Your FAQs: Meeting the Demand for Good Autism Practice in Education

Ambitious about Autism (AAA) calculated this, based on the England schools census information released in June: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england

This gives a total number of pupils as 8,481,827 (excluding independent schools).

In turn, that means 2.44% of pupils are autistic, which equates to one in 41 pupils. 

This covers all other schools - state-funded nursery, primary, secondary and special schools, non-maintained special schools and state-funded alternative provision schools.

Strictly speaking, 1 in 41 children in schools in England are autistic, pointing to greater prevalence all round.

Ambitious About Autism have also had this ratified by the statistics office at the DfE.

Yes! You can access the recording on our website.

Simply go to: https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/news/watch-our-webinar-meeting-demand-good-autism-practice-education

And enter your email address.

We’ll send a link directly to your inbox, so you can refer to it whenever you like.

You can access the Facebook Group via our website.

Please visit: https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/aet-membership and enter your details.

We’ll send you a link to the TA and SENCO Facebook groups.

Visit our contact us page: https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/contact

And select ‘AET Consultancy Service’ under ‘Type of Enquiry’ when you submit an enquiry to reach the Consultancy team. 

IPC and AET managing demand report October 2020

The eight good autism practice principles, are key principles that provide a framework for the development of good quality education for all autistic children and young people (CYP) and their families.

They aim to support practitioners to meet the specific learning needs of autistic CYP, as well as provide pointers to teaching approaches, methods and resources to use in educational provision and practice. 

The 8 Principles are based on the review of best-practice and research in good autism practice in education that the Autism Centre for Education Research at Birmingham University undertook for us in 2019.  The principles were co-produced with autistic young people and their families.  All the principles also link to current education policy and guidance such as the SEND Code of Practice, Teacher Standards and the Ofsted Framework.

The 8 Principles are: 

1. Understanding the strengths, interests and challenges of the autistic child and young person 
2. Enabling the voice of the autistic child and young person to contribute to and influence decisions 
3. Collaboration with parents and carers of autistic children and young people 
4. Workforce development to support autistic children and young people on the autism spectrum 
5. Leadership and management that promotes and embeds good autism practice 
6. An ethos and environment that fosters social inclusion for children and young people on the autism spectrum 
7. Targeted support and measuring progress of children and young people on the autism spectrum 
8. Adapting the curriculum, teaching and learning to promote well-being and success for autistic children and young people. 

You can find out more on page 20 of the GAP Report: https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/resources/good-autism-practice-guidance  

If you’d like to read more about the Professional Development Programme, visit: Expert-Led Autism Training 

Would you like to attend a training session? 

If you would like to attend autism training, led by autism experts in your local area, you can: 

• Find Upcoming AET Training 
• Or Find Your Local Training Partner 

Would you like to deliver training? 

If you are a local authority or private organisation and you would like to purchase the licence to deliver in your local area, please see: Become an AET Training Partner. 

Reach2 

It's been helpful to know the AET contacts around people you could speak to, all of the meetings have been helpful too - we get to hear from other MATs, what they're going through and what their barriers have been in general. Really helpful to feel like there is that connection with other schools and hearing good practice. 

I think it's the FLEXIBILITY - this is the real selling point for this - all the MATs know that their schools are at different places. They can identify different needs across their schools, no waiting for someone to come in - the schools have got the resource to dip into it. The FLEXBILITY is definitely the biggest bonus to the package. 

St Christopher’s Multi Academy Trust 

We saw that the AET offer was a way of pushing the inclusion agenda overall (the materials are INCLUSIVE GOOD PRACTICE overall, not just autism specific). This is why we've remained so committed to delivering. Buying the training in rather than going out for training and trying to create internal capacity and knowledge to do that. 

The AET has really good CONTENT. You have really good resources and materials. 

NET Academies Trust 

It is really nice to have something that is nationally recognised and that has recognition. 

It kept my thinking fresh and focused on real lived examples and the opportunities to hear the autistic voice through everything, different stages of life, the impact that what we do has the potential to improve experiences in a positive way. 

Find out more about the Work-Based CPD Offer

The cost of the Work-Based CPD Programme varies depending on whether you are a single school or a multi-academy trust and also the length of your licence.

Currently, there are some discounts when signing up for a 2-year licence.

For more information – book a meeting with one of our programme managers who can give you a specific price for your individual circumstances.

Go to our ‘contact us’ page and use the ‘Enquiry type’ to indicate your interest: https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/contact

If you would like to implement the AET’s Good Autism Practice Support, but you are outside the UK, please see: International Autism Support. 

We are running the pilot for our AET Membership offer on Facebook, but we plan to explore other community spaces in the future. 

If you have Facebook, you can join the pilot project, but if not, don’t worry! You may be able to join us in the future.

Keep an eye on our website and social media channels, and sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss the opportunity to join the Peer Learning Network in the future!

https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/sign-our-newsletter

You can join the pilot project for the Peer Learning Project right now, for free, on Facebook.  

The Membership offer will evolve and you can help it grow!  

https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/aet-membership  

Within the AET core team, our AET Associates and the network of AET trainers we have many neurodivergent colleagues. 

There are a variety of areas where the AET may seek the support of associates. What we ask is for our associates to act as an ambassador for the AET and its vision and to support the AET’s development opportunities wherever possible. 

If you are interested in being an AET Associate please contact: associates@autismeducationtrust.org.uk 

If you are already an AET Trainer but would like more opportunities to collaborate with other AET Trainers please contact partner@autismeducationtrust.org.uk and tell us more about your ideas for collaboration.

To meet the rapidly increasing demand for Good Autism Practice in Education and flexible solutions to professional development needs, we are committed to increasing our training numbers over the next 3 years to: 12% of the workforce and at least one member of staff in at least 27% of schools. 

This means we are looking at over 500,000 education professionals accessing evidence-based, quality-assured AET materials and tools they can use to create a positive environment for autistic children and young people. 

For more information about how we plan to support the education workforce:

https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/autism-training-and-development

We have created a number of parent resources which relate to autistic children and young people and their experience in education.

Visit our Parent page to explore these resources: https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/parents

AET is also one of the partners for Autism Central for Parents and Carers.  Autism Central is a collaboration of nine not-for-profit organisations and the autism central website signposts parents and carers to a range of resources and support: https://www.autismcentral.org.uk/ 

The NHSE London Project was an excellent example of working in partnership and the value of our AET Consultancy service.

It was part of the NHS England Autism in Schools National Project that aimed to improve good autism practice in school settings.  The project was funded by NHS England and involved working with the National Network of Parent Carer Forums, Schools, Local Authorities and Integrated Care Boards.

To find out more about the projects we are involved in, visit our AET Consultancy Service page:

https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/aet-consultancy-offer

There are a lot of options for you as an individual professional!

You can search for training in your area, sign up for the AET Peer Learning Network Pilot, and you can recommend AET to your education setting.

We will also be launching a shop very soon, so you can improve your good autism practice independently - at your own pace.

Take a look at our Autism Training and Development page for an overview of our different offers:

https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/autism-training-and-development

We know that upskilling and supporting the education workforce to develop good autism practice has not kept pace with demand.

Only 1 in 3 newly trained teachers receive any kind of autism training during their teaching degree course because autism is not a mandatory part of initial teacher training.

We are committed to increasing our training numbers over the next 3 years to 12% of the workforce and at least one member of staff in at least 27% of schools.

Explore our Autism Training and Development page to see how you can join us.

https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/autism-training-and-development

Full question: Do you have any information on the number of children attending early years provision nationally who have already had a diagnosis of ASC?

Unfortunately, this information is not available to us. 

We do know that:

• The number of pupils with an Education Health Care plan or EHCP has risen by 10%  
• The total number of pupils with SEN support has increased to over a million, with the most common type of need among pupils with an EHCP being Autism 

Please find more information about our expert-led all-phase autism training on our website: 

https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/autism-training-and-development