The National Autistic Society [NAS] has recently launched a new Autism Inclusion Award targeted at mainstream schools and education settings.
The award aims to recognise mainstream education providers who go above and beyond to support and educate children and young people with autism.
The launch comes in the wake of NAS’ 2019 Not Enough report, which uncovered that fewer than half of autistic children were happy at school, while 40 per cent of parents said that their child’s school was failing to meet their needs.
The award will be allocated only to institutions that adhere to the Autism Education Trust’s Standards and Competency Frameworks, which outline how educational settings can better provide for autistic pupils.
While the Autism Inclusion Award caters for mainstream providers, an Autism Specialist Award has been established for specialist education providers to gauge how they provide for their autistic pupils.
NAS has collaborated with the Autism Education Trust to outline clear requirements for providers to achieve the award and hopes that as many education providers as possible will apply.
The Autism Education Trust’s director, Sarah Broadhurst, commented: “We are delighted that the award is based on our Autism Standards and Competency Frameworks. These two resources have been used with great success by education leaders and practitioners nationwide to audit their settings and create an action plan for improvement.
“It’s great timing as well because we have just released a complete update to both frameworks which are now up to date with the latest research and current understanding of autism. We work very closely with autistic people and parents of autistic children and our two frameworks, like all our resources, have been approved by the AET Autistic Young Experts panel, a group of autistic young people who advise our organisation.
“I think that there is a great need for this award as parents are increasingly aware of the difference appropriate support can make to their autistic children’s life. I hope many schools and education settings will apply and commit to the high standards outlined in our frameworks.”
Sue Power, educational lead at Axia ASD, believes that the launching of the Autism Inclusion Award is a major development for families.
“It is exciting that the Autism Inclusion Award is now out there for mainstream schools and education settings. It is an ideal method for recognising education services that work hard to support and educate autistic people, and a gamechanger for the families of those with autism.”
Power’s organisation, Axia ASD, is a diagnostic and post-diagnostic service provider for people with neurodiversity.
Boasting an experienced and multi-disciplined team, the organisation has expertise in clinical psychology; speech and language therapy; systemic family therapy; and mental health nursing in the field of autism. So successful are they in such pursuits that, in March 2018, they won the prestigious National Autistic Society Award for Outstanding Health Services in recognition of their efforts in relation to autism.
Power, a former English teacher, was appointed to her role within Axia ASD as part of the organisation’s efforts to strengthen its partnership with schools. With the launching of the new Autistic Inclusion Award, Axia ASD’s relationship with the education sector is only set to become even closer.
Photo by Peter Burdon on Unsplash
