I'm the CEO of Daisy Chain, an autism charity with over 130 staff and 200 volunteers. My work is rooted in a simple truth: no one should be locked out of opportunity because of how their brain works. Yet only 21.7% of autistic adults are in employment, the lowest rate of any disability group in the UK.

I won't sit back while the system keeps failing them. I'm developing a national plan to open up fashion and textile manufacturing to neurodiverse workers - a sector rich in hands-on roles but lacking tailored pathways. My goal is to design a model of recruitment, training and support that doesn't just make space for neurodiverse talent, it actively clears a path. I've built autism-specific services reaching over 8,000 people annually and led inclusive creative projects like Neuthread, where neurodiverse models took the stage at London Fashion Week.

But inclusion must go further than visibility, it must reach the production floor and the reality of work. This is about more than access. It's about justice. Talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn't. I'm drawing on global models that have broken barriers overseas and adapting them for the UK.