Assistant Professor in Psychology 
Centre for Neurodiversity and Development, Durham University

This is such important work, and crucial to ensure that autistic people are being supported in a way that emphasises agency, choice and dignity.

Lived Experience Consultant

Pushing against widespread use of PBS is critical if we want to move towards systems which truly support individuals in a neurodivergent affirming and trauma-informed way - rather than paying lip service to these concepts. Neurodivergent people deserve something truly person centred that isn't harmful and isn't done just because it's become the norm. 

Sam Sly Ltd
(Enough is Enough Time4Change)

We, as human beings, all get unhappy, anxious, frustrated and rightly angry at times. Sadly, some of us suffer frighteningly traumatic times in our lives. None of us need to be given positive behavioural support at these times. We need understanding and love. Only do to others as you’d want done to yourself or the people you love.

Creative Director
Stimpunks Foundation

Our community of neurodivergent and disabled people includes those who survived PBS, ABA, and other behaviorist interventions incompatible with our ways of being. We fully support Culture of Care’s Position Statement on PBS. It articulates what we learned the hard way. Let’s save future neurodivergent people from misguided, neuronormative therapies. There are better ways.

Disabled Person and Consultant Clinical Psychologist 

I'm grateful for this position statement and delighted to support it. Behaviourist models like PBS mistake obedience for wellbeing. They smooth out difference and diversity, demanding palatability instead of presence. Autistic being is not a glitch to be corrected or a behaviour to be controlled. Neurodivergent people deserve care that honours our inner worlds—our rhythms, needs, and ways of sensing—not systems that reward our erasure. There are alternatives grounded in consent, dignity, and mutual respect. The SPACE framework is one such example, offering a path built on sensory safety, predictability, acceptance, communication, and empathy. The shift is long overdue—from compliance to connection, from control to consent, from surveillance to solidarity.

Autistic Realms 

I fully support NDC's Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) Position Statement, which highlights the incompatibility of PBS with neurodiversity-affirming, trauma-informed, and human rights-based approaches. In line with NDC, I advocate for supporting Autistic people by listening to their experiences, developing connections, adopting co-regulation strategies, and thinking of ways we can change the environment, not the person. PBS is rooted in behaviourist traditions, which suppress innate and authentic ways of being and have been proven to cause a lot of harm to Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent people. Like ABA, PBS prioritises compliance over well-being. We need to move towards care that honours and empowers neurodivergent ways of being and supports people to thrive without compromising their autonomy or erasing their authentic identity.

Director
Gloriously Ordinary Lives

As humans we come in a wonderful assortment of difference – what a joy that is. Sadly, we operate in a world of health, social care and education that often seems to search for a ‘norm’, a square grey box to force us into. Positive Behaviour Support is one of those approaches that says it’s not about conforming, not about creating norms, but really is. I am so grateful for the work of Neurodiverse Connection in putting together this position statement and 100% support it. It will be tough for lots of people to hear as PBS has had such a huge investment across organisations. As someone who is all about Gloriously Ordinary Lives, I urge you to take a deep breath and have the courage to recognise that there IS a different, better, more human way of being alongside people - and spread the message far and wide.

Occupational Therapist

I fully support the Neurodiverse Connection’s Position Statement on PBS and its call to move toward truly respectful models of care. PBS claims to change outward behavior—but at what cost? It conditions us to override body signals and silence internal needs in order to comply, please others, and survive unfair demands. It teaches that comfort, regulation, and felt safety must be earned through obedience—rather than recognized as basic human rights. It sends the message that needs are only valid if they don’t inconvenience others. It insists that truth must be muted to be considered manageable, rather than met with curiosity, compassion, and respect.

The irony? The name. There’s nothing “positive” about branding control and compliance as “support.” Responsible, ethical and affirming care centers inner curiosity and inner validation—seeing beyond the surface—and supporting people in understanding, trusting, and honoring the inner experience.

Research Consultant

We need to move firmly away from the misbelief that PBS is disconnected from the extraordinary world of Applied Behaviour Analysis. Endless evidence from within its own industry and training centres shows that ABA is at the heart of PBS philosophy, training and practices.

This isn't about individual families doing their best to give their offspring a chance of a better life. It isn't about individual workers trying to do their best in a system that has no real evidence of improved quality of life, safety, etc.

It's about how we became so heavily invested in something where the evidence of that improved quality of life....doesn't exist. I wish there was a kinder way to say this.

In my view, we can either continue to pour the nation's money into this old philosophy, in the hope that it improves...and in the hope that no more potential damage is done in the meantime, or we can take our wisdom from those already getting fantastic results using different philosophies and approaches.

International Coalition Against Restraint and Seclusion

In 2019, the UK government issued guidance 'Reducing the Need for Restraint and Restrictive Intervention' which introduced Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) into education, embracing it as a methodology intended to reduce the incidence of restraint and restrictive practices in various settings. Yet there is no indication that PBS in schools reduces the use of restraint and seclusion. In fact across health and social care settings in England there is evidence that restraint use has increased since PBS has been widely implemented.

Meanwhile there is an increasing body of research, information, training, and parent collaboration that promotes alternative, less discriminatory, person-centred, relational approaches that work. The autistic community’s experience of PBS needs to be heard. Effective systems designed to eliminate restraint and seclusion from our schools need to be informed and endorsed by neurodivergent and otherwise disabled people and they need to align with the UNCRPD, the UNCRC and Human Rights. ICARS fully support Culture of Care's position statement on PBS.

Therapist Neurodiversity Collective

Positive Behavior Support (PBS) enforces a profound power imbalance between those in authority and those who are vulnerable. In the name of normalization and cure, professionals and caregivers impose control over young and/or disabled people without their consent. The PBS model focuses on compliance rather than understanding behavior, forcing people to suppress natural, non-harmful actions and hide their authentic selves to meet the expectations of those in authority. This maintains an authoritarian structure that prioritizes behavioral conformity instead of dignity, self-determination, and well-being.

Supporters of PBS must ask themselves: what other therapy routinely leads recipients to report violations of personal agency and bodily autonomy, psychological harm, and damage to mental health? What other intervention teaches autistic and other disabled children to ignore their own boundaries, mask their disabilities, and trade authenticity for conditional acceptance? These patterns leave individuals vulnerable to lifelong harm.

This concern is not limited to activists or self-advocacy organizations. A growing number of people who experienced ABA and PBS first hand are voicing serious objections to the harm they endured. Professionals are not the ones to decide what is or is not harmful to the people they treat. The people are. Providers who silence the voices of those directly affected, ignore their rights, and prioritize profit over ethical care are placing themselves on the wrong side of a human rights issue.

The Autistic Advocate

As someone regularly commissioned to evaluate and risk assess PBS-dominated care environments, I recognise PBS, and its ABA foundation, only as frameworks of control and ‘perceived’ risk-management. They are rooted in outdated behaviourist traditions that prioritise compliance over well-being, that pathologise neurodivergent communication and behaviour as incompetent and dysfunctional, and disregard the autonomy, agency, authenticity and trauma experiences of neurodivergent people. These frameworks perpetuate neurological imperialism — the imposition of neurotypical norms as universal, positioning them as the standard against which all other ways of being are judged, controlled, and corrected, and use that as a system to exert power and control.

Operating under the guise of person-centred practice, PBS is framed as a 'positive' and 'supportive' approach, yet rather than fostering true self-determination and identity expression it curates epistemic injustice and imposes arbitrary and ill-informed standards and expectations, with interventions delivered by practitioners whose understanding is too often limited to deficit-based narratives, rather than contemporary academic and professional knowledge combined with lived experience.

I fully endorse Culture of Care's call for a fundamental shift away from compliance-based interventions and a move towards approaches grounded in genuine person-centred care, contemporary knowledge, consent, and dignity, that prioritise the safety, agency, and humanity of Neurodivergent people.

We are opposed to PBS and ABA here at Autistic Inclusive Meets.

Applied Behavioral Analysis is an inhumane compliance training programme, that is completely unsuitable to inflict on anyone regardless of their age or neurological make up.

It uses rewards, reinforcers, planned ignoring and motivators to manipulate an individuals behavior, to satisfy the therapists goals on their checklists.

It's worth noting that these goals are set up in partnership with the individuals parent or carer. It's a collusion of abuse masquerading as concern and aid for the individual.

Positive Behaviour Support has the same principals, and in one way it's more obvious in its nefariousiousness. The fact it states that the goal is to support positive behaviour means that the individual who is uncompliant and displaying so called 'negative' behaviour is neglected and ignored.

It's unconscionable abuse and is proven to cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Autistic individuals.

Lastly, it sets an individual up to be groomed. They have already been shown that their emotions and needs are unimportant, and that they will be rewarded if they satisfy another, regardless of their own comforts and rights.

Thriving Autistic stands in solidarity with Neurodiverse Connection and the growing movement against ABA and PBS.

As an Autistic-led organisation committed to justice, dignity, and the rights of neurodivergent people, we oppose all practices that aim to normalise, suppress, or control Autistic and authentically neurodivergent ways of being. ABA and PBS are grounded in compliance-based frameworks that violate autonomy, overlook sensory and relational needs, and perpetuate harm.

We support neurodivergent-led models of care, co-regulation, and support that centre lived experience, mutual respect, and self-determination.

We also acknowledge and honour the longstanding resistance of Autistic people, especially elder Autistic people who have spoken out against these harmful practices for decades. Their courage and advocacy laid the groundwork for this movement, and we recognise that our efforts today stand on the shoulders of theirs.

We call for urgent systemic change toward neuro-affirmative, rights-based approaches, designed by and for the neurodivergent community.

We wholeheartedly support this Position Statement made by the Neurodiverse Connection members of the NHS Culture of Care Programme which includes many people we work alongside on a daily basis. As an organisation we at NDTi hold close to our heart our commitment to listen to people with living experience; if we don’t listen then who are we?

We understand that many valued people and organisations we work alongside have invested heavily over time in developing their Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) skills and offer, however we cannot ignore the strength of feeling and mounting opposition from the real experts. Their concerns are those many of us as individuals have felt for some time.

We commend the Neurodiverse Connection in their writing of this Position Statement, not only speaking for themselves but the many who don’t have a voice. We urge all to pay attention, not to dismiss this Position Statement. Though it may challenge you as an individual or an organisation, please take note, and make a commitment to move on from PBS and embrace a more person-centred, relational, and experience cherishing approach to supporting neurodivergent people.

Neurodivergent Speech and Language Therapist

Elaine McGreevy, Neurodivergent Speech and Language Therapist, supports the Neurodiverse Connection campaign challenging the widespread use of Positive Behaviour Support. PBS does not meet human rights and is inherently coercive, silencing and controlling disabled and neurodivergent people. The highly biased and poor-quality evidence base has been used to establish PBS practice as “good practice,” without critical reflection. The PBS flawed framework cannot achieve person-centred and trauma-informed due to a lack of deeper understanding of neurodivergent and disabled people’s lives, lifeworlds, knowledge and perspectives. It is a matter of urgency that commissioners reflect on how PBS perpetuates harms and unmet needs within health, education and social care sectors.

Autistic Advocate
Author

I am against ABA and PBS in all its forms. It is nothing less than cruel and degrading for autistic people. Its roots being in gay conversion therapy means this alone should help us understand how harmful it is. Autistic children subjected to this conversion therapy are traumatised and end up burnt out and suffering from long term mental health issues. Using any form of compliance based support that seeks to make us more acceptable for neurotypical people and environments will ultimately harm autistic people.

Founder and Director
TogetherBetter Collaborative Consultancy

Our work with ND Connection has given me powerful insights into the lived experience of neurodivergent people and led me to a new understanding as to what helps and what is useful. It has also shown me the harm that is done when we fail to understand behaviour as distress. I am making a commitment as an ally to develop and share my learning and to use the opportunities I have to challenge outdated practice. I fully support the leadership that NDC has brought to this space, including this campaign and position statement.

NeuroHappiness
Founder and Director

100% on board with this! My degree and Masters was dedicated to this topic entirely. As an Audhd person and parent of neurodivergent children (now adults themselves) one also autistic with a learning disability, and someone who spent the last 2 decades working in the education and health system I am horrified and outraged that this behaviour modification approach is not only still being used but now seems to have ramped up a gear is is in force in pretty much all schools and residential homes and services.

Stak.life CIC
Trainer and advocate for Autism

ABA and PBS are not support, they are state-sanctioned abuse. They are built on the oppressive idea that autistic people must be forced to conform to a narrow, neurotypical standard, with no regard for difference, authenticity, or consent. These practices erase identity, punish natural behaviours, and condition compliance through fear, manipulation, and control. They cause lasting trauma, fuel mental health crises, and contribute to the terrifying rates of suicide in our community. It is beyond disgraceful that in 2025, we are still having to justify our right to exist without being “corrected.” These practices are inhumane and should be banned, full stop.

Instructor
Altruistic

As someone who works hand in hand with the special needs community, and as someone who was married almost ten years to an adult man with high masking autism, I can tell you the ABA hurts more than it helps. The intention behind ABA is to control the behavior, without comforting the soul in distress. It is flawed and can be felt in the soul as neglectful of their own needs by the child experiencing it, as they feel unseen, their concerns unheard, and only the outcome of compliance and order only holding any value to the adults (caregivers) around them. It can feel soul crushing to those who experience extreme forms of it. We need more compassionate care.

Associate Professor
University of Birmingham

It's high time that practitioners, activists, professionals and autists organised to change the shape of this industry, not just for rebranding, incremental change and tweaks but to genuinely consider new paradigms for care and support. This is timely work not least because we have a critical mass of new voices and insights preparing us for new and better things, but will never make progress until entrenched industry leaders and patterns are challenged.

Access Communication Ltd. supports the Neurodiverse Connection campaign challenging the widespread use of Positive Behaviour Support. PBS does not meet human rights and is inherently coercive, silencing and controlling disabled and neurodivergent people. The highly biased and poor-quality evidence base has been used to establish PBS practice as “good practice,” without critical reflection. The PBS flawed framework cannot achieve person-centred and trauma-informed due to a lack of deeper understanding of neurodivergent and disabled people’s lives, lifeworlds, knowledge and perspectives. It is a matter of urgency that commissioners reflect on how PBS perpetuates harms and unmet needs within health, education and social care sectors.

Autistic Academic & Neurodiversity Consultant
DGH Neurodivergent Consultancy

PBS and ABA are based on a culture of normative violence and indoctrination into the belief that a small number of bodyminds are inherently more valuable than the majority. As a longstanding Autistic Rights Activist, researcher, and neurodiversity professional, I stand against the use of behavioural compliance techniques and advocate for a neurocosmopolitan society.

Autistic Consultant and Coach

I am vehemently against Compliance training of Autistic/ ADHD / LD and Neurodivergent young people and children . ABA & PBS are not peer reviewed research based in any way and this compliance training leads to CPTSD, increased Anxiety and Mental Health issues as well as the potential for Grooming as it teaches the Autistic/ADHD/LD/ND person that they cannot say no to authority or perceived authority. ABA and PBS are Abuse

 PhD Researcher and Teacher
University of Central Lancashire

No system that encourages Neurodivergent children to mask their natural state can be safe. Masking causes undue harm and these practices that encourages it are damaging. Neurodivergent people and children especially have the right to be authentically themselves without punishment and pressure to conform. It's wrong.

Autism Support Advice
Autism and parent support advisor

I fully support the petition against PBS and ABA, there are better neuro affirming supports and strategies that can change or adapt the environment for Autistic people and which don't try and change autistic people themselves, therefore allowing them to thrive and live authentic lives.

Programme Lead – Small Supports

“If we don’t listen then who are we, and what are we doing?”  However much time and money you may have invested in PBS in the past, take a moment to read and listen to what Neurodiverse Connection and their colleagues are all saying. If you don’t pay attention and you don’t listen, then you really need to ask yourself a few soul-searching questions.

New Evening Isle Inc.
Musician and Poet

“Apparently it is okay to drill normalcy into someone, but it is denial to believe that a normal boy lives trapped behind a wildly uncooperative body. These theories cost us dearly.”

― Ido Kedar, Ido in Autismland: Climbing Out of Autism's Silent Prison

Aurora Autistic Consulting

Having seen first hand the long term negative impact behaviourism has on many Neurodivergent people I strongly believe it has no place in society. We will never not be Neurodivergent. Support in embracing and working with who we are, instead of encouraging us to mask and suppress our natural selves, will always lead to better outcomes for all.

Pembrokshire College
Senior Lecturer

I fully support a neuroaffirming approach to supporting autistic individuals.

Speech and Language Therapist

Aba and pbs must be stopped. It denies people their human rights and harms them. The funding for it must also stop.

Autistic Speaker

ABA and PBS are abhorrent behaviourist approaches. Our neurodivergent young people deserve better.

Speech and Language Therapist

I firmly believe that ABA and PBS is not best practice and is inherently harmful for neurodivergent people. I support any campaign to ban it's use in the UK.

Psychotherapist

I do not support PBS and ABA methods and believe in supporting neurodivergent individuals to be truly authentic by using neuro- affirmative trauma informed practices.

Long Valley Therapy
Therapist & Clinical Supervisor

I affirm and support the anti ABA movement. Autistic people deserve better.

Sparkle Occupational Therapy

I have concerns about the continued progression of PBS throughout the public sector without consideration of the individual and their preferences, particularly with Autistic populations. I welcome Neurodiverse Connection holding up a lens to view and scrutinise PBS, particularly in the UK.

I'm Out Of Here Ltd

We should be thinking about people's rights and needs, not one size fits all policies. PBS does not have an evidence base that makes it safe for neurodiverse people. We should be asking people what works for them, rather than putting barriers and hurdles in their way. Do no harm.

Autistic Girls Network / Centre for Research in Autism and Education (UCL)

These approaches prioritise compliance over consent. They're coercive and traumatising, aimed at suppressing authentic, natural behaviour in order to appear more "neurotypical". To me, this can never be considered support when it feels like erasure…