Ms Leanne McNeill
Teaching Fellow
Strathclyde Institute of Education
Personal statement
Leanne McNeill is a Teaching Fellow on the Masters in Autism courses, bringing over two decades of dedicated experience in the field of autism. Her career spans a variety of leadership and management roles across Scotland and Australia, including the National Autistic Society, HOPE for Autism, other disability support organisations and direct work with individuals and families. Leanne is trained in a wide range of autism support approaches and has delivered impactful education and training programmes to parent carers of autistic children, as well as to professionals in various fields and the broader community. She played a leading role in developing Lanarkshire’s first autistic-led training team, which is an initiative that has helped increase understanding of autism and embed neuro-affirmative practices within both charity and professional contexts. She has spent time working closely with schools to promote a deeper understanding of autism amongst staff and school children and developed social inclusion programmes for autistic children and young adults. Additionally, she has served as a mentor to young autistic adults during their final years at school and into early adulthood. Her work extends beyond autism into mental health having held positions with mental health charities focused on stigma reduction and suicide prevention through innovative projects in North-East Glasgow. At the University of Strathclyde, Leanne is an active member of the Institute of Education Ethics Committee and contributes to the Disability and Wellbeing team. Her academic interests include family support and holistic wellbeing, inclusion, and autism and spirituality with a strong commitment to social justice and human rights. Leanne holds a Master’s degree in Autism from the University of Strathclyde and another from the University of Glasgow in Psychological Studies and remains deeply engaged in issues that affect the autistic community and inclusive practice.
Professional Activities
- Healthy Futures For All, Health Education For Diverse Communities
- Speaker
- 12/6/2025
- Scottish Rugby's Community Game Conference
- Speaker
- 17/5/2025
- 14th Autism-Europe International Congress (Event)
- Peer reviewer
- 21/1/2025
- Consultation Launch of the Centre for Autism and Research at Strathclyde
- Organiser
- 13/11/2024
- North Lanarkshire's Learning Festival
- Invited speaker
- 17/5/2017
Projects
- Understanding the spiritual care needs of autistic people and their inclusion in faith communities in Scotland (USCAP) Project
- McNeill, Leanne (Principal Investigator) Sims, Rebekah (Principal Investigator)
- The aim of this research and development project is to understand the spirituality and spiritual care needs of autistic people. The objectives are: (1) to explore the experiences of autistic people accessing diverse faith-based groups and communities, and any barriers and facilitators of inclusion; and (2) to explore the experiences of diverse faith-group leaders, their challenges and successes in providing spiritual care to autistic people. We will establish what ‘best practices’ are already happening and where the points for growth lie.
The USCAP project will aim to understand how spirituality is experienced by autistic people and what their spiritual care needs are within faith-based and humanist contexts. Spirituality has been found to play a role in health, wellness, and illness (Bertelli, 2020;). Thus, there is a growing movement within healthcare (Pulchalski et al., 2014), and other sectors (Cook, 2016; Philips 2021) to adopt ‘whole-person-centred’ spiritual care practices for autistic people across the lifespan – not just at the end of life. Thus, spirituality and spiritual care practices support holistic wellbeing and the flourishing of autistic persons across the lifespan, with attention to intersectional dimensions of the autistic experience.
The spiritual dimension of care and wellbeing has been neglected in favour of ‘fixing’ perceived deficits among autistic people themselves (Bogdashina, 2013; Hills et al., 2019). When considering the barriers faced by autistic people, there is a rationale to improve spiritual care because spirituality, faith and religiosity are protective factors for coping, meaning making, and resilience, and mental health (Bayat, 2007; Pandya, 2016; Davis, 2020). However, faith communities have often been exclusionary, or hurtful, to autistic people (McDonald, 2023; Waldock and Sango, 2023), thus marginalising them from a vital source of ‘autistic flourishing.’ On the other hand, some faith groups have excellent neuro-inclusive practices but often fly under the radar: their contributions to neuro-inclusion are not yet recognised. Faith communities are used to “doing more with less” – their creativity in using few resources to achieve communal flourishing can offer insight for other sectors (including academia). Therefore, there is a strong rationale for exploring autistic-informed spiritual care provision across contexts such as faith-based groups, education, prisons, and hospitals. No previous work that looks at such spiritual provision on a national scale (vs. single community or single denomination) exists.
Seed funding for this project has been provided by the Centre for Autism Research & Education at Strathclyde (CARE@S). - 01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2026
Contact
Ms
Leanne
McNeill
Teaching Fellow
Strathclyde Institute of Education
Email: leanne.mcneill@strath.ac.uk
Tel: Unlisted