Originally established in 1997 as the TreeHouse Trust, the charity was founded by a group of parents – including author Nick Hornby – whose first child had been diagnosed with autism.

[2] Their mission has been described as being to "help children and young people with autism to learn, thrive and achieve – making the ordinary possible.

[4] The charity was originally known as the TreeHouse Trust and began the school, with five pupils, in a borrowed room in the Royal Free Hospital in London.

An event at the House of Lords on 10 February 2010 it was announced that TreeHouse Trust would be renamed Ambitious about Autism.

", it called for the British Government to create "A clear legal right to educational support up to the age of 25 years for young disabled people".

[14] In December 2024, BBC presenter Gregg Wallace was dropped as an ambassador for the charity, which had appointed him in honour of his autistic son, in the light of the ongoing investigation of inappropriate behaviour during the making of the MasterChef series.