27 October 2026 | Adam Dodd, Minstead Trust CEO
What does a good life look like?
It’s a question with thousands of different answers. For some people like Greg, it might mean having a job they enjoy. For others, it’s about friendships, being part of their community, having a home of their own or simply being able to make more choices about how they spend their day.
None of us wants exactly the same things from life. That shouldn’t be any different for neuro disabled people.
Yet too often, the support available to people with learning disabilities, autism and other neurodisabilities doesn’t reflect that.
Support can be difficult to access, particularly before someone reaches crisis point. People who could really benefit from a little help might not qualify for any at all. Even when support is available, it can be shaped more by how services are organised than by what someone wants from life.
There are many dedicated people doing wonderful work within this system, including across Minstead Trust. But we have to ask ourselves whether the system itself is giving people the opportunities they deserve. Our research and work with others in the sector has shown us that it isn’t.
So what could we do differently?
That’s the question we’ve been asking ourselves at Minstead Trust, and it’s at the heart of our new 10 year strategy, Support Differently.
Over the next decade, this strategy will guide everything we do. It will shape the support we provide, the opportunities we create through our social enterprises, the partnerships we build and the changes we encourage beyond the Trust.
Our ambition is to help create a future where every neuro disabled person can get the support they need to live life their way.
To work towards that, we’re focusing on three things:
- Supporting people earlier. Helping people access support before difficulties grow, rather than waiting until they reach crisis point.
- Supporting more people. Finding ways to reach people who are currently missing out, including those who don’t qualify for traditional funded services.
- Supporting the whole person. Building support around each person’s life, relationships, interests and ambitions, rather than expecting them to fit into existing services.
And importantly, we want to work with others to learn what works, share what we discover and encourage better approaches to support more widely.
What might this look like?
Take the transition from education into adult life.
For many young neuro disabled people, leaving school or college can mean losing familiar routines, friendships and opportunities. It’s a time when having the right support could make an enormous difference, yet too often there’s a gap between one stage of life and the next.
We’ve started exploring how to bridge that gap, bringing young people together to build confidence, maintain friendships and work out what they want to do next. Our Bridging Programme is one example of how getting involved a little earlier could prevent much bigger difficulties later on.
We’re also learning from people like Royce, whose experiences remind us that support should never just be about meeting someone’s immediate needs. It should consider everything that makes their life meaningful, and change with them as their circumstances and ambitions change.
And through places like Furzey Gardens and our community cafés, we’re seeing how ordinary, welcoming spaces can create opportunities for people to develop skills, build relationships and be part of their communities.
These experiences are helping us think about what might be possible.
We’re at the beginning
We certainly don’t have all the answers.
Some of the things we’re exploring are new, but we’re building on years of experience and learning. We need to continue to listen carefully to neuro disabled people and their families, test our ideas, understand what works and be open about what doesn’t.
And we know that lasting change won’t come from one charity working on its own.
There are organisations, families, professionals and communities across the country already finding better ways to support people. We want to learn from them, work alongside them and share what we discover ourselves.
Because ultimately, this isn’t just about changing how Minstead Trust works. It’s about contributing to a future where more neuro disabled people can get the support they need to live life their way.
We are learning all the time about better and new ways to work. But we believe that by being willing to question how things have always been done, and working together to find better ways, we can help make life better for more people.
If you want a little more detail then have a look at our strategy posters and of course the coming months and years will see us share a huge amount on our progress and the difference it will make.
Do you have a personal or professional experience that could help inform and guide our work? I would love to hear from you.
Adam Dodd, Minstead Trust CEO