Ms. Mercieca has been working in the field of autism for the past 25 years, initially being a tutor facilitating children from 0 to 16 years. She was responsible for the founding and coordination of STEP (Structured Training and Education Programme) for children with autism and was appointed manager of Inspire’s autism programmes catering to more than 150 clients. Ms. Mercieca has recently been appointed as ASD Advisor and also forms part of the Expert Panel at Inspire. Her overall responsibilities include ensuring total quality management across all ASD programmes and services, the further development of specialized autism services and policies while maintaining already achieved National Autistic Society (NAS) UK accreditation standards. Ms. Mercieca forms part of the NAS Autism Accreditation Programme as a member of the Autism Awards Accreditation Panel where she contributes to the collective decisions taken by the board to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that specialized services/schools meet the criteria in order to be awarded accredited status. Ms. Mercieca also participates in evaluating specialised services and schools in the UK as a NAS Accreditation team member. She has completed numerous training courses, has attended workshops and seminars locally and abroad and has participated in EU projects. Ms. Mercieca has obtained a Masters of Education (Autism) with the University of Birmingham.