No “cookie cutter rules”: best practice for social care staff in supporting autistic adults with relationships and sexuality

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Bates, C. & Matthews, R. (2024). No “cookie cutter rules”: best practice for social care staff in supporting autistic adults with relationships and sexuality. Advances in Autism, 10(2), 69-81. https://doi.org/10.1108/aia-05-2023-0027

Journal or book title
Advances in Autism
Publisher
Emerald
Volume
10
Issue
2
Pages
69-81
Publication date: 15 Apr 2024 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Claire Bates
  2. Rose Matthews *

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the support needs surrounding intimate relationships and sexuality of autistic adults accessing funded social care in England. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with 15 autistic adults who were accessing funded social care examined their support needs surrounding intimate relationships and sexuality, with subsequent data analysis using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings Four themes were generated: Help at hand, but not too close for comfort, No “cookie-cutter rules”: personalised, inclusive approaches, Playing it safe, not leaving it too late, and Autism-informed education and support. Practical implications The authors produced an online learning module for social care staff in England on best practice in supporting autistic adults without learning disabilities with relationships and sexuality. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, there has been no other UK-based research published to date on the social care support needs of autistic adults without learning disabilities surrounding relationships, gender and sexuality.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 3 Oct 2026 01:00.

Cited references
42
With a DOI
36
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
6
12 / 42 (28.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
6 / 42 (14.3%)
References with detected author names
36 / 42 (85.7%)
Without detected author names
6
Without a structured title
5
Without a stable identifier
6
References with raw author names still to review
5
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
129
From DOI or external metadata
129
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
5
72 / 129 (55.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 57 / 129 (44.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
14 / 129 (10.9%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 14 / 72 (19.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 12 / 110 (10.9%).
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