North Devon Waymakers group creates work opportunities for neuro-diverse people

A social enterprise in North Devon is urging local employers to be more open to taking on people with autism and ADHD.

WayMakers, an organisation which supports people with autism and ADHD, says businesses may not be aware of the support available to make their workplaces more inclusive.

Alex Kelly, founder and director of WayMakers, said employers may be fearful of taking on neurodiverse people because they don’t have the information about what is actually involved.

She said: “There’s a huge hesitation around building neuro-inclusion into every part of companies’ operations and culture. It’s often thought that it starts with the training, the awareness-raising, but in actual fact when we look at behaviour change science, culture change doesn’t start with talking about it – it starts with system-change.
“You don’t have to make very many changes to your systems, they don’t have to be dramatic, and they don’t have to cost any money either, to really see the impact.”

Alex founded WayMakers, a not-for-profit community interest company, in 2020, after recognising that barriers persist for neurodivergent people across many areas of their lives, especially when it comes to employment. Seeing an opportunity to create a set of services to help manage these challenges, she created WayMakers to help autistic people, employers and the wider community.

She had previously worked in education, running a specialist provision for secondary aged autistic young people whose needs were not being met in school.

A number of them had been out of education for some years, leaving them very isolated, unfulfilled academically and yet perfectly capable.

“The package of support that we created, which was bespoke for each of them, enabled them to then transition into whatever pathway was most suitable for them and was what they wanted,” she said, “so we saw them go from real isolation and that lack of fulfilment into progressing up going on to A-levels, postgrad and degrees.”

WayMakers delivers neurodiversity-related support to individuals, small groups, businesses and a wide range of organisations, including charities, community groups, and other social enterprises. Support includes neuro-affirming strategy coaching, profile mapping, talks, CPD (continuing professional development) training for staff and managers, business consultancy and a community forum for other practitioners.

Alex added: “We specialise in working with autistic and ADHD people without significant learning needs, age 14 through adulthood, with or without a formal identification of needs. Our work is person-centred, strengths-based and solution-focused. We promote neuro-inclusion to improve opportunities and outcomes across communities and workplaces.”
Alex said demand for WayMakers’ support was continuing to grow.

“The biggest issue is that we are in a region which has been systematically disadvantaged when it comes to government funding for many, many years. North Devon is often described as somewhat ‘forgotten about’, even though we have pockets of real deprivation, far-flung rural communities who are poorly connected by public transport, and a shortage of career opportunities for young people. We’re rich when it comes to our green and blue spaces, but they don’t pay the bills.”

In the past six months, WayMakers has received a record number of enquiries for support - 44 for strategy coaching, 20 for support groups, and an even larger number for general advice. One of the organisation’s aims for 2025 is to secure a connection with small business or corporate partners whose heart is set on building neuro-inclusion into the fabric of their workplace, from the ground up.

Alex added: “A partnership with us will be a win on so many levels for the business (and its bottom line), as well as supporting beneficiaries in our community. You can’t get better than that – improvements in your operations, profits, staff wellbeing, company reputation AND community impact. Plus, you’re actually feeding a pipeline of ready candidates who may one day be some of your best staff – or leaders!”

She continued: “We have a diverse range of employers here. Opportunities are not just growing, such as in the maritime sector, but working patterns are more flexible than ever before so we’re ripe for change. There is every reason to develop neuro-inclusion in a workplace, and no reason not to.

“We’d love to see North Devon and Torridge as the South West’s ‘Neurodiversity Nexus’. Any employer can be inclusive.”
Looking ahead, WayMakers plans to expand its team with the addition of a coach or mentor to meet the increasing demand for one-to-one support.

Alex continued: “We will also be running some community listening spaces and consultations with people from across North Devon and Northern Torridge to get a sense of what really matters to people and how we can best meet the needs of people who aren't currently accessing services.”

She added: “We’re all better off if we remember that diagnostic labels only ever tell us part of the story, and remember to abandon any assumptions we make about a person. This is more true now than ever before, since the prevalence of neurodivergent differences is far more expansive than previously thought. There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to support.

“The conversation we all need to be having, in a place of psychological safety, is: ‘what helps you thrive, and what hinders that potential?’. Then we can create the optimal conditions for that to happen.”

Find out more about WayMakers at https://waymakers.co.uk/