote speaker and panel member for the Universities Newnham College women’s campus in 2022 and was invited to heated yet respectful debates at the Cambridge Union discourse around feminism and social exclusion.
Author, Journalism & Speaking
- Author of “Safeguarding Autistic Girls – Strategies for Professionals “book released 2021.
- Regular contributor for National Parent and carer magazines, The Guardian, I Paper, and the Financial Times on disability rights, the built environment, Fin tech economic abuse, healthcare and social inclusion.
- Regular contributor for BBC Radio, News, BBC Newscast, BBC Podcasts.
Awards and Achievements
- 2022 – Honorary Doctor of Science Sheffield Hallam University.
- 2020 – Small Business Britain Top 100 UK Small Business List
- 2019 – Female Entrepreneur top 100 Female UK entrepreneurs
- 2018 – Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce
- 2017 – Bestowed an MBE for services to those with Autism
- 2016 – Human Rights award (Silver) Indonesia
- 2016 – International Peace and Film Festival award USA